The chaos which can come from natural disasters is among the biggest tests of institutions, which are often found wanting, as angry populations feel abandoned without their needs met.
My own experience has taught me that solutions work best when adaptable and tailor-made to fit a particular problem, rather than a one-size-fits-all approach. I have also learnt the power of networking and sourcing both solutions and knowledge locally.
In November 2005, I was part of a team deployed to Pakistan from Singapore to provide relief after their devastating October earthquake that had killed about 80,000 people. We were based in the North West Frontier Province town of Balakot in the Hindu Kush Mountains, not far from the Afghan border as the crow flies, which had been completely reduced to rubble with the loss of thousands of lives.
As I arrived on the winding road from Abbottabad, the scene was like something out of a post-apocalyptic movie. Trucks with UN insignia maneuvered through the ruined streets. There were tent cities cropping up on any available flat ground. A fog hung in the air, mixed with the acrid smell and heavy smoke of burning rubbish and clothes from a huge pile of abandoned goods on one side of the valley. Diggers dug through rubble of the police station to remove the dead bodies of prisoners who had been crushed in their cells alongside their jailers. There were even rumors that Al-Qaeda and Bin Laden were hiding nearby.
We lived in a roped off area of a few tents in the middle of a refugee camp, together with a small police detachment sent in from Peshawar. We’d partnered a local NGO called SRSP, the Sarhad Rural Support Program. Normally helping to provide microfinance and other forms of support, they had shifted over to relief operations as they already had a good footprint on the ground, as well as excellent records of the communities. The town records themselves –including blueprints of power and water lines - had all been destroyed in the quake.
I sought to identify what other ways we could help while my colleagues provided medical relief from the base in the camp. I quickly made friends within the camp and walked the length and breadth of the ruined town.
While I lived in the camp, I dressed in traditional Pakistani garb of Salwar Kameez and a Pashtun “Chitrali Topi” hat.
I met with community leaders, teachers, police, and the army personnel who helped in the refugee camps, I started informal games of cricket, and I was frequently invited for cups of tea and discussions . Meanwhile I bumped into Westerners in jeans and fleece jackets who lived in separate compounds, walking around with clipboards as they conducted surveys among the refugees to gauge their needs for their various programs like water, clothing or shelter.
I found out that every evening there was a “Relief Coordination Meeting” facilitated by the Pakistani Army, and I was invited to attend. Each evening, the army announced the latest number of refugees arriving in Balakot and their origins, while the present NGOs updated on their own activities. I thought it was a wonderful place for sharing ideas and solutions amongst the disparate groups.
One evening, an army captain shared that as winter approached, there was an increased fire risk in the crowded camps from refugees’ open or gas stoves; the tents could easily catch fire from cooking and spread throughout the camp. He added that many of the tents provided by the Western NGOs wouldn't be able to cope with a harsh Himalayan winter and were unsuitable because of this fire risk.
Another issue was that some of the most vulnerable people didn't want to leave their land and livestock higher up on the mountains because, even though that held it for generations, they didn't have the papers to show it belonged to them and feared it would be stolen if they left.
His solution to both problems was to save what they could from the destroyed homes, such as door lintels and roof supports, and use them alongside corrugated iron sheets to construct simple, 200-square foot shack-type homes on site. This would allow the villagers to stay on their own land and even cook indoors, as these shelters would be better ventilated and have metal walls. The captain announced he had the manpower to build the houses but needed help for the raw materials. Most of the Westerners rolled their eyes.
I thought this was an excellent idea and would address areal problem and I knew money had been raised in Singapore to provide shelter. However,I was told by HQ that the funds had already been committed to buy winterized tents in China, which would then be trucked via the Karakoram Highway to Pakistan. I needed to make a strong case that this was a viable project and was a better strategy than my HQ in Singapore had originally planned for.
As I worked with the army captain to build my case, I was told by a British aid coordinator that some shipments of packaged solutions from the UK, including tents and stoves, had found their way into the bazaars of Rawalpindi, where they were being sold as camping equipment to the middleclass. Refugees were also selling tents as they preferred the cash.
I prepared a plan of needs, costs, and logistics, and eventually, the diversion of funds was approved. I had to extend my stay in Pakistan to implement it and made my own way to Islamabad to collect the incoming group of medical volunteers from Singapore and the cash they were carrying.
The next day, together with a police escort and a sack full of money, I went to the town of Mansehra to negotiate the purchase of metal sheets. It took hours of bargaining at a small shop in the local bazaar. I then went with a convoy of three army flatbed trucks to collect them from the factory and bring them to the mountain top villages.
A few days later, as I was getting ready to return to Singapore, I was told by my police friend that the UN Secretary General was visiting, and they were being deployed for security duty. I asked him to escort me when he arrived so I could meet and explain to the Secretary General what the real needs on the ground were. The time came and massive Chinook helicopters flew overhead. But rather than landing, they just flew up and down the valley, surveying the ruins and the refugee camps from above, before heading back to Islamabad. It reminded me of President Bush in Air Force One over New Orleans after Hurricane Katrina.
I felt an opportunity to speak truth to power had been lost, but I was happy to see my own project was underway, even as Western NGOs were still conducting their surveys on the ground to meet their ready-made, pre-determined solutions.
Even chaotic disaster zones like this can teach some particularly important lessons. Firstly, outside the immediate area of the earthquake, most necessary supplies could be sourced locally, rather than shipped halfway around the world. This also can give a much-needed boost to the local economy. Within a few weeks, we had already built more than 120 shelters, with more on the way.
The second lesson was the power of small teams, the necessity of insight into local issues, and importance of speaking truth to power, rather than just relying on well-meaning but distant multinational institutions with narrowly defined aid criteria.
This last point was brought home to me about a month later. I was preparing a return trip from Singapore when I saw a UN Press Conference in Islamabad, urgently announcing that they had determined the tents in the camps were a fire hazard. The officials now recommended the rapid construction of shelters using wood frames and metal sheets before the harsh winter set in.
When I got back, I was told by the Pakistan Army captain that he had gotten into some hot water for his presentation, because some of the Western NGOs had found it insulting to their solutions.
I was so glad he had spoken up, that I had sought him out, and that working together, we were able to garner the resources to achieve our goal and affect change for these plighted people.
It proved that a small group of resolute individuals can be more responsive and better informed than well-resourced and funded institutions like the UN and its affiliate agencies. Working as one well networked person, I was able to identify a problem, tailor and adapt a solution to address it, and act to solve it.