© 2010 Carlos Vasquez
Mr. Haji Sohrab is the elder leader of a village in northern Sindh, Pakistan where 90 per cent was destroyed by the floods in August 2010.

Carlos Vasquez

27 November 2010, Sukkur district, Sindh Province, Pakistan

N 27d 58.89”
E 67d 54.62”

These numbers may not mean much to people here in Pakistan or elsewhere in this ever shrinking world. To information technology people these are clearly the coordinates for a geographical location, also known as Global Positioning System, or GPS.

Behind these numbers there is just one more story, out of many, that are part of the complex and monumental devastation that the waters of the Indus River left behind during August 2010. These numbers will take you to a small village in northern Sindh.

The floods began August 3rd as I sat in Bangkok in a workshop for school design and construction. The numbers kept escalating as the workshop went on, but it all seemed so removed and difficult to embrace; millions of people affected, thousands of agricultural land lost or damaged. By the time I returned to New York part of the reality was settling in; 20 million affected and the land coverage was that of the size of Italy. Available media outlets were not really covering the story to reflect the magnitude of the disaster.

Like any other disaster this was in many aspects a man-made event with far reaching effects and long term impacts. Some of the interconnected anthropogenic events are common to the region and other parts of the world; rampant deforestation, short-sighted national water management, severe damage to the hydrologic cycle, climate change patterns, lost of agricultural land and river banks to urbanization.

The late arrival of the monsoon season brought large amounts of rain water. High temperatures melted mountain snow and ice creating strong flash floods north of the country. The combination of the waters oversaturated the capacity of rivers and flood plains. Large amounts of water began to move at high speed; cut trees that were lying on river banks moved downriver taking bridges and structures along the way.

Punjab sits between the Indus River and the Chebad River. This land is technically part of the natural flood plains of both rivers, making this province a very fertile land. The capacity of the Indus River in the province is 670,000 cubic feet/sec. By the time the flood waters reached the district to Multan in Punjab, the amount of water was 1.3 million cubic feet/sec. The Chebab River was carrying more than 500,000 cubic feet/sec. Both rivers meet right before entering Sindh province. Local authorities knew that if Punjad was not flooded by stopping the water of the Chebab River, Sindh would have been washed away completely.

Mr. Haji Sohrab is the elder leader of the village located in this GPS location in northern Sindh. The village was 90 per cent destroyed by the waters of the Indus River that in part had already flooded Punjab to save Sindh. The village lost almost every home, both the boys’ and girls’ schools; there is no drinking water available due to saline contamination, open defecation is common practice, food is distributed every 15 days and the last drop off will be in 10 days.

Children in the village have not attended school since August and the government calculates no permanent school will be rebuilt in the next 5 years due to lack of funding, capacity and federal priorities; available funds will be spent in communication (roads, telecommunications), infrastructure and hospitals. Education is last on the list. The lack of drinking water, sanitation facilities, food, psychosocial support and basic health services are putting children and the community at risk every day that passes by.

When I shook hands with Mr. Sohrab before leaving, he looked at me and holding the hand of a small girl, he said, “Thank you for coming to my village and meeting my people”.

We should be able to do much more than this.

© UNICEF/NYHQ2008-1288/Josh Estey
An elementary school in Banda Aceh. The entire city was devastated by the tsunami. The school is one of 160 quake-resistant, child-friendly schools built with UNICEF assistance in Aceh and Nias.

Current externalities affecting the environment – such as deforestation, climate change, migration, poverty and food insecurity – will have a great impact on communities across the globe. People everywhere, especially children, will face monumental, interconnected challenges that will alter their ways of life at the most basic level.

School design and construction

©2010 Carlos Vasquez
Victor and Father Louis, Montagne Jaquot-Merlin, Haiti.

23 Feb 2010 – Victor Vincent Kinyanjui, from Kenya and WASH specialist for UNICEF Sierra Leone, and I set out early in morning to visit a rural school on top of mountain Jaquot-Merlin. The school is run by Father Louis Marrie from France. In order to get there we had to cross a dry river that shows clear signs of bank erosion due to heavy water flow during the rainy season.

Far away you can also see landslides manifested as white scars on the side of the mountains. The road up to the school was handmade by the local village to allow World Food Programme trucks to deliver much needed food supplies. After the earthquake the local community saw an increase of 20% of people over all. So far UNICEF has provided this village one tent for the school and one for the medical facilities. Both tents were delivered by helicopters three mountains away. Father Louis told us how difficult it was to get the pilots to drop the tents in the right place and the difficulties they had carrying the tents back to the community.

Once at the site we quickly drew a schematic site plan on the ground to locate 2 more tents, toilets and a water point. The wind movement and sun orientation were considered to make these decisions. We noticed the presence of what looked like volcanic rocks or lava in substantial quantities.

After exploring two separate fresh water springs, we decided to select the second water source down the hill, to make our proposal for the water collection system and transport of water up to the school premises. The main issue that Victor stressed was the need to 1) establish a community water committee and 2) encourage behavioral change for the consumption and management of water. We also stressed the need to implement a hygiene program through the school.

The water spring serves approximately 10 families with around 60 people total. The school population will be roughly 480 students in double shift system.

Main agreement to provide water to the school has the following components:

• Do not disturb the natural flow of the spring
• Build reservoir (3 cement bags of 50lbs) at source of water spring location
• Install walls and roof to capture the water; rough calculation shows 10lt of water/minute. Water level never to be higher than spring source
• Spring will provide 7,000 lt of water over night (12 hrs)
• Provide 4” PVC pipe below water source to water tank and 1” overflow pipe also below the level of the spring source
• 4” pipe to follow contour of hill to lower flat area to connect to two interconnected water 5,000 tanks
• 1 tank for the school, 1 tank for the community
• Provide solar pump to move water from tanks to school over the hill
• Provide third tank at school site with taps for hand washing and drinking water, close to latrines
• Solar panel and switch to be located at school site
• Community to provide 2 extra tanks to collect rain water
• Community to establish a “water committee” to manage water

UNICEF will provide all the materials and technical drawings. Father Louis will mobilize the community for both the construction and water committee group.

Carlos Vasquez
Architect
UNICEF, Education Section

Related link: Ask the Architect

© 2010 Carlos Vasquez
Port-au-Prince. Water bladder.

By Carlos Vasquez

March 2010 – Water and sanitation seem to be the one of the top priorities in cases of emergencies. Health and nutrition are also part of the core services that people require most urgently.

The earthquake in Haiti can give us a firsthand exposure to the technical challenges and the systems deploy in such devastating events. Endemic conditions such corruption, malnutrition, lack of education and decayed infrastructure can only be exacerbated by an earthquake. The last earthquake in San Francisco caused 63 casualties and last weekend’s earthquake in Chile has caused 711 deaths so far. In Haiti, the first day after the disaster 17,000 people were buried in a common grave.

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© UNICEF/NYHQ2010-0156/Shehzad Noorani
Rose-Laure Gedeon, 13, and Windelyne Milford, 15,(left-right) walk past rubble with items they received during a distribution of newly arrived care packages for children, at the UNICEF-assisted Foye Zanmi Jezi orphanage, in the Lilavois neighbourhood of Port-au-Prince, the capital. The quake destroyed both the orphanage building and the adjacent primary school but the children were playing outside at the time and all survived.

When Columbus first arrived in the new world, he established his first settlement on what is today Haiti. The first university, hospital and the first cathedral in the Americas were built on this island; Española.

I was scheduled to fly to Port-Au-Prince on Sunday the 14th from the airport in Dominican Republic, after having checked my backpack I was told to gather my belongings and go back to the UNICEF office in Santo Domingo. The orders from UNICEF were for me to attend meetings and review materials for potential prefab structures.

We started the day at six am today in order to drive to Port-Au-Prince. The journey unfolds like a story that gets worse as we leave kilometers behind us.

By the time we got to Jimani on the Dominican Republic’s side, I was debriefed about the 2004 floods during which many people died in this town as well as an entire village wiped out on the Haiti side, in the village of Font Vellettes.

At the Dominican Republic’s border, we meet with government officials who tell us that more than 20 per cent of the population increased at that same village on Haiti after the earthquake. People who are leaving PaP come to this mountainous area. Rapid assessment reports show that the poverty levels are worse in this part of Haiti are worse than in places like Sudan or any Latin American country.

The only road that connects both nations is at lake level. With the first rains this life line is at risk of being lost, cutting off Haiti completely. I was able to confirm the environmental degradation first hand including what my friends Isaac and Maggie had told on Saturday night at their home in Santo Domingo; the mountain side is being excavated to build up the road that runs along the lake creating a precarious situation and potential landslides for the next rainy season.

UNICEF has established a 20 km service buffer zone between the two countries in order to provide much needed help to IDPs and existing poor communities along the border. Water, food and health are the main services being implemented and education will follow. For years all humanitarian response have focused on Port-au-Prince neglecting the conditions of thousands of others around the country. Taking a more global, inclusive or decentralized approach to the social well-being of all people is necessary this time around to improve the lives of all.

Being on the road now it seems hard to believe that Haiti was the first country to gain independence from a colonial power. In early 1800’s, Haiti won the independence war against Napoleon’s army becoming the first self determined nation in Latin America. Only the French and American Revolution pressed Haiti’s independence.

Carlos Vasquez
Architect
UNICEF, Education Section

Monday Feb. 15. 2010, 1:45 pm

Related link: Ask the Architect

Carlos Vasquez
Architect
UNICEF, Education Section

Monday 18 February 2010, 7:00 am

Related link: Ask the Architect