Tanboo Goth (Tent Village) is a large temporary settlement spread over 600 acres (243 hectares) in Jamshoro, Pakistan, established to help the people displaced by the 2022 flood in north western Sindh and adjacent areas of Punjab and Balochistan.
Management
This village is managed by Lok Sahaita and Sindh Police with help from Divisional Administration of Hyderabad and several other organisations. A partial list of our partner organisations is available here, and more are coming forward everyday to support us in this monumental task.
Population
Tanboo Goth is home to over 24,000 people who have been documented so far. There is a large undocumented transient population of local people as well who aren’t affected by the floods, but try to get food rations and tents, which worsens the situation.
Electronic Documentation
We have digitised the data which is helping us a lot with distribution of aid and catching those who try to get everything multiple times and those who aren’t even affected by the floods, while the food supplies are short.
Water
Clean water, and even the availability of any water at all has been an issue from the beginning. We started by getting a hydrant opened up from the local water supply network, however this water was untreated.
Initially we distributed water filter bottles.
Then we managed to get a mobile ultrafiltration plant to supply clean water. It takes three to four days to complete a water distribution round in the village.
Further help came from Water Mission, they have installed a large tank and a filtration unit. Still, we can barely meet just the drinking water need.
Food
We have helped the residents of the village with rations of essential food items as well cooked food everyday.
Bahria Town Foundation has been running a large kitchen from the beginning that serves hot food twice a day. Saylani also joined in later, and they have multiple kitchens serving hot food twice a day at different locations in the village.
Shelter
We haven’t been able to meet the need for tents. We have distributed tents in hundreds, but the need is in thousands.
Medical Facilities
There are three clinics running regularly, and some organisations have occasionally sent teams of specialists as well.
Education
Three small tent schools have been set up in Tanboo Goth for children.
Security
We have gradually been enhancing the village security, and now there’s 24 hours police presence to help not only with the security of the residents but also to carry out humanitarian aid tasks.
Crowd Management
In the beginning, it was extremely difficult to manage anything in an orderly fashion. People were attacking any aid reaching the village, primarily because the amount of aid was always a lot less than the people needing it and there was no communication method employed to let people know what was happening or to give them hope that more aid was on its way. This has been the same across Pakistan, news channels have been showing video footage of people attacking aid trucks and fighting over food.
We analysed the situation from the perspective of the people in the crowds, understood their concerns, and then addressed those directly through public announcement systems. We introduced systematic methods of relief aid distribution in a justified manner, giving everyone hope that they will get their turn. This enabled us to form queues and work in an organised manner. As far as we know, this is the only camp that is organised in this manner on such a scale.
Return Home Support
Currently we are working on ways to help these people when they are able to return to their homes, like arranging transport to take them back, and give them skills to rebuild their homes which have been completely destroyed by the flood.
