Integrated disaster risk reduction in flood-affected areas
Full Solution
Some protective plantings will soon produce fuelwood
GIZ
Villages and most productive lands in the lower parts of the Turkestan mountain range are located in the valleys of rivers and streams. Water discharge of streams is seasonally highly variable. After rainfall and during snowmelt extreme flow events happen with discharges several times exceeding the average of the wet season, causing the transportation of large amounts of debris. These debris flows can be much more destructive than ordinary high water events. Local people report about formerly unknown events of flashfloods and debris flows, which can be attributed to land degradation in upper catchment areas in combination with climate change impacts.
The solution brought together the Committee of Emergency Situations, affected local communities and the forestry enterprise. Assisted by experts provided by the project, the situation was analyzed; risks identified and integrated intervention planned. These interventions consisted of green and grey measures and were jointly implemented.
Last update: 01 Oct 2020
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Contexto
Défis à relever
The communities did not have the technical knowledge and skills and also lacked the financial means to implement the solution on their own. Also the Committee for Emergency Situations lacked the financial resources for supporting the communities. Engineering expertise, machinery and construction material had been provided by GIZ, while the communities contributed voluntary work.
The planted trees are at risk of being damaged by free-ranging livestock. So they had to be fenced or individually protected.
Ubicación
Sughd Province, Tajikistan
North and Central Asia
Procesar
Summary of the process
The building blocks represent three different elements:
- the general participatory approach, ensuring the best local benefits, the ownership by local people, their commitment and thus the sustainability of implemented measures;
- the key technical elements, which ensure the effectiveness of the disaster risk reduction as well as its sustainability; and
- the collaboration with one key actor, as example, of involvement of different stakeholders, beyond the immediate zone of the disaster risk.
The GIZ project ensured the interaction of the three building blocks and it is expected that this interaction will function beyond the project lifetime and will be replicated.
Building Blocks
Community participation in planning, construction and maintenance
Often disaster risk reduction measures are either not effectively meeting the needs of the affected people or are not sustainable in the long term. This can be caused by insufficient involvement of local people in the planning, construction and maintenance of such measures. People in the result do not feel enough responsibility and expect that the organizations, which had built the measures would also care for them.
The participation of local communities in the planning ensured that their knowledge is integrated and their needs and concerns are addressed. They became involved in the construction works and made substantial contributions in form of voluntary communal labour (so-called hashar) and locally available materials. This created a strong sense of ownership.The communities in an informal social selection process identified people with suitable technical and social capacity and appointed appointed them as persons responsible for future maintenance. They will call the community for joint work if necessary.
The persons in charge of caring for the protective measures get as a reward the right to use fuel and forage produced by the protective vegetation.
Enabling factors
The tradition of voluntary communal labour (so-called hashar) was an important enabling factor. In a hashar people work jointly on an individual or community project and the beneficiaries provide them with food.
The access to special benefits in form of fuel wood and forage additionally stimulated people to take over long-term responsibility. The other people see this right to use certain resources as a rightful reward for taking the responsibility for the protective structures.
Lesson learned
For the success and long-term sustainability it is crucial to involve the community in all stages from planning over implementation to maintenance. The most effective way is to identify people with a high motivation and interest, which can act as initiators and drivers of the process and mobilize other community members.
Combination of green and grey technologies
Disaster risk management can consist of protective constructions made from stone, concrete and iron ("grey") and the use of protective vegetation ("green"). The combination of both has several advantages. Green measures may need several years before they become effective. At the same time grey measures may lose stability over time, e.g. if gabion wires are corroded or walls are washed out by flowing water. Well maintained trees, however, can serve potentially forever.
The solution inlcuded the combination of green and grey measures in various forms. Riverbeds were reshaped and gabions installed for immediate protection. Trees were planted, in particular in form of tripods from willow branches, reinforced with stones. They will provide long-term protection.
In an upper catchment above a debris flow affected site gullies were blocked with branches and stones and trees planted to stabilize these and prevent further erosion. At the accumulation site, trees with drip irrigation and protected by a temporary fence make the land again usable and fertile and will provide some protection of lower located lands against future debris flows.
Enabling factors
Enabling factors include the availability of engineering skills and experience provided by GIZ and related provision of machinery and materials. These were combined with the readiness of local people to contribute work and locally available materials.
Lesson learned
The combination of grey and green measures can increase the cost-effectiveness of disaster risk reduction measures. The use of naturally occuring tree species stabilizes of reestablishes natural vegetation and makes use of the ecosystem services.
Green measures can be affected by free-ranging and poorly herded livestock. Temporary fencing, individual protection of trees and good involvement of the local community are therefore essential for the success.
Collaboration with forestry enterprise
The lands where the disaster risk is most critical are typically located downstream and do not belong to the forestry enterprise. The areas where flash floods and debris flows originate are the upstream located upper catchment areas. Many of these areas are managed by the forestry enterprise. Its involvement is therefore crucial.
The forestry enterprise aims at better management of the upper catchments by regulation of grazing, prevention of deforestation and by reforestation activities.
Furthermore in the case of the solution the forestry enterprise provided land for lease to interested community members, which would rehabilitate the land, plant trees and grow fodder for their livestock while preventing overgrazing and destruction of the vegetation.
Enabling factors
The key enabling factor is the collaboration between forestry enterprise and local land users, including lease agreements, which provide clear benefits for the users.
The forestry enterprise in Shahriston has long experience in the propagation of native juniper trees and the successful rehabilitation of juniper woodlands using these seedlings. With the assistance by GIZ the forest nursery was fenced to prevent damage by free-ranging livestock and increase the production of native tree seedlings.
Lesson learned
Collaboration requires clear mechanisms and the consideration of the interests of different stakeholders. Land-users are ready to take over responsibility on forestry lands only in case of clear agreements securing long-term benefits.
The forestry enterprise in some cases experiences a conflict of interest, which is difficult to address. Much of its income is from the grazing permits issued to livestock owners grazing their livestock on forestry lands. Additionally there is also informal social pressure on the forestry enterprise to allow access for increasing livestock numbers. This conflicts with the function of the forestry enterprise to protect rangelands, woodlands and forests and their ecosystem services. As long as these ecosystem services are not sufficiently honored there will be land degradation increasing the disaster risk. This problem is particularly difficult to address in a transboundary context where upper catchment and affected villages are in different jurisdictions.
Impacts
Environmental impacts:
- prevention of unnaturally intensive erosion;
- rehabilitation of vegetation and creation of new habitat;
Social impacts:
- mobilization of joint community work to address problems and risks affecting the community;
- collaboration between land users, community leadership, Committee of Emergency Situations and forestry enterprise;
- capacity development in form of knowledge of and skills to implement several technologies for land rehabilitation, sustainable land use and disaster risk reduction;
- prevention of disasters causing the destruction of houses, infrastructure, productive land and threatening live and health of people.
Economic impacts:
- prevention of economic losses caused by disastrous flood events;
- rehabilitation of affected lands;
- creation of new productive tree plantations (fruits, fuel wood).
Beneficiaries
The beneficiaries are the households and communities in the disaster risk areas as well as individuals caring for the green measures and in return being entitled to use fruits and branches from the trees as well as forage from the rehabilitated site.
Sustainable Development Goals
SDG 3 – Good health and well-being
SDG 13 – Climate action
Story
Hoji Numonjon Aslonov in front of the stream with the willows protecting now the village and his lands
GIZ
For years Hoji Numonjon Aslonov, a resident of Kurush village in Spitamen district of Sughd province, has seen his land washed away by debris flows originating in the mountains of neighboring Kyrgyzstan. Due to extreme rainfall events and unusually high temperatures in summer the risk was further exacerbated in recent years. His and his neighbors’ houses had already become under direct threat when the Committee of Emergency Situations together with GIZ supported the local population with technical advice and construction materials to build a protection wall for their houses.
Within approximately 30 days the community members, led by Hoji Numonjon Aslonov, constructed a 300 meters-long gabion protection wall. In addition the community provided wwillow seedlings, which they planted along the wall, creating additional long-term protection, which grows stronger over time.
The protection wall has already been withstanding heavy mudflows several times since, showing its strength and effectiveness. Hoji Numonjon Aslonov takes good care of the trees, and by now they have already grown to a respectable size and prevent the foundation of the wall from being washed out. Feeling safe and secure again, he even started to use the area behind the wall by planting fruit trees for an additional contribution to his livelihoods.
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Other contributors
Nodir Muhidinov
Deutsche Gesellschaft für Internationale Zusammenarbeit (GIZ) GmbH
