The construction of a new home made out of mud bricks in Pakistan .- Photo: Fr Liam O'Callaghan SSC
“I have seen many humanitarian disasters in the world, but I have never seen climate carnage on this scale.” These words were uttered by UN General Secretary Antonio Guterres on September 10, 2022, as he visited the areas worst affected by the unprecedented monsoon flooding.
The rain continued relentlessly for over two months - from mid-June to the end of August; it was the worst monsoon in Pakistan in decades, and the Government declared a national emergency with almost five times the normal rainfall in Sindh and Balochistan. The scale of the disaster was staggering - 33 million people out of a population of about 229 million affected, over 1,700 killed, more than 13,000 injured, and damage and economic loss estimated at $30 billion.
The damage to infrastructure in the affected areas was enormous - 13,115 kilometres of roads damaged, 439 bridges destroyed, crops damaged and destroyed and over 1.1 million livestock lost. According to the World Health Organization (WHO), around eight million flood-affected people needed health assistance, including essential medical supplies and access to essential health care. But probably the worst reality was the loss of about 2.2 million houses, which were either damaged or destroyed, 1.5 million in Sindh alone, leaving many poor people homeless and forced to live in temporary shelters provided by government and non-government agencies. As is often the case, it is the poor who are worst affected because their housing is already very fragile to begin with.
So we set about trying to make a difference through a housing project made possible by a donation from Columbans in the Oceania Region, through the Columban Overseas Aid Fund (COAF).
A Parkari Kohli family of four in front of their new one room home. - Photo: Liam O'Callaghan
In choosing a house design, we were greatly helped by a construction guide jointly produced by the National Disaster Management Agency (NDMA) of the Pakistan government, which provided scientifically tested guidance on low-cost solutions for Sindh that were flood-resistant and compatible with vernacular architecture and indigenous construction techniques.
The Construction Guide aims to provide flood-resilient, low-cost one-room shelters to the most vulnerable families using locally available materials that minimise adverse environmental impacts. The materials - mud bricks, clay, bamboo, timber windows and doors - are all sourced locally, with little or no carbon footprint. It was simply ideal and tailor-made for the situation we found ourselves in.
The location of the housing project is in the Mirpurkhas and Umerkot districts of interior Sindh, which were badly flooded, and it took several months for life to return to anything approaching normality. The families receiving the housing are from the Parkari Kohli indigenous community, among whom the Columbans have been working since 1983 in different areas of Sindh.
As an indigenous and religious minority community, the Parkari Kohli face many issues - poverty, discrimination, lack of security as farm workers for landlords, lack of education opportunities, poor health facilities etc. The recipients are Christian and Hindu.
Building began on the first house on February 1, 2023, with a target of 120 homes by the end of January, 2024. We spent the weeks before identifying locations and communities affected, undertaking an assessment of the damaged houses and compiling a final list based on the assessment report.
Meetings with beneficiaries were held to ensure clarity of the process of demolishing the damaged house and building the new house on that site, as well as locating quality materials to use - mud bricks, clay, bamboo, timber, a contract with a carpenter for windows and doors, straw and hiring of masons, labourers and carpenters and other support staff.
We are grateful for the generous support of donors, whose generosity is helping the poorest of the poor to re-build their lives. Pakistan is one of the most vulnerable countries in the world to the effects of climate change. Extreme weather events such as the flooding of 2022 will most likely occur regularly in the future, but hopefully those 120 families will be able to live securely in their new homes for years to come.
Columban Fr Liam O'Callaghan is the Columban Mission Unit Coordinator and Coordinator for Justice, Peace and the Integrity of Creation and Inter-Religious Dialogue in Pakistan. Columban co-worker Danish Yakoob works with Fr Liam.
Listen to "Sindh housing project for flood affectees"
Related links
- Read more from The Far East - August 2025
