The Role of NGOs in Flood Relief and Recovery in Punjab

Role of NGOs in Flood Relief in Punjab: One of the worst flood crises in decades hit Punjab in late August and early September 2025. Monsoon rains and excessive water discharged by dams upstream led to the overtopping of the Sutlej, Beas, and Ravi rivers, resulting in massive flooding of the affected areas. More than 3.5 lakh (350,000+) people have been impacted in all 23 districts, over 1,200 villages were submerged, and at least 30 people have died.

Educational institutions, such as schools and colleges, were closed for days to ensure that children were not exposed to danger. The flood swept away crops, damaged vital infrastructure such as roads and health centres and hundreds of people were displaced. The Punjab farming sector, its farms, orchards and their animals have been battered, and there are concerns among the farmers that the sector might suffer a lasting blow.

With the current crisis of climate crisis, NGOs are becoming the front-line players. Government response is still underway, but non-governmental organisations are busy plugging critical gaps: providing short-term relief and rescue efforts, rebuilding livelihoods and recovery support. Thanks to their flexibility, mobilisation, and established ties to the local environment, they are the key to the short-term management of the crisis, as well as long-term resilience. The role of NGOs in the flood-affected areas of Punjab has never been more important.

Immediate Relief Efforts by NGOs in Punjab Floods

With the recent floods that hit Punjab, different NGOs were mobilised promptly to offer emergency aid, which was, in most circumstances, within the hours after the floods. Their activities included rescue missions and delivery of basic supplies, and they assisted numerous individuals who were caught in the middle, displaced, or isolated with their basic services.

Role of NGOs in Flood Relief – NGO interventions are important, and they include:

Khalsa Aid

Starting with the first day, Khalsa Aid sent teams to the most severely impacted districts, and they aimed at the evacuation of families, food and clean water, as well as medical help. Understanding that there are usually areas where resources will be concentrated and others not, they have invited the other NGOs to align themselves so that there can be a balanced distribution of the aid to different areas affected.

UNITED SIKHS

In Ferozepur district and the surrounding regions where hundreds of villages had been flooded, UNITED SIKhs rescuing people stranded, delivering relief supplies via boat, visited isolated neighbourhoods. They even administered first aid and constructed temporary shelters for the displaced.

Roundglass Foundation

The Roundglass teams, working in such districts as Gurdaspur, Amritsar, Fazilka, Pathankot, and Firozepur, had to work with urgent needs: to distribute food, clean drinking water, necessary medicines, and temporary shelter. They are also providing tarpaulins, generator fuel, and livestock feed.

Punjab Red Cross Society

Several relief trucks with family tents, tarpaulins, blankets, cooking and household kits, hygiene goods and sanitary supplies had the Red Cross flag. They collaborated with the district-based organisations and non-governmental organisations to access affected districts, including Ferozepur, Amritsar, Gurdaspur, Pathankot, Ludhiana, etc.

Sun Foundation & Local NGOs

The Sun Foundation has provided in excess of 500 tarpaulins, medicines (to avoid infections and water-borne diseases), mosquito repellents, ointments, and cattle fodder in the remote villages of District Patiala (Dudhan Sadhan, Patran). These operations were synchronised with the district administration to penetrate areas that were particularly isolated in the interior.

Meer Foundation (the NGO of Shah Rukh Khan)

In partnership with the local organisations, the Meer Foundation has made relief kits available to 1,500 flood-affected families in other districts such as Amritsar, Fazilka, Firozpur and Patiala. The kits included food, hygiene items, mosquito nets, tarpaulin sheets, mattresses and others to respond to shelter, health and sanitation needs as soon as possible.

NGOs in Recovery and Rehabilitation

Following the direct relief operations, NGOs throughout Punjab have swivelled to recovery and rehabilitation efforts in order to assist the people affected by the floods to restructure on a sustainable basis. They are no longer focused on emergency relief, but on rebuilding homes, infrastructure, livelihoods and dignity.

The most critical recovery and rehabilitation activities are:

• Roundglass Foundation: Having served in most of the severely affected areas (Gurdaspur, Fazilka, Firozepur, Amritsar, Pathankot), Roundglass has not only promised immediate relief but also reconstruction of homes, rebuilding of schools and health centres, livelihood restoration, and repair of critical infrastructure.
• Meer Foundation (NGO of Shah Rukh Khan) + Roundglass Cooperation: These foundations are collaborating to assist in restoring flood-damaged villages in Punjab. Their partnership will increase the restoration and recovery of infrastructure through rehabilitation.
• Sarbat Da Bhala Charitable Trust (SDBCT): SDBCT has also promised to provide flood victims with homes that have been destroyed by floods. Specifically, they are engaged in restructuring homes in the affected districts, offering shelter to people whose houses were destroyed, and offering structural repairs.
• Milkfed Punjab / Verka: Since it is known that livestock and dairy farmers have incurred heavy losses, Milkfed has initiated recovery efforts that are geared towards individuals and animals. The program also involves the rehabilitation of supply chains, livestock feeds, and help in the reestablishment of farmers to their productive livelihoods.
• NRIs and Community-Based Rehabilitation: Non-Resident Indian groups have intervened to help dairy farmers who have lost livestock, and they are also assisting in repairing and rebuilding homes. They provide both financial and practical support, and in many cases, in partnership with local non-government organisations and village communities.

Role of NGOs in Flood Relief in Punjab – Building Long-Term Resilience

In addition to the relief and rehabilitation process, NGOs in Punjab are playing a transformative role in preparing the communities for future floods. The cyclical character of climate-related disasters shows the pressing necessity of disaster resilience strategies that extend beyond emergency assistance.

NGOs are also trying to help improve disaster preparedness, such as training local volunteers, establishing community-based response teams, and developing awareness regarding evacuation plans and safety protocols. These grassroots movements make the vulnerable populations in society better placed to rise in the case of disaster occurrences.

In the farm sector, NGOs are advocating climate-adaptive agriculture like diversification of crops, water control methods and use of flood-resistant seeds. Through cooperation with farmers, organisations are able to minimise economic losses in the long run, as well as enhance food security.

Also, NGOs are partnering with schools and community organisations to bring about disaster education into everyday life. Children and youth programs are meant to inculcate a preparedness and shared responsibility culture.

On a larger scale, NGOs are also pushing to have closer government-NGO relations in order to establish good flood management mechanisms, which incorporate early warning systems and sustainable development of infrastructure.

These activities are helping NGOs not merely recover but also be ready to build a stronger Punjab, one which would be able to withstand and accommodate future climatic changes.

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