Monday, August 30, 2010

PFF Flood Daily Report August 29








Qambar-Shahdadkot

members of three families at the time of reaching at safe locations

PFF teams evacuated the whole village of Bhandari Vandh (160 individuals)
where the locals were trapped in flood water, which surrounded their village
after the breach in RBOD. In that village the residents were facing acute
shortage of food and water. They were forced to use the flood water, which
caused gastro, intestinal diseases and has taken the lives of four children
in the said village before any help arrived to them.



PFF Team rescues sinking boat

Bringing in food aidPFF teams rescued 9 passengers and 2 crew members of a
private boat, which overturned and put the lives of all 11 individuals at
risk at Panhwaro dropping point in Qambar tehsil. PFF team was on the way to
evacuate the stranded villagers spotted the event and rushed to the site to
save the lives. PFF's expert divers saved all 11 lives. As the news of
overturned boat spread to the city, Pak Navy and local authorities issued a
ban on all of the private boats operating in the area except PFF's boats.
Now in the whole district only PFF and Pak Navy are operating to rescue the
stranded villagers. According to locals they feel safe while being evacuated
by PFF boats. Most of them refused to be evacuated by Pak Navy.



Legislators, media persons visit PFF



1. Ms. Sabina - German National Radio

2. Mr. Gethin Chamberlain - The Observer UK

3. Ms. Tauqeer Fatima - MPA Sindh

4. Mr. Ramesh Lal - MNA

5. Mr. Aamir Magsi - MNA

6. Mr. Nadi Magsi - Provincial Minister of Food



All of the visitors have appreciated the work doing PFF and its staff's
determination.



PFF team doing assessment

PFF also sent its 16 members team for the assessment of the families living
at various locations to see how they are living without any shelter and
proper food. PFF will get 1000 plastic sheets along with rope and bamboo for
shelter, which will be distributed among the affected population of district
Qambar-Shahdadkot.

Total number of evacuated individuals for the day stands at 236 including
160 evacuated from Bhandri Vandh.

Kashmore

FOODPFF teams evacuated 35 families in Kashmore district, who were trapped
in the area under the flood water. PFF boats brought them to safer places.
PFF also distributed cooked food among 380 families living at scattered
camps.







Jamshoro

PFF teams were assessing the losses of property, houses damages and
immediate needs of the flood affected families in Jamshoro District, which
is still facing water pressure. A large number of families are stranded in
the flood water. There are more camps where the area people are living in
government buildings.

Manchhar Water Updates



PFF team monitoring the water flowing from different natural resources to
the Manchhar Lake said there are three drains carrying water flowing to the
Lake. The water has covered the wide area of five kilometers, looking
another River. The water reached Hamal Lake Regulator and may reach
Faridabad. They believe that it may inundate parts of major towns and
adjoining areas of Dadu district, Mehar and Khairpur Nathan Shah through MNV
Drain, which is flowing from the Hamal lake, Qambar District. The capacity
of MNV drain is just carrying 3500 cusec water while presently it is
carrying 15,000-20,000 cusecs water, which may cause more breaching and
inundation of wide areas on its way to reach the Manchhar lake. It is green
belt of Dadu, where paddy is major crop. The growers are facing traumatic
situation due to loss of the entire crops.

Today PFF Thatta:

WATER-2PFF has provided drinking water to 15 thousand affected individuals
at Makli Thatta, while PFF has also provided cooked food to 300 families and
50 families to religious minorities. Team has evacuated more than 20,000
individuals in last four days. Three water tankers of PFF providing water in
to the camps. More than two hundred thousand people are at Makli in Thatta.
Sijawal which is one of the taluka of Thatta is comes under water partially.
7 Mazda's of fisherfolk are providing transportation facilities to affected
people.

Pakistan releases 100 Indian fishermen held past jail term

Link for Photos: http://picasaweb.google.com/shuja98/IndianPrisoners?feat=directlink

KARACHI: Pakistan on Monday released 100 Indian fishermen imprisoned for fishing in its territorial waters, officials said, after lobby groups said they were being detained beyond their jail terms.
Another 342 fishermen will also be released in the coming week after serving their sentences, deputy superintendent of Landhi prison Shakir Shah told AFP.
Pakistan and India frequently seize each other's fishermen, accusing them of violating their respective zones in the Arabian Sea.
Two lobby groups for Pakistani fishermen had filed a case seeking the release of the Indian fishermen in Pakistan's Supreme Court, and it was still being heard when the authorities made the sudden decision to release them.
“We informed the Supreme Court that the detention of those Indian fishermen who had completed their sentences was unlawful,” said Shujauddin Qureshi, a spokesman for the Pakistan Institute of Labour Education and Research.
“We are surprised that the government released the fishermen while the petition is still pending before the court.”
Hundreds of Indians and Pakistanis are languishing in prisons on both sides of the border on charges of spying or illegal entry. – AFP

Link for news:
http://www.dawn.com/wps/wcm/connect/dawn-content-library/dawn/news/pakistan/03-pakistan-releases-indian-fishermen-held-beyond-jail-terms-ss-03

Shujauddin Qureshi
Senior Research Associate
Pakistan Institute of Labour Education and Research (PILER),
Gulshan-e-Maymar, Karachi-75340

Sunday, August 8, 2010

Andrew Johnston of AFA-S.Africa Report from Committee on World Food Security

World Forum of Fisher Peoples Members,

REPORT OF ROME MEETING

Representatives of Social Organizations on the Mechanism of Civil Society Organizations of the Committee on World Food Security was attended by delegates from twelve countries, Action Aid and the Governance Working Group of the International Planning Committee for Food Sovereignty.. The agenda brief was to the process and proposals for an International Food Security and Nutrition Civil Society Mechanism for relations with the Committee on World Food Security {U.N}.
For the first time in the history of the U.N. system representatives of the small-scale food producers and other civil society organizations along with private sector, BINGOS {Big International Non-Governmental Organizations} and other stakeholders will be full participants and not just observers of the intergovernmental process.Civil society will be a formal participants in the new Committee on World Food Security even in the annual global meeting, although voting rights will continue to be reserved for member governments, -civil society and non-governmental organizations and their networks will be "non-voting participants". This means that we will have the right to intervene in plenary and breakout discussions to contribute to the preparation of meeting documents and agendas and to represent documents and proposals. The opening of this space should increase social participation in International policy making, contributing hopefully to more effective food security and nutrition strategies. This Committee on Food Security will no be limited to a single global session each year. It is foreseen that a series of on going activities will now take place between one season and another linking national, regional and global levels in which Civil Society Organizations will have an important role to play.In order to play its part in this new international institutional framework it is foreseen that civil society will build its own autonomous mechanism for participation in CFS activities, discussion, negotiations and decision-making. It was acknowledged that the Civil Society Mechanism may not function perfectly during the first year of operation 2010/2011, however ever effort will be made to ensure that processes to select members to the COORDINATION COMMITTEE, members of the CFS Advisory Group that this will include the broadest range of civil society actors and are as inclusive and as transparent as possible. Recognizing the challenges of establishing a global CSM of this nature, focal points will be selected to CSM and CFS roles for an initial period of one year. An evaluation of the CSM will be held in OCTOBER 2011 and improvements made to its functioning, including the composition of the CC in terms of regional, gender and constituency balance. Subsequently post holders will be selected for a 2 year period in line with the procedures of the CFS itself.

"Civil society organizations/NGOs and their networks will be invited to autonomously establish a global mechanism for food security and nutrition which will function as a facilitating body for CSO/NGOs consultation and participation in the CFS. Such mechanisms will also serve inter-sessional global, regional, and national actions in which organizations of those sectors of the population most affected by food insecurity, would be accorded priority representation. Civil society organizations/ NGOs will submit to the CFS Bureau a proposal regarding how they intend to organize their participation in the CFS in a way that ensures broad and balanced participation by regions and types of organizations keeping in mind the principles approved by the CFS at its 34th Session in October 2008."

The eleven constituencies identified are the following;

Smallholder family farmers
Artisanal Fisherfolk
Herders/Pastoralists
Landless Peoples
Urban poor
Agricultural and food workers.
Women
Youth
Consumers
Indigenous Peoples
NGOs

CC {Co-ordinating Committee} is responsible for ensuring that the functions of the CSM {Civil Society Mechanism} are carried out as effectively as possible and according to the organizing principles. This body will be established, composed of constituency and sub-regional focal points as follows - proposed to try for 6, [originally mooted as 4] from smallholder family farmer/fishers and two from each of the other constituencies mentioned above and 1 focal point from each sub-region as suggested

North America
Central America and Caribbean
Andean Region
Southern Cone
Western Europe
Eastern Europe
West Asia
South Asia
South-East Asia
Central Asia
Oceania and Pacific
Southern Africa
West Africa
East Africa
Central Africa
North Africa.

I was at loss to the agenda of the meeting as I was mandated to fight for our participation and integration at FAO, only to find that it was already accepted as such. The rules and regulation document was not sent to me which put me at a great disadvantage and the question is why were we not informed previously and to why did WFFP not give written input to this document and who has possession of it? The meeting was of a very good nature and well run and very enlighten, it was felt although the new CFS will not address all the solutions to the problems, we need to be involved and fight to get our members on the new committees and begin to now lobby our government as never before. Regional nominations for the organizations to attend Rome C.C. and the November Forum has to forwarded as soon as possible. There is at this moment finance for approximately one hundred delegates but they are hoping to receive funding later for more to attend, but this will be of a late arrangement. Once nominated for the C.C. for the October meet it cannot be changed under any circumstances as one of their mandate is to organize the November Forum. One should not expect much from the October meeting as to policy as governments will attempt to again dominate decision-making. Note for this meet civil society will electe through regional groups - so please WFFP should organize their delegates accordingly. I had come to an arrangement with Margaret of WFFF that they will send the woman delegate as to the 50/50 gender balance and we the other for our international fishing organizations. Also from the South African Region we [Margaret [Uganda] Renaldo [Mozambique], Myself. {South Africa} will receive he nominations and filter the three constituencies - Landless, Women, Farm workers that will be allowed to attend the October meet in Rome.
I am hoping that on the 14th when the debate on food sovereignity takes place at the Riverside club starting at 9.00am I will be able to identify the organizations then.

Andrew Johnston
WFFP delegate