Transitional Shelter assistance for Amu Darya river bank erosion victims in Jawzjan. Qarqin and Khamab are two districts in Jawzjan that are located along the Amu Darya river. This river swells every year when the snow melts in the surrounding mountains and creates severe bank erosion along the Afghanistan side. People live along the river as there they find water to irrigate their gardens, but leaves home in highly flood prone areas as the river has already eroded many square kilometers of land during recent years (see pictures of damage done in Annex 19).
ZOA requested the ES/NFI cluster in Mazar­e Sharif to help raise funding for a caseload of 282 families that lost their houses due to river bank erosion in 2015 (Category A), and who had not received any shelter assistance last year. An additional caseload of 99 HHs in Qarqin district were affected by the same river erosion in spring 2016 which the cluster suggested to include in the total caseload. . In August 2016, a ZOA team conducted a house to house survey in order to reassess the need for shelters in these two districts. In total 219 families where identified as the most vulnerable and eligible for shelter assistance. The remaining 162 HHs had either already rebuilt their homes or did not fit into the most vulnerable category.
ZOA has extensive experience with 1­room shelters in both Jawzjan and Sar­-e Pul. The design allows for additional rooms to be added later by the beneficiaries  which is in line with the technical guidelines of the ES/NFI cluster and shelters constructed in the area in the past. So far, little has been done by the Afghan government to protect the communities living alongside the Amu Darya river and the humanitarian community finds itself each year responding with life-saving responses to affected households.  ZOA has actively advocated for the relocation of the proposed households to sites not prone to river bank erosion for at least the next 5 years. The local government has by written statement guaranteed land allocation in safe sites for the rebuilding of all the shelters.
To protect the houses in case of flash floods which are also common in Jawzjan province the construction includes a solid foundation made of burned bricks, as was successfully implemented in ZOA's project in Faizabad (Jawzjan 2015). Shelters have been identified as the main need in the region with many vulnerable families finding it difficult to build a permanent shelter on their own. In ZOA HH survey it was found that these families are mainly day laborers and small farmers with estimated income of 3000 - 7000 AFA per month, and so there is no way that they can come up with 150,000 AFA to construct a decent shelter. The families are selected based on their vulnerability and priority is given to female headed households, households with disabled family members, and families living under extreme poverty. Based on the observation of ZOA surveyors that OD is rampant in these villages, construction of latrines are being proposed as part of this project, and therefore beneficiaries will receive hygiene training as well. The targeted families, and their communities will be strengthened in their disaster preparedness and risk reduction through DRR and PASSA training.