Appeal Target: US$ 174,337
Balance Requested: US$ 4,610
Geneva, 17 August 2011
Dear Colleagues,
On 6 August 2010 the town of Leh in Ladakh, in northeastern Jammu & Kashmir state, experienced an extremely heavy cloudburst which lasted several hours. This in turn triggered raging floods and landslides.
Hundreds of homes were destroyed and people marooned. More than 200 mud-built houses were washed away. The district hospital was submerged and the radio station damaged. Electricity cables and telecommunication pylons were damaged or destroyed.
ACT Alliance members Church’s Auxiliary for Social Action (CASA) and the Lutheran World Federation/Lutheran World Service India Trust (LWF/LWSIT) planned to respond to this emergency. Their response aimed to mitigate the effects of the flash floods by providing life-saving and life-sustaining assistance to the affected families.
LWSIT has since been unable to commence their programme due to highly inadequate funding and has had to withdraw from the appeal. CASA has also had to drastically revise its plans due to lack of funding (only 20% of the original target received). CASA had planned to provide housing however, the government set up an initiative for providing compensation for rebuilding houses and before the onset of winter had installed 400 prefabricated housing units. The government also announced compensation to families who had lost their houses in the floods. CASA has consequently decided not to build more houses.
CASA, taking into consideration the changes on the ground and funding received to date, is proposing to restore severely damaged irrigation canals in Ladakh. These canals are the main source of irrigation for cultivation of crops in all the villages and hamlets in Ladakh. Currently these structures are in a very badly damaged state and need to be rebuilt or renovated. Many families also lost their livestock in the flash floods and need livestock support to ensure supplementary source of nutrition and income.
This revision replaces the full appeal issued by the ACT Secretariat on the 17 September 2010.