At least 830 people have lost their lives in floods across Pakistan since July this year. The country’s government on Tuesday decided to launch an international appeal for funds for relief and rehabilitation of flood-affected people and restoration of damaged infrastructure. Dawn’s news.
The decision was taken during a briefing on the flood emergency in the country by Pakistan’s National Disaster Management Authority (NDMA). The briefing was originally convened to reassess the flood damage, inform development partners and donors about the extent of the crisis.
Besides looking to the world for help in mitigating the devastation caused by the abnormal rains, Prime Minister Shahbaz Sharif appealed to the nation to help the flood-hit people. Because the government needs hundreds of crores of rupees to rehabilitate the flood victims.
The Prime Minister said in a video message that Rs 80 billion is needed for the current relief operation and hundreds of crores for the recovery and rehabilitation of the victims.
Sharing details about the relief announced by the government, the Prime Minister said the government is disbursing Rs 37.2 billion as cash relief while a fund of Rs 5 billion has been given to NDMA to speed up rescue efforts.
Prime Minister Shahbaz Sharif said cash assistance of Rs 25,000 is being given to the flood victims. Similarly, the government will give a compensation of Rs 10 lakh to the families of the victims. Also will provide additional assistance to the injured and house damage.
The NDMA meeting chaired by the country’s Planning Minister Ahsan Iqbal was told that the floods have so far claimed 830 lives, injured at least 1,348 and left thousands homeless across the country.
During the meeting, the Planning Minister asked the government for Balochistan and Sindh, the two worst-hit provinces, to formally request the army for help in dealing with the catastrophic floods.
Addressing the meeting, Climate Change Minister Sherry Rehman called for immediate humanitarian and rescue efforts in the wake of the devastating floods. Because he admitted that Pakistan cannot handle the situation on its own.
“Right now we are in the seventh spell of heavy rains that have left thousands homeless, 830 dead and 1,348 injured,” he said. From Balochistan, the monsoon channels into Sindh where 30 districts are under water. Sindh received 395 percent and Balochistan 379 percent more than the average rainfall. From this quantity the degree of flood intensity is known.
The Pakistani senator compared the current disaster to the super flood of 2010. Pakistan suffered huge losses in that flood. At least 30 districts of Sindh, almost the whole of Balochistan and southern Punjab faced an unprecedented humanitarian disaster. People are leaving, livestock and crops are being damaged. This is a human disaster of unprecedented monsoon proportions.
Sherry Rehman added, the provincial and federal governments were unable to deal with the situation due to the severity of the disaster. It therefore called on international partners to mobilize support. Indus is under high flood risk with over 6 lakh cusecs of flow expected to cross Guddu and then Sukkur barrage on August 23 and 24. This will submerge all raw areas along the Indus and displace thousands of families.
While detailing the damage, the senator said that at least 216 people lost their lives, an estimated 1.5 lakh mud houses were damaged and crops cultivated on 19 lakh 89 thousand 868 acres of land in Sindh were completely destroyed.
(24 Aug)