Dr Abdul Wahid Soomro (MNA Pakistan Peoples Party)

KARACHI: Sindh Chief Minister Syed Qaim Ali Shah on Tuesday presided over a high-level meeting to reviewing the flood situation in the province and the relief measures taken by the government and its relief agencies. Salient features of a proposed flood impact recovery plan were also discussed. 

Adviser to the CM on Planning and Development Qaiser Bengali apprised the participants of the socio-economic impact of the unprecedented flood in the affected districts and also highlighted the proposed recovery plan. 

The chief minister told the meeting that people of Sindh were experiencing the worst-ever devastation by the floods that had caused huge losses to individual families and a big population. He stressed rehabilitation of infrastructure and the affected population on a fast track, adding that priorities would have to be set for the purpose. 

Later, speaking to Dawn Mr Bengali said that any recovery plan for disaster-hit land and population used to be stretched over five phases — rescue, relief, early recovery, rehabilitation and reconstruction — and added that in eight of the 19 affected districts, rescue and relief operations had already been completed. 

He said floodwater was still standing in the towns and villages of Thatta and Dadu district and the rescue and relief operations there were being carried out there at the moment. He said that under the new recovery plan, the second phase of early recovery would be launched in eight districts next week with the return of internally displaced persons to their native towns. 

He said fumigation would be carried out to protect people from diseases and epidemics. In the areas where floodwater had not yet receded, the government would install pumps to drain out the water. 

“This phase also includes provision of alternative residences to the IDP families living in school buildings and other temporary shelters,” he said adding that school buildings would have to be evacuated in order to save students academic year. 

The adviser said that this phase would be over in three to four months after which the plan would enter rehabilitation phase and then reconstruction phase. 

In these phases, he said, the government would reconstruct houses and ensure that each of the affected families got a house better than one they had lost to the floods. Budgets would be prepared and finances arranged for the purpose, he added. 

In reply to a question, Mr Bengali said that in the next three months, all IDPs would rehabilitated. 

Earlier, presenting a report about flood relief measures to the chief minister, the adviser said that according to estimates the damage in more than 40 towns and 7,500 villages of the eight districts (excluding Thatta and Dadu districts), was to the tune of Rs446.8 billion.

“This includes crop loss (Rs122.1 billion), livestock loss (Rs11.5 billion), irrigation system damage (Rs5.2 billion), road network loss (Rs37.5 billion), housing sector loss (Rs134.3 billion), damage to health units (Rs2.6 billion), schools damage (Rs26.9 billion) and municipal infrastructure loss (Rs10 billion),” he said. 

Mr Bengali said that the economic recovery plan envisaged agriculture marketing, grain and cold storages and modern agriculture markets to help rehabilitate the huge population, in addition to promoting agriculture-based products, value-added products, dairy products, fish processing, canning and the private sector-managed industrial estate in economically strategic locations. 

In the areas from where water had started receding now, 50 bulldozers had already been employed while 800 pumps were being installed in other areas, he said, adding that another 40 bulldozers or tractors were needed to start ground leveling work in the flood-affected towns. 

The adviser said that in the post-flood phase, the government would arrange for food, sanitary supplies, tent schools and health care services to flood survivors for at least three to six months. Besides, he said, the home returning population of 1.5 million would be provided dry food for at least a month. Interest-free loans or credit on soft terms would also be arranged for growers to help them resume farming activities, he said.
Sources