Pakistan 2012 Monsoon Floods

Pakistan is one of the world’s most hazard-prone countries, with each humanitarian crisis costing lives and money and deepening the alarming levels of poverty and malnutrition. Pakistan’s 2012 flood emergency left hundreds of thousands of people needing help to meet their basic needs, including clean water, food, shelter, health and medical services, sanitation facilities, and cash to buy other essentials.

This joint-agency briefing shows how, although most flood-affected people returned to their communities after floodwaters finally receded, many of them found their homes damaged or destroyed. Many farming families missed the winter sowing season because of prolonged flooding, depriving them of their usual food and income sources. The agencies call on donors to back the Pakistani authorities to build on recent progress and accelerate efforts to prepare the country more effectively for future disasters, taking climate change into account.

For Pakistani authorities:

• Ensure people still requiring humanitarian assistance are able to meet their basic needs, especially food, clean water, sanitation, healthcare, shelter, education, and physical safety, with special attention to women, children, the elderly and people with disabilities.
• Rapidly implement early recovery plans to ensure flood survivors can quickly resume farming and other livelihoods and minimize their dependence on aid or debt.
• Accelerate efforts to strengthen Pakistan’s disaster management institutions at all levels, with adequate budgets and greater efforts to prepare communities for and strengthen their resilience to the impact of hazards.
• Implement policies and plans for ensuring risk reduction is incorporated systematically in all development programs.

For international donors:

• Sustain support for essential relief efforts and early recovery activities aimed at restoring livelihoods, including in the revised MHOP.
• Systematically integrate disaster risk reduction (DRR) principles in all development projects where appropriate, and commit 10 percent of humanitarian and development funding to support DRR measures.