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Aircrew transports ambassador, USAID administrator to flooded Sukkur

  • Published
  • By Staff Sgt. Kali L. Gradishar
  • U.S. AFCENT Combat Camera Team
CHAKLALA AIR FORCE BASE, Pakistan --  Twenty-five passengers, to include U.S. Agency for International Development Administrator Dr. Rajiv Shah, U.S. Coordinator for Civilian Assistance Ambassador to Pakistan Robin Raphel and members from various media organizations, boarded a U.S. Air Force C-130H Hercules here Aug. 25 for a visit to Sukkur, Pakistan where various aid networks are working together to bring clean water, food, shelter and hope to people displaced by plundering floods in the southern region of the country.

The congregation toured a school and an internally displaced persons camp to speak to Pakistani people first-hand about how they were affected by the floods.

"It was an interesting mission we had today. We had the USAID (supplies), but we also had some personnel from the embassy, an ambassador (and the administrator of the agency that is) bringing all this equipment," said Lt. Col. Steve Catchings, an Air Force Reserve C-130 Hercules pilot deployed to the 746th Expeditionary Airlift Squadron in Southwest Asia.

"Usually our plane is just full of cargo... but big picture we understand why we brought them. They've got a message to get to the people out here and to the world to show what is going on - not necessarily what we're doing, but the magnitude of what's happened down here," said the colonel, a native of Navarre, Fla., deployed from the 357th Airlift Squadron at Maxwell Air Force Base, Ala.

Along with the USAID administrator and U.S. ambassador were various other members of USAID from Washington D.C. who were able to capture a glimpse of what devastation the floods brought to the region. The visit to Sukkur provided the group with a chance to see one of the worst hit regions by the floods that left more than 1/5 of the nation under water.

"This is certainly historic flooding. I've been doing this for many years (and) this is the largest flooding I've ever seen," said William Berger, USAID and Office of U.S. Foreign Disaster Assistance principal regional advisor for South Asia. "But I've been here working here for a long time and... I know these people. I know they're resilient people. They have a lot of personal capacity. We have to see how we can support them."

While USAID's mission in Pakistan is to focus on education, governance, health and economic opportunity, according to the agency's Web site, much of their recent efforts have turned toward providing the basic necessities of life before moving on to a more progressive approach in rebuilding the country.

"I agree that when you look at the scale of this disaster it's not the first thing that comes to your mind," stated Dr. Shah, the 16th administrator to USAID. "The first thing is how do you get people food? How do you get people shelter? How do you get people clean water? And how do you protect this area from cholera and infectious disease?

"There is a big capacity constraint here. What we saw in Sukkur, we wish there were more capacity to provide clean drinking water, food, medicine and all of that," he said.

Sukkur lies near the Indus River, accounting for the exorbitant amount of flooding in the area and the incredible amount of supplies flowing into the country.

"We've got two planes and four crews rotating, and this is the cargo we've brought in. There's food, tents and coverage that we're running (into Sukkur and Jacobobad)," said Colonel Catchings, who's been a C-130 pilot for 18 years with eight of them on active duty. "This area right here is right in the middle of it."

The C-130 crews have been assisting Pakistan's relief efforts by enabling locals in Sukkur to, in turn, aid others around them by distributing the supplies throughout the region. Thousands of pounds of cargo have been loaded on and off the C-130s as the U.S. and Pakistani air forces transport food, shelter and other supplies donated by USAID and various other countries.

With the astronomical amount of support and supplies streaming into the country, there has been one ever-present question about the aid supplied: Where is all of the aid going and how can donators know their efforts are worthwhile?

"In all of those partnerships, the USAID contracts and resources allow for monitoring, evaluation, auditing (and) recourse if resources are used inappropriately, and we will be able to know that our resources have generated real services for very low-income people who are in a state of real need," said Dr. Shah. "With all of the partners we work with, including the local Pakistani government and local Pakistani institutions, we will need to have that same level of accountability and transparency in how we track our resources.

"We're committed to making sure we do the auditing and the analysis to make sure when American taxpayers spend those resources they are actually saving lives and making a difference for the Pakistani people," said the USAID administrator.

The visit to Sukkur provided the visitors an up-close view of how USAID efforts can be better utilized, as well as to distinguish a way forward in assisting the country in its relief and reconstruction efforts.

Pakistan can "use the opportunity of the reconstruction to fundamentally lead better lives," said Dr. Shah. "This is going to be a challenge. This is going to be very, very difficult. This is a huge scale disaster, but we have to continue to be optimistic and look for those opportunities to help Pakistan to use this as an opportunity... to build back better."