Women become testifier, jury and judge in a virtual courtroom on natural disasters
Date:
Author: Faria Salman
Balochistan, Pakistan – All forms of gender-based discrimination and violence against women and girls is a grave violation of human rights and permeates every society, class, race, geographical area and age group. Discrimination and violence not only has negative consequences for those who suffer it, but also their families, the community and the country at large.
Pakistan’s Province of Balochistan has been traditionally vulnerable to natural disasters on account of its unique geo-climatic conditions, and earthquakes, floods, droughts, cyclones, and landslides have been recurrent phenomena. With limited research and solid evidence on the impact of natural disasters and complex emergencies on the lives of women and girls in the region, a virtual courtroom like community hearing was held highlighting issues related to gender, discrimination, poverty, climate change and disaster risk reduction. These community hearings offered a rich and firsthand perspective of how women and girls are affected by and are able to respond to natural disasters and emergencies.
The activity was conducted by the Gender and Child Cell of Balochistan’s Provincial Disaster Management Authority (PDMA) with the support of UN Women Pakistan and the Government of Denmark under their Women’s Leadership in Social Reconstruction programme, to better understand and address the impact of natural disasters and emergencies on women and girls as well as to improve the response to the needs of women and children during emergencies.
Ten women and girls from five districts of Balochistan presented their testimonials of the time when earthquake, floods and drought hit their communities to an expert ‘judge panel’ made of members of the academia, government officials and the UN. The testimonials highlighted that natural disasters and complex emergencies do more harm to women, children, and vulnerable populations, and relief efforts usually fail to address gender-based vulnerabilities.
The community hearing concluded that there is lack of awareness, information and capacity to respond to disasters, while women and other vulnerable communities find it difficult to deal with the differential impact of natural disasters.
The recommendations and ‘calls for action’ were acknowledged by the Minister of Home and Tribal Affairs and the Provincial Disaster Management Authority, Mr. Sarfaraz Bugti, who committed to advocate with the Provincial Government for better planning and responses to the needs of women and children in emergencies.
The event, held on 23rd November 2015 in Quetta, Balochistan was closely coordinated by UN Women and PDMA, Women’s Development Department, Leadership for Environment & Development (LEAD) Balochistan, the Gender Task Force, Environment Protection Agency and local community-based and non-governmental organizations.
VOICES FROM THE COURTROOM
Water, water everywhere, but not a drop to drink
Nature has taught us that when humans use natural resources in unplanned and over-exploitative manners they are ultimately creating a disaster for themselves.
Drought is natural phenomena and it comes once or twice in a decade but over-extraction of groundwater through tube during drought season has dried up our aquifers. For the last five years we haven’t had rainfall in the entire district. We are facing a drought-like condition and due to decreasing water levels, we lost our source of water for agriculture. We don’t have alternate water sources to save our decades old orchard and agriculture from drought.
The Government should construct dams to recharge water wells as we are dependent on water and water is scarce.
Disaster after disaster, I have lost so much
Once I was mother of six children, four daughters and two sons, and had a happy life. Being a teacher I would give special attention to my children’s education, nutrition and hygiene. In October 2008 a devastating earthquake destroyed my life. This earthquake and what followed has left horrible imprints on my mind. My home was completely demolished so we had to move into make-shift tents. I was in school and three of my daughters were playing in the tent. Suddenly the tent caught fire from a gas heater. People started crying and calling for help. I heard the noise and madly ran towards my tent. My doll-like daughters were horribly burnt and dead. I found myself in a state of psychological disorder… I had lost so much!
Even today I ask why did this happen? If we had been provided with gas facilities we could have prevented deforestation. The trees would have protected my home from the falling rocks and I would not have had to move into the tents. Local governments have to address grass-root actions to protect forests otherwise more deaths and devastation will occur from natural disasters.
Natural disasters affect everyone, but for women the impact is doubled
As a 57-year-old widow with 4 sons, 6 daughters and 12 grandchildren, owning my own house and large number of livestock was a big asset.
A monsoon flash flood came, so massive that it not only destroyed our house but all of our livestock. Monsoons are a regular phenomenon, but the root cause of the flooding this time was mismanagement of the government’s development approach. When high rainfall occurs in our mountains, the flood water comes downstream from a natural channel. An outlet under a recently constructed bridge had been narrowed causing a deluge that was diverted towards our village and resulted in huge damage.
For three months we had to be settled in camps. Tent life was miserable, with multiple issues including lack of food, no health facilities, no toilet, no hygiene and no privacy. Our community received no assistance from the government or anyone else. We know that natural disasters affect everyone, but for women this impact is double as they have to compromise her privacy and in some cases they take up the role as heads of household. The schooling of our children is sacrificed and makes our girls drop-out due to unsafe conditions; some girls even face other consequences like early marriages.
Key verdicts/recommendations reached included:
- Various planning levels should consider and address the different impacts of gender-based discrimination during disasters
- Special attention and strategic planning is required foremost to ensure the safety, protection and participation of women and girls in the disaster response
- Presence of social security/protection systems must be in place to safeguard families and vulnerable persons from falling below the poverty line
- Livelihood rehabilitation initiatives should be introduced post-disaster to strengthen recovery, including resources/funds for village reconstruction, local employment options, new skills development and farming support
- Facilitate access of all to education, health services and shelter
- Ziarat’s Juniper Forest should be declared a national Heritage and special measures taken to protect it from deforestation (for fuel) and contribution to climate change
- Small scale check dams and delay action dams should be promoted with rehabilitation of indigenous irrigation systems (karez) to retain underground water levels, and subsidies on ground water mining should be discouraged to promote optimal water use.
For more information contact:
Ms. Faria Salman,
Strategic Management and Partnerships Officer & Communications Focal Point for
UN Women Pakistan
Email: [ Click to reveal ]