On October 8 2005, an earthquake occurred with its epicentre about 40 kilometres west of Muzaffarabad in Pakistan. The intensity of the earthquake was initially reported at 6.8 on the Richter scale, but later upgraded to 7.4. The tremors of the earthquake were felt in the northern states of India, but mostly in Jammu and Kashmir.
The Initiative
AIDMI is working with five earthquake-affected villages in Kashmir with the objective of contributing to their long-term rehabilitation. The work includes livelihood, shelter, community infrastructure and basic individual necessities.
| The main objective of the project is to make available basic relief and to develop community-based rehabilitation and recovery for the poorest among the earthquake victims. Currently, AIDMI contributes with livelihood support for poultry business and cultivation of medicinal and aromatic plants. Extended shelter support is provided and local community capacity building initiatives take place through trainings. |
Rehabiliation and recovery are long-term processes and are still going on in earthquake hit Kashmir.
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The five villages where AIDMI has been working are situated on the Line of Control. They are far away from larger urban centres and the accessibility is exceptionally limited. In the immediate aftermath of the earthquake, difficulties in reaching the victims in these areas left them basically without any external assistance, which was badly needed. But AIDMI decided to work in these villages after the request from the Colonel who was coordinating the disaster response in Uri block. The coordination with the Army and local leaders has been enabling AIDMI not only to reach these isolated areas but also to avoid duplication of relief and rehabilitation support, as a number of other earthquake respondents also work in the area.
The outcome
The communities now have temporary shelters in which they can live safely and protected against the harsh climate. Through the cash for work initiative the victims were able to recover financially and then satisfy their utmost and urgent needs after the disaster. Additional shelter development support made it possible for the communities to carry out changes on the existing houses and obtain a more comfortable standard of living. By providing basic facilities i.e. water storage tanks and individual toilets, the communities have improved sanitation facilities, which do not put their health at risk anymore. Furthermore, AIDMI supported two villages in the building of temporary primary schools.
After identification, 42 families took part in the livelihood support. The community mostly needs support for poultry business, confectionery or provision items, sewing machines, barber kit, big saws for cutting wood, grinders for the flourmills etc. An engineer, who has visited and evaluated the households, suggested improved shelter support. The finalisation of what is needed for the strengthening of these households is as of March 31 still ongoing.
Moreover, two training sessions were conducted in January 2008 focusing on community-based disaster risk mitigation and emergency medical response with participants from all the five villages.
The inclusion
The Kashmir context is already a vulnerable one, due to its character of complex emergency: people do not only face natural disasters, as they also live in a conflict reality which hardly allows them to develop in a sustainable way.
Apart from these features, the victims' location on the Line of Control deeply increases their susceptibility: to have an effective intervention within such framework, cooperation and coordination with the Army is required. As AIDMI has significant experience in dealing with governments and village Panchayats in the process of recovery for communities during earlier disasters such as the Gujarat earthquake, the 2002 riots and the 2004 tsunami, it was possible for AIDMI to overcome the challenge of working with the Army in a synchronised way.
This coordination has also been crucial for needs assessment, whether to identify whom needs livelihood support the most or who still needs support for repairing or retrofitting their houses constructed posterior to the earthquake. Currently, the process of identifying the remaining families for livelihood support is still ongoing and measures for shelter improvement will be based on an external engineer assessment.
Lessons Learned
Two key lessons can be drawn from our work in Kashmir:
• The involvement of the Army and the village Sarpanch has been of great help to the AIDMI team so that they avoided duplication in material distribution. This process maintained its transparency, which made AIDMI's work less complicated and recognised by local people.
• Sharing of work and field experience of different organisations during the above-mentioned workshops was positive for all the participants so that they could know the achievements and find the possibilities for improvement. It also helped AIDMI and other organisations to follow appropriate processes in their respected field areas.
A number of factors made our work in Kashmir tough. Disasters in conflict zones require a different model than in a conflict free zone. Poverty and exclusion is exacerbated by violent conflict and then hampers possibilities of improving their living conditions. UN-ISDR stresses that we cannot wait until the conflict is over before we help them.10 The earthquake-affected villages are situated on the Pakistani border that made it challenging for the team to work independently. Furthermore, the areas affected by the earthquake are mountainous and with heavy snowfall and low temperatures during the winter make the accessibility limited. Once more, the Army's help was essential to the team to proceed with its activities.
