Pakistan - As flash floods hit Pakistan for a fourth consecutive year, IOM has announced it will expand its flood victim shelter programme – launched in March 2012 in southern Sindh – to the northern parts of the province.

The expansion of the project, which has already provided safe shelter for some 22,900 families in southern Sindh, was made possible by a UKL 4 million contribution from the UK’s Department for International Development (DFID).

“Recurrent floods in Pakistan illustrate the urgent need to find durable solutions for more than a million people affected by last year’s floods and to build their resilience to future disasters. DFID is responding by helping IOM to pre-position emergency aid and to construct flood resistant homes for thousands of families affected by the 2012 floods, to help them to restart their lives,” says Debbie Palmer, Acting Head of DFID Pakistan.

The new funding will be used to construct some 8,650 one-room shelters to help affected populations develop better disaster risk reduction (DRR) strategies and to improve preparedness for this year’s monsoon by pre-positioning shelter and non-food emergency relief items for up to 15,000 families.

Widespread flooding in 2010, 2011 and 2012 has severely limited the coping and recovery capacities of Pakistan’s flood-affected population, most of whom are small scale farmers or casual labourers earning less than USD 100 per month.

The programme helps beneficiaries get back on their feet by providing cash and technical support to rebuild damaged/destroyed houses and to improve their living conditions. It emphasizes the use of DRR techniques during construction and trains local implementing partners to provide technical support. 

Shinkar is one of millions who lost their livelihoods and belongings in the floods. Without any formal education or skills, he lacked the means to construct a durable shelter. His family were selected as beneficiaries and given help to build a house. He was given cash support to construct his house and with IOM training, undertook the construction himself. This enabled him to use the money he saved to start a small business. 

“I was forced to leave my family and go to different cities to find work. It was during this time that I learnt about solar energy and decided that I wanted to start my own business. But my family was living in a temporary shelter, so building a house was my main priority. After getting shelter support from IOM, I decided to use my savings to buy a solar panel. I use this panel to charge people’s cellphones, fans and lights in return for a small fee. This way I have a relatively stable source of income and can invest any profits in buying bigger panels,” he says.

For more information, please contact

Ammarah Mubarak
IOM Islamabad
Email: amubarak@iom.int