By: John D. Liu
Assistant Professor (Research) Center for Climate and Society George Mason University January 2009
I began to study “Integrated Poverty Eradication and Long-Term Ecosystem Rehabilitation” when I saw that it was
By: John D. Liu
Assistant Professor (Research) Center for Climate and Society George Mason University January 2009
I began to study “Integrated Poverty Eradication and Long-Term Ecosystem Rehabilitation” when I saw that it was possible to rehabilitate large-scale damaged ecosystems and that this was the most effective way to transition subsistence farmers toward sustainable livelihoods and end poverty. Following this line of inquiry, I have observed that human existence is dependent on ecosystem function and that when ecosystems are dysfunctional it usually means that human beings, ignorant of the processes that provide their air, water and food, have disrupted them.
Studying ecosystem function and dysfunction has taken me to some out of the way places and occasionally I’ve encountered refugee camps in these remote locations. The camps are necessarytohousepeoplefleeingforvariousreasons,allofthemdesperate. Thelucky ones are in the refugee camps, the unlucky ones don’t make it. Sometimes refugees are fleeing from violence, innocent pawns in a political game. Sometimes they are victims of disasters like earthquakes or floods. And sometimes they are fleeing for survival because of ecosystem collapse. Whatever reason they are there, life in a refugee camp is a precarious thing.
The fact that people must flee and seek refuge has become a way of life for millions of people. The UN High Commissioner for Refugees estimated in June 2009, that more than 42 million people have been uprooted from their homes around the world, by various causes. Currently millions of these unfortunate people are in hundreds of camps scattered around the world. I have enormous respect for the people working in this field trying to help the people living in the camps. Although I have never been called to work in refugee camps I have occasionally wondered whether I would have the strength to endure and serve in such conditions. AlthoughIhaveagoodimaginationI’mprettysurethatIcan’timaginewhatit would be like to be one of the millions of people forced to flee their homes and live in a camp. Considering the fate of the children, women and men, who must try to survive in the camps, makes me very sad, but my sadness does little to help them. They are clearly some of the people most in need of assistance. For some time now I have wondered, how could I help the people who are forced to live, for either a short time or a long time, in refugee camps?
Refugee camps are not really in the mainstream. The really grim ones are long-term affairs that are often hidden away in extremely remote areas of the world. Few tourists or even journalists make it to these areas and it is only the strongest and most courageous of development workers (or the most naïve) who take on such tasks. The conditions are extremely dangerous. The logistics of how to provide clean water, food, shelter, health care and energy in a temporary camp are daunting. There is always the chance of particularly savagecontagiousdiseasesweepingthroughthecamp. Oftentheviolenteventsthat caused the people to flee in the first place continue nearby, threatening to come right into the camps, and often providing a steadily growing stream of more refugees.
Contemplating how to help has made me analyze what are the main problems with the camps. First it is important to know that the host governments are acting from necessity. They do not actually wish to have the camps, they are reacting to events and are forced to accept them or watch the people die. Often, host governments are urged by international institutions seeking to address the plight of the refugees, and generally, when sufficient donors can be found to pay the costs, then the host governments will agree to house the camps. The hosts want the refugees to return to their homes as soon as it is possible. Usually the hosts insist that no permanent facilities be built that would lead to permanent settlement of the refugees. This generally means that the camps are huge tent cities with either tents for individual families or larger tents for multiple families.
The ban on permanent facilities practically can mean that hundreds of millions of people live without sanitation facilities, usually having only trench latrines. Given the transmission route for many serious diseases is feces to mouth, it is not surprising to note the incidence of diarrhea and even cholera are found in the camps and that mortality rates are often higher than in normal conditions. The people walking through the camps trample the soil, without vegetation the compacted soil doesn’t infiltrate rainfall. When it rains the camps can become muddy quagmires. The lack of sanitation facilities also complicates the delivery of clean water. If the water is coming from streams or wells it is often contaminated and if the water is trucked in it is difficult to keep the transmission equipment clean.
Another complication is cooking. Often the people are given small amounts of food that are distributed to families (when the family units are intact). Then each family returns to their tent to cook the food and feed the family. In order to cook, each family needs a fire. Often the people fan out into the surrounding areas and cut trees or brush denuding large areas of trees and vegetation. This in turn leads to increased d