Assessing Community Preparedness and Institutional Role in Reducing Vulnerability of Flood Prone Areas of Balochistan.

Flooding is an unvarying devastating recurring event in Pakistan producing serious economic and social damages. Despite its recurring nature extensive research on flood hazards and its management specifically in the Baluchistan province of Pakistan has been delimited. The aim of the study was therefore to evaluate the role of flood management institutes and the preparedness of the community against flooding to reduce the vulnerability of flood prone areas of the Baluchistan province of Pakistan. For this purpose, primary data was collected from 100 families from the most flood affected district Jaffarabad, of province Baluchistan by adopting a random and non-probability sampling method. The primary data was collected through questioners and interviews of house heads of flood affected families, farmers, and professions of Flood management institutes (FMI). Several technical reports, policy documents, and research papers allied to flood management related studies were reviewed as secondary data. The data collected was analyzed statistically by t-test. Questionnaires were developed to cover the study variables related to community livelihood state, physical and socio-economic vulnerability, and available structural facilities of the study area. The data revealed significant (p < 0.05) increase in average income/day of the affected families from the year 2014 (PKR 180/day) to 2020 (PKR 320/day) after 2010 (PKR 170/day) with significant (p < 0.05) reduction in overall damage to household assets. Our analysis also showed 30% statistically a significant (p < 0.05) reduction in loss of agricultural land of Jaffarabad with significant less agricultural sector loss from 103.77 USD million to 36.51 USD million after successive flood events from 2010 to 2015. The results of physical vulnerability showed a significant reduction in displacement rate allied to overall significant reduction in drop of GDP growth and poverty rate. Significant (p < 0.05) improvement in the structural units from 20% (2010) to 52% (2015) in housing units and from 28% (2010) to 38% (2015) in the cultivation units represents the role of FMI in improving available infrastructure to mitigate flood hazards in this area. These findings underline the impact and successful outcomes of flood rectifying policies and implementation of FMI to reduce damage caused by the 2010 flood in Baluchistan. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]