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                        <title>The Express Tribune</title>
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                        <description>The Express Tribune keeps you up to date with all the latest happenings from Pakistan and across the world!</description>
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			<title>Flood survivors’ fantasies come alive at the ‘model’ Nur Goth in Thatta</title>
			<link>https://tribune.com.pk/story/480228/flood-survivors%e2%80%99-fantasies-come-alive-at-the-%e2%80%98model%e2%80%99-nur-goth-in-thatta</link>
			<comments>https://tribune.com.pk/story/480228/flood-survivors%e2%80%99-fantasies-come-alive-at-the-%e2%80%98model%e2%80%99-nur-goth-in-thatta#comments</comments>
			<pubDate>Sun, 16 Dec 12 01:42:10 +0500</pubDate>
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				<![CDATA[sameer.mandhro]]>
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			<category><![CDATA[Sindh]]></category>
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				<![CDATA[It has been built by funds from PMA and Midland Doctors Association-UK.]]>
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				<![CDATA[“My relatives thought I was being deceived. They told me not to come here. My mother said the ‘doctors’ will take my kidneys and sell them off.”


To Manzoor Ali Khaskheli, whose hut in Badin was devoured by floodwater last year, the idea of being handed over his own two-bedroom house with a plush green lawn and even little gate sounded too good to be true. After all, he and his eight children had been living in his brother’s house for over two years. The tiny structure threatened to burst at its seams as the family waited for the government to swoop in. It never did.

“Nobody seemed to care. I lost my shelter and my livelihood. I almost lost hope,” he told The Express Tribune. But the knights in shining armour soon knocked on his door - the Midland Doctors Association UK (MDA-UK) and the Pakistan Medical Association (PMA) were building a model village, Nur Goth, in Thatta and the project’s members had come to Badin to do a survey on which families needed relief the most.

MDA-UK has been contributing to charitable works in Pakistan since the earthquake in 2005. It has spent Rs550 million on different projects since then.

After seeing the tiny house packed to the rafters, they offered Khaskheli one of the houses in the village and he promptly left, despite concerns that it was all a scam. When he got there, his eyes which were moist with tears at departure grew wide with disbelief.

The village before him consisted of 100 two-room houses made of red bricks. There would be a school, hospital, an education centre for adults, women’s vocational training centre, computer training centre and community centre. The village would be lit by solar-powered lamps. The Edhi Foundation said that it would run the hospital, The Citizens Foundation (TCF) would look after the school and the Rotary Club would run the vocational training centre.

On Saturday an inauguration ceremony was organised in which the keys to some houses were handed over to their beaming owners. The event was attended by doctors, social activists, and philanthropists from different parts of Pakistan, Washington, Tehran and the UK. Renowned philanthropist Abdul Sattar Edhi was the chief guest.

MDA-UK’s chairperson Dr Iftikhar Yousif said: “We have ensured that all basic facilities are provided to residents, including a filter plant and modern sewerage system.”

The village is named after a girl called Nur who recently passed away in the UK because of a heart ailment. Her UK-based parents played an important role in raising funds for the model village. Dr Nighat Shah was also instrumental in raising a hefty amount for the project.

Edhi spoke at the inaugaration, saying that “the nation has learnt to help but not politicians,” He said that such projects help people who have been forced to deal not only with the aftermath of a calamity but apathy as well.

Qurban Ali, another flood survivor, also became the proud owner of a house (number E-6) earlier this week. “I have four daughters and wanted to educate them. There are number of hurdles for girls’ education in our areas but these doctors will help my daughters to become like them.”

Ali Akbar Mallah, yet another flood survivor, said he had only two wishes in his life after the floods hit - a shelter and education for his three children. “The village has fulfilled both. It seems as if I am in a dream,” he said excitedly. He was forced to move three times in search of shelter, but it seems as if he will now be staying put.

PMA’s former president, Prof. Tipu Sultan, PMA’s current president, Dr Azhar Jadoon, PMA Karachi’s president Prof. Idrees Edhi also spoke on the occasions.

Published in The Express Tribune, December 16th, 2012. ]]>
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			<title>Post-flood report: In Sindh, flood survivors brace for the worst</title>
			<link>https://tribune.com.pk/story/479955/post-flood-report-in-sindh-flood-survivors-brace-for-the-worst</link>
			<comments>https://tribune.com.pk/story/479955/post-flood-report-in-sindh-flood-survivors-brace-for-the-worst#comments</comments>
			<pubDate>Fri, 14 Dec 12 21:03:56 +0500</pubDate>
			<dc:creator>
				<![CDATA[our.correspondent]]>
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			<category><![CDATA[Sindh]]></category>
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			<description>
				<![CDATA[Stagnant water, lack of food and outbreak of disease mean a disaster in the making.]]>
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				<![CDATA[In a flood relief camp in Kandhkot, Kareem Khatoon fears for the worst. Displaced three months ago by heavy monsoon downpours and subsequent flooding, the woman desperately needs drinking water and mosquito nets. “Can you please arrange them for us,” she asked a group of civil society representatives, who were in Jacobabad and Kashmor districts for a post-flood survey.

Khatoon’s brother-in-law recently lost his one-year-old daughter to malnutrition and she fears her own 14-month-old twin daughters may face the same fate if proper food is not provided to them.”Look around us, there’s nothing but stagnant water. It has made our lives miserable. I am desperately waiting for the day when my children and I can manage a good sleep,” she says.

The Peoples Accountability Commission on Floods (PACF) - a network of volunteers working for the flood-affected communities of Sindh - issued its latest report on Friday, revealing the plight of the people living in relief camps and negligence on the part of government.



The major problem was drinking water. Due to outbreak of malaria, diarrhoea and respiratory diseases, the flood survivors, especially the elderly, children and women, have drastically lost weight and look anaemic.

“Three months have lapsed but the flood-affected families are suffering mainly due to the politicisation of relief efforts in the districts,” the report stated. For the four flood-hit districts, the Sindh government had released Rs50 million each. “There was no transparency on how this amount was spent.  The flood survivors complained that the deserving were overlooked. The government officials were reluctant to share the details about the expenditures,” the survey determined.

In Jacobabad, six union councils of Garhi Khairo taluka are still unreachable. The district administration gave the excuse that tribal clashes and worsening law and order situation has made the area inaccessible. “A majority of the flood survivors were denied relief services due to a lack of political backing. Those who got the stuff were either affiliated with political parties or approached the district administration themselves. Even the tents were distributed through a “parchi” (chit) system,” the report alleged.

Around 80 per cent area in three union councils of Jacobabad are still under water. The floodwater has not yet receded despite claims of dewatering made by the district administration.

The majority of flood-affected communities lost their Kharif crops and are now unable to sow the Rabi crop due to submerged fields. “It looks we will even not be able to cultivate the upcoming Kharif crop,” the study quoted Rasool Bux Khoso, a farmer.

The government established the district review committees (DRCs) to redress the issues faced by flood survivors but as political activists were included as members, the committees failed to serve their original purpose, the report alleged. “In most areas, the committees, which are also supposed to monitor the instalments of Watan Cards are not functioning,” said Sikandar Brohi, the director of Participatory Development Initiatives.

In Kashmore, hundreds of villages in the Tangwani, Lashari, Cheel, Sohelyni, Gul Wali, Doulatpur, Kumb, Malheer, Gullanpur, Geehalpur and Kaiser Ali Khan Bilawal union councils are still partially inundated. The government had announced setting up mobile clinics but there was no sign of health services.

“Where shall we go? Our villages are submerged. I have lost two buffaloes, my house and a five-acre paddy crop,” said Muhammad Ismail Domki from Kashmore’s Tangwani town, complaining that the government was forcing them to evacuate the camps.

Published in The Express Tribune, December 15th, 2012.]]>
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			<title>Floods 2012: Three months on, victims await govt aid</title>
			<link>https://tribune.com.pk/story/474326/floods-2012-three-months-on-victims-await-govt-aid</link>
			<comments>https://tribune.com.pk/story/474326/floods-2012-three-months-on-victims-await-govt-aid#comments</comments>
			<pubDate>Mon, 03 Dec 12 07:20:22 +0500</pubDate>
			<dc:creator>
				<![CDATA[zahid.gishkori]]>
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			<category><![CDATA[Pakistan]]></category>
			<guid isPermaLink="false">https://tribune.com.pk/?p=474326</guid>
			<description>
				<![CDATA[Around 210,000 people still living in relief camps in Balochistan, Sindh.]]>
			</description>
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				<![CDATA[Three months on, most of the five million people affected by the monsoon floods this year are waiting for financial assistance from the government. Many of them lost family members, crops, homes and cattle.


The monsoon season’s devastating after-effects damaged crops over 1.2 million acres of farmland. Over 571 people lost their lives, and almost 3,000 were injured in flood-related incidents, according to the National Disaster Management Authority (NDMA). Over 210,000 people are still living in relief camps in Balochistan and Sindh.



The heavy rains also destroyed the canal system in the two provinces. Close to 0.7 million houses were damaged across the country, and over 12,000 cattle-heads perished. To handle rehabilitation efforts, 47,300 shelters were set up for 4.9 million flood victims who survived the natural disaster but lost everything else. Sindh was the worst-hit, where over 3.2 million people were affected by the rains.



Prime Minister Raja Pervaiz Ashraf had earlier announced around Rs4 billion for Sindh and Balochistan’s disaster management needs – but the provincial administrations complained that the amount was not adequate to compensate for the massive financial losses they suffered.

According to Federal Minister for Science and Technology Mir Changez Khan Jamali, over 70,000 people are still “living on the streets” in Jaffarabad and Nasirabad districts of Balochistan. Jamali, who is currently on a visit to these areas pointed out that flood victims are yet to receive financial assistance for rebuilding their houses. He expressed hope, however, that these issues would be addressed quickly and adequately.

Those residing in shelters are only a fraction of the 0.8 million people hit by the monsoon floods in Balochistan. Many have complained of the lack of financial assistance from the NDMA as well as the federal government.

Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP) MNA Gul Muhammad Jakhrani pointed out, meanwhile, that the rehabilitation process in Sindh, particularly in Jacobabad district, was particularly slow due to scarcity of funds. Almost 141,000 flood victims in Sindh are still living in relief camps. Most of these are in Jacobabad, Kashmore, Hyderabad, Badin and Thatta districts.



Jakhrani also stressed the need for chalking out a strategy for coping with natural disasters, particularly floods because “they hit Sindh hard every year.” He added that the provincial government should release more funds for flood relief efforts.

NDMA Chairman Dr Zafar Iqbal Qadir said that this year was the first time, despite several offers, that Pakistan did not accept any financial aid from international donors. “The NDMA spent funds worth Rs800 million in flood hit-areas,” he told The Express Tribune. The NDMA provided 255, 495 rations packs through the Utility Store Corporation. Qadir said the authority had proved this year that it is capable of dealing with disasters like floods. He did not, however, elaborate on his plans to deal with the consequences of such national disasters in the future.

Published in The Express Tribune, December 3rd, 2012.]]>
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			<title>Helping hand: Boom Boom Afridi pleases the crowd again</title>
			<link>https://tribune.com.pk/story/473390/helping-hand-boom-boom-afridi-pleases-the-crowd-again</link>
			<comments>https://tribune.com.pk/story/473390/helping-hand-boom-boom-afridi-pleases-the-crowd-again#comments</comments>
			<pubDate>Sat, 01 Dec 12 01:28:20 +0500</pubDate>
			<dc:creator>
				<![CDATA[press.release]]>
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			<category><![CDATA[Pakistan]]></category><category><![CDATA[Sindh]]></category>
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			<description>
				<![CDATA[He has helped raise money for flood survivors in Sindh.]]>
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				<![CDATA[International cricketer Shahid Afridi visited the field once again on Friday. But this field trip was different from those in which he entertains the crowd with his flamboyant batting style.

Basic Human Rights, an international NGO, had organised a visit for the superstar to flood-hit villages in Mirpurkhas and Badin, where it had been implementing its One Room Shelter project to help out victims of the natural calamity.

“I appreciate the project, which is helping most vulnerable families rebuild their homes. Last year I helped the NGO raise funds for this project and it was good to see the outcome of that effort through the field visit,” he said.

Part of the visit was also for him to discover the ground realities and the pressing needs that need to be addressed. Afridi mingled with the survivors and came across children suffering from waterborne diseases because of a lack of access to clean drinking water.

Published in The Express Tribune, December 1st, 2012.]]>
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			<title>Shahid Afridi champions flood victims</title>
			<link>https://tribune.com.pk/story/473240/shahid-afridi-champions-flood-victims</link>
			<comments>https://tribune.com.pk/story/473240/shahid-afridi-champions-flood-victims#comments</comments>
			<pubDate>Fri, 30 Nov 12 13:48:59 +0500</pubDate>
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				<![CDATA[afp]]>
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			<category><![CDATA[Pakistan]]></category>
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			<description>
				<![CDATA[All-rounder pledges his support for housing millions of homeless people.]]>
			</description>
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				<![CDATA[Pakistan all-rounder Shahid Afridi lent his support Friday to millions of people suffering from consecutive years of flooding, promising to continue to raise funds and awareness for their plight.

The 32-year-old former captain visited the Basic Human Rights (BHR) charity's one-room shelter projects in various villages in southern Pakistan and pledged his support for housing millions of homeless people.

"I am passionate about the relief work," Afridi told AFP on Friday.

Pakistan has suffered devastating floods in the past three years, including the worst in its history in 2010 when catastrophic inundations across the country killed almost 1,800 people and affected 21 million.

This year monsoon floods in Pakistan have killed 480 people and affected more than five million, mostly in the southern province of Sindh, according to the government.

"I appreciate this one-room shelter project, which is helping the most vulnerable families in rebuilding their homes. Last year I helped BHR raise funds for this project, it was good to see the outcome of that effort," said Afridi.

Earlier this month the United Nations called on donors to find $79 million to save millions of Pakistanis affected by monsoon floods and unrest in the northwest.

Afridi said he will continue to raise funds for flood victims.

"Wherever I play cricket, I try my level best to convince people to come forward and help," said Afridi, who also helped the 2005 earthquake victims in Pakistan.]]>
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			<title>Natural energy: Biogas plants aid recovery in flood-hit areas</title>
			<link>https://tribune.com.pk/story/470828/natural-energy-biogas-plants-aid-recovery-in-flood-hit-areas</link>
			<comments>https://tribune.com.pk/story/470828/natural-energy-biogas-plants-aid-recovery-in-flood-hit-areas#comments</comments>
			<pubDate>Sat, 24 Nov 12 20:55:13 +0500</pubDate>
			<dc:creator>
				<![CDATA[sonia.malik]]>
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			<category><![CDATA[Punjab]]></category>
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				<![CDATA[WWF-Pakistan and partners have built 2,200 plants in south Punjab, Sindh and KPK.]]>
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				<![CDATA[Rafia Bibi, 23, used to start her day by walking to the nearby market and purchasing a maund of firewood for Rs280, enough to take care of cooking and heating needs for her family of eight.


Her family lost their agricultural land, most of their livestock and even the family home when Abbaswala Bund broke during last year’s Indus floods. “We lost a lot and it took a year for us to recover, but in some ways we are better off now,” she says.

Rafia and her family are among 500 in Muzaffargarh selected for a flood recovery programme of the World Wide Fund for Nature (WWF)-Pakistan, whereby they were given a biogas plant. The plant, of a capacity of eight cubic metres, was set up by implementing partners in Kot Addu for Rs60,000. It requires 80kg of cattle dung daily, giving about seven hours of gas, equivalent to burning 23kg of firewood.

Rafia is glad she doesn’t have to use firewood anymore. “The wood gave off black smoke. It made me cough for as long as I was cooking. My hands, feet and face would all turn black. And I do not have to make discs of animal dung anymore. Before we had the plant, I used to spend two hours every morning collecting faeces from the fields and laying it out to dry so it could be used 4-5 days later,” she says.

Muhammad Saleem, a partner of the WWF-Pakistan, has installed almost 240 biogas plants in 35 flood-affected villages in Muzaffargarh district, 150 in DG Khan, 100 in Layyah and about 50 in Mianwali since July 2010. He says the design has proved a success and his foundation has been receiving more and more orders.

He says biogas plants can save families up to one third of their incomes. An average family earns Rs10,000 to Rs12,000 a month, and firewood alone costs about Rs4,000 a month.

Saleem said an eight cubic metre plant generates enough gas to run a 1 KVA generator for eight hours. He has also set up a 16 cubic metre plant and a 48 cubic metre plant for two families in Basti Jeevanwali, on the outskirts of Kot Addu.

The 16-cubic metre plant produces enough methane to run a tubewell for seven hours. Saleem says the saving on fuel alone comes to Rs70,000. The byproduct of the process can be used as a biodegradable fertiliser, reducing dependency on urea by 70 per cent. One can save up to Rs20,000 on fertiliser for seven acres of irrigated land, he said.

According to the WWF site coordinator in Muzaffargarh, Omer Waqas, plants were given to families affected by the floods and who had enough animals to provide the fuel faeces.

“Some relatively affluent people, those with more land and livestock, did benefit. But even the most affluent had nothing to eat during the first few months of flooding,” he said.

He said most of the plants were built for families with not more than four or five animals.

“We tried to install plants shared between several families, each owning one or two animal only, so they could share the fuel. But too many conflicts arose and forced us to stop,” he said

Each family had to plant 50 trees — mostly keekar, shisham and eucalyptus — to get a plant.

Khursheed Bibi, who is in her early 50s, said many women in her village, Basti Patal, suffered from cough due to the use of firewood as a fuel for cooking and warming homes during the winters. She says if the biogas technology spreads out to every home of the village, fatalities on account of lung diseases will reduce dramatically.

“For years, I woke up coughing early morning. It would worsen during the hours I cooked, or in the middle of the night. This technology was meant to benefit us financially, but it has also helped me breathe easy after years,” she said.

Rafia’s husband Khursheed said that they had planted eucalyptus trees as water table in Muzaffargarh district is very high. “Also it grows fast and is easier to chop off,” he said.

The biogas plants are being provided through a Global Poverty Assistance Fund (GPAF) programme being implemented by WWF-Pakistan in partnership with the Department For International Development (DFID) of UK.

As many as 2,200 biogas plants have been constructed in 13 districts throughout Pakistan under the flood recovery programme. In south Punjab, plants have been constructed in DG Khan, Rahim Yar Khan, Bahwalpur, Muzaffargarh and Rajanpur. In Sindh, at Thatta, Ghotki, Sukkur and Dadu, and in Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa, at Charsadda, Dera Ismail Khan, Nowshera and Swat. Some 250 biogas plants have been constructed in other parts of the country through other WWF-Pakistan projects.

Dr Ejaz Ahmad, who looks after biogas projects across the country for WWF-Pakistan, said biogas technology had been more successful in south Punjab and Sindh as the average ambient air temperature the year round remains suitable for bacteria germination.

Operating biogas plants in mountainous terrain has been more challenging, as the cold weather slows down the process by which the gas is derived. The WWF-Pakistan is currently experimenting with new designs in Nathiagalli and Skardu.

“I want these to spread to households in Gilgit-Baltistan, Kashmir and Khyber Pakhtunkhwa as these areas contain most of Pakistan’s four per cent forest cover. By shifting the technology north, we can discourage communities from cutting trees,” he says.

How a biogas plant works

The ground is dug to a depth of seven-and-a-half feet and lined with a cement concrete. Once dried, the lining is treated with a chemical to increase its longevity. The slurry is fed from one end and the gas, mostly methane, is collected in a dome three-and-a-half feet tall. The process waste, a biodegradable fertiliser, is shifted into another pit to make room for more slurry.

It takes about 20 days to build a biogas plant and about five days to get it started. Biogas plants can also be built with insulated fibre glass sheets and steel, but these materials are more expensive than concrete.

Published in The Express Tribune, November 25th, 2012.]]>
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			<title>‘Govt’s poor relief measures more devastating than natural disasters’</title>
			<link>https://tribune.com.pk/story/470360/%e2%80%98govt%e2%80%99s-poor-relief-measures-more-devastating-than-natural-disasters%e2%80%99</link>
			<comments>https://tribune.com.pk/story/470360/%e2%80%98govt%e2%80%99s-poor-relief-measures-more-devastating-than-natural-disasters%e2%80%99#comments</comments>
			<pubDate>Sat, 24 Nov 12 00:35:55 +0500</pubDate>
			<dc:creator>
				<![CDATA[our.correspondent]]>
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			<category><![CDATA[Sindh]]></category>
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				<![CDATA[Attitude of feudal lords disappoints participants of meeting]]>
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			<content:encoded>
				<![CDATA[The government’s poor decision making and the measures taken by feudal lords to protect their own lands proved more devastating than the actual floods.

These views were shared by the participants of a meeting organised by the Peoples Accountability Commission on ‘Post Flood Issues’, in collaboration with Participatory Development Initiatives and Oxfam Novib on Thursday. Representatives of NGOs, human rights activists, journalists and intellectuals discussed the various issues and challenges faced by flood-affected people in various parts of Sindh and Balochistan.

“Sindh suffers not from natural calamities, but from manmade disasters and that has caused the people to suffer,” said Punhial Saryo of the Sindh Harri Sangat. He added that the current government did not take any responsibility for the negligence shown by its policy makers and many flood victims have still not been properly rehabilitated.

“The objective of ‘certain’ decision makers was to cut Tori Bund in order to save their own properties, while the flow of the flood water could be diverted towards the desert area,” he said, adding that during the recent rains, an influential minister from Shahdadkot made artificial cuts and routes to save his land and created protection embankments that caused devastation in Sindh.



“People suffered because of blockades made on natural water courses by influential people and no viable policy by the Sindh government was there to eliminate them,” said a human rights activist Ashothama. He added that it was the responsibility of the state to protect the lives and property of those affected by the floods, but there were gaps in the policies and their implementation. “There is an urgent need of lobbying among lawmakers and government officials so that they can implement laws in letter and spirit to save the lives of the people.”

Commenting on the conditions of those who were lucky enough to live in refugee camps, advocate Sobia Talpur said that poor vulnerable women in these camps have become subject to sexual harassment. These crimes have been reported to the government but it has failed to take any action to protect them.

Prof. Ismail Kumbhar from the Tando Jam Agriculture University said that the majority of the rural population in the province depended on agriculture, but has suffered because of the floods. “Only influential feudal lords have benefited from announced agriculture packages whereas small and middle land owners are deprived of them,” said Kumbhar. He added that ‘bigwigs’ in Badin distributed buffaloes among their coteries but not to those flood affected people, which proved how inhumane and selfish they really are.

Published in The Express Tribune, November 24th, 2012.

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			<title>UN needs $79m for flood victims as winter approaches</title>
			<link>https://tribune.com.pk/story/468148/un-needs-79m-for-flood-victims-as-winter-approaches</link>
			<comments>https://tribune.com.pk/story/468148/un-needs-79m-for-flood-victims-as-winter-approaches#comments</comments>
			<pubDate>Mon, 19 Nov 12 16:44:25 +0500</pubDate>
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				<![CDATA[afp]]>
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			<category><![CDATA[Pakistan]]></category>
			<guid isPermaLink="false">https://tribune.com.pk/?p=468148</guid>
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				<![CDATA[Hundreds of thousands still in need of food and shelter; over one million people still need health care, water.]]>
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				<![CDATA[The United Nations needs $79 million from donors urgently to save millions of Pakistanis affected by monsoon floods and unrest in the northwest, an official said on Monday.

Pakistan has suffered devastating floods in the past two years, including the worst in its history in 2010 when catastrophic inundations across the country killed almost 1,800 people and affected 21 million.

This year monsoon floods in Pakistan have killed 480 people and affected more than five million, according to the government's disaster relief agency.

"There is a funding shortage - as is most often the case in protracted crisis - $79 million dollars are urgently required to meet immediate needs," Assistant Secretary General for Humanitarian Affairs Catherine Bragg said.

"Winter is coming, making the need even more urgent," she told reporters after a visit to affected areas.

"Hundreds of thousands are still in need of food and shelter - and over one million people are estimated to still be in need (of) health care, water and sanitation services and agricultural inputs," Bragg said.

The UN has estimated a total of $169 million dollars is required including the $79 million for emergency relief, she said. So far it has received only $52 million in pledges.

"We look to donors for their generosity."

As in the previous two years, most of those hit by the latest floods were in southern Sindh province, where the National Disaster Management Authority (NDMA) said more than three million have been affected, with 887,345 in Punjab and nearly a million in Balochistan province.

More than 159,023 people around the country have sought shelter in relief camps since early September, though this figure is down from the 290,000 reported by NDMA earlier.

The data published by NDMA last week said more than 1.1 million acres (450,000 hectares) of crops were affected by the floods.

In addition to those who have fled natural disasters, nearly half a million Pakistanis are estimated to have escaped fighting between soldiers and militia on the Afghan border this year and taken shelter at Jalozai camp, near the northwestern city of Peshawar.]]>
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			<title>Sympathy for Sandy among Pakistan's forgotten flood victims</title>
			<link>https://tribune.com.pk/story/464114/sympathy-for-sandy-among-pakistans-forgotten-flood-victims</link>
			<comments>https://tribune.com.pk/story/464114/sympathy-for-sandy-among-pakistans-forgotten-flood-victims#comments</comments>
			<pubDate>Sun, 11 Nov 12 14:29:26 +0500</pubDate>
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			<category><![CDATA[Pakistan]]></category><category><![CDATA[World]]></category>
			<guid isPermaLink="false">https://tribune.com.pk/?p=464114</guid>
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				<![CDATA[&quot;It is really amazing to see Americans helping us here despite having a much worse storm in their own country.&quot;]]>
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				<![CDATA[While the United States recovers from superstorm Sandy, away from the glare of the international media, five million Pakistanis are struggling to get by in the country's third successive year of massive floods.

Two years after the worst floods in Pakistan's history captured the world's attention, this summer's monsoon rains once again inundated huge areas of the Indus Valley, with rural parts of Sindh province the worst hit.

At the floods' peak in September, more than quarter of a million were in relief camps across the country. Many have now gone home, but in Sindh, 160,000 remain homeless.

Abdur Razzaq Mirali is among them. As hundreds of thousands of Americans wait for their electricity to come back on after Sandy, 55-year-old Mirali's ambitions are rather more modest.

"Look, this is my house," he told AFP, pointing to a small mudbrick building half-submerged in filthy brown water.

"I am waiting here for the water to recede so we can start our normal life again."

Mirali and his family have waited two months so far and still their village -- also called Mirali -- swims knee-deep in foul-smelling water polluted with human and animal waste, where snakes dart around.

The 80 families of the tiny hamlet in Sindh's Jacobabad district, around 500 kilometres (300 miles) north of the metropolis of Karachi, shelter in makeshift shacks on a patch of higher ground overlooking their waterlogged homes and fields.

The world has paid scant attention to Pakistan's flood victims this year. No blanket media coverage, no benefit concerts by pop stars, just foreign aid organisations doing their best on the ground with limited resources.

But among Mirali's flood victims there is no resentment of the global attention lavished on America's eastern seaboard, only gratitude for US help and a feeling of solidarity not always present in a country where anti-American feeling often runs high.

"We should not be jealous of them. They are very generous people who have always helped us. They deserve the attention now when they are in duress," said farmer Ghulam Ali, 26.

"What we just want is to be helped to restore our normal life."

In this remote rural area, foreigners are a rare sight and so all white aid workers are regarded as "Americans".

"It is really amazing to see these Americans are helping us here despite having a much worse storm in their own country," said Hashim Mugheri, dressed in a worn-out shirt and loincloth and sporting a grey walrus moustache.

"The Americans are helping us here and some of our people are still abusing and hating them," he said.

Pakistan's National Disaster Management Authority says five million people have been affected by this year's floods, three million of them in Sindh, and more than 1.1 million acres (450,000 hectares) of crops destroyed.

With so much farmland under water, there are fears for food supplies. The World Food Programme (WFP) is working to supply 1.2 million people with rations for and hopes to extend the scheme for 700,000 of the most vulnerable for a further two months.

"This three-month intervention will ensure continued unconditional food support as lands are inundated and crop planting remains unlikely in many areas," said Nicole Carn, WFP Emergency Response Coordinator in the region.

"While floodwater is slowly receding in many areas, food insecurity remains a major concern in the affected areas."

The NDMA says it has handed out more than 230,000 37-kg ration packs with rice, flour, lentils and other essentials -- more than 50,000 of them in Jacobabad district.

But food problems look set to continue. The floods mean the "rabi" crop -- planted in the winter for a spring harvest -- will be disrupted, threatening supplies next year.

NGOs are warning that more help is needed, and quickly, and Wahab Pandhrani, who heads local aid group Pirbhat said Islamabad had let its people down by not appealing for foreign assistance.

"The government committed a huge blunder by taking the disaster too lightly," Pandhrani said.

"There is still time to launch an appeal for international help as we could face a huge problem in food security and malnutrition shortly."

Stacey Winston of the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (UNOCHA) said nearly $170 million was needed to support families for up to six months with food, water, shelter and other necessities, particularly with winter approaching.]]>
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			<title>Over Rs71bn disbursed among flood victims since 2010: NADRA</title>
			<link>https://tribune.com.pk/story/459329/over-rs71bn-disbursed-among-flood-victims-since-2010-nadra</link>
			<comments>https://tribune.com.pk/story/459329/over-rs71bn-disbursed-among-flood-victims-since-2010-nadra#comments</comments>
			<pubDate>Thu, 01 Nov 12 15:05:14 +0500</pubDate>
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			<category><![CDATA[Pakistan]]></category>
			<guid isPermaLink="false">https://tribune.com.pk/?p=459329</guid>
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				<![CDATA[A spokesperson said that NADRA has disbursed Rs 37.12 billion to 950,523 beneficiaries in the second phase.]]>
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				<![CDATA[The government will give Rs40,000 in two tranches to victims of the 2010 floods by National Database and Registration Authority (NADRA), a spokesperson said in a statement on Thursday.

The spokesperson said that NADRA has disbursed Rs37.12 billion to 950,523 beneficiaries in the second phase. The disbursement included Rs362 million for Azad Kashmir, Rs150 million for Gilgit-Baltistan, Rs11 billion for Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa, Rs13.56 billion for Punjab, over Rs11.54 billion for Sindh and Rs476 million for Balochistan.

NADRA has resolved 377,526 appeals through Grievance Redressal System for Citizen Damage Compensation Programme (CDCP) in Phase-II. The body has so far disbursed over Rs71 billion to flood victims in both phases.

The first phase of Watan cards was launched in September 2010, whereby the government distributed an initial tranche of Rs20,000 among 1.75 million affected families in order to provide immediate relief.

The programme worth US $580 million has been part of a collaboration between the government of Pakistan and international donor agencies such as World Bank and USAID.]]>
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			<title>Floods 2012: Ministers try to brighten up Eid for survivors of natural disaster</title>
			<link>https://tribune.com.pk/story/458004/floods-2012-ministers-try-to-brighten-up-eid-for-survivors-of-natural-disaster</link>
			<comments>https://tribune.com.pk/story/458004/floods-2012-ministers-try-to-brighten-up-eid-for-survivors-of-natural-disaster#comments</comments>
			<pubDate>Tue, 30 Oct 12 00:06:34 +0500</pubDate>
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				<![CDATA[our.correspondent]]>
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			<category><![CDATA[Sindh]]></category>
			<guid isPermaLink="false">https://tribune.com.pk/?p=458004</guid>
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				<![CDATA[A large mela was organised near the Jacobabad bypass where rides for children were set up.]]>
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				<![CDATA[Chief Minister Qaim Ali Shah decided to celebrate Eidul Azha a little differently this year: flanked by other ministers, he headed out to rain-hit areas, trying to add a hint of happiness to the lives of the people who had been devastated by the floods.

The itinerary included Jacobabad, Kashmore, Qamber-Shahdadkot and Larkana. On the first day of Eid, the chief minister and provincial ministers Ayaz Soomro and Agha Siraj Durrani visited Garhi Khuda Bukhsh. While talking to the media, the chief minister said that the law and order situation in Karachi was indeed worrisome, but nothing like the media’s depiction of it. He tried to put things into perspective and said that five or six daily killings in a city with more than 20 million people was a fairly low rate.

Later, he reportedly gave away cheques amounting to Rs300,000 each to three families which lost their members to the natural calamity. The chief minister also attended an event that the provincial government organised at Ratodero for around 10,000 people.

Haleem Adil Shaikh, the adviser to the chief minister on relief, told The Express Tribune that the occasion would be a perfect opportunity to talk to the victims of the calamity. “MNA Aijaz Jakhrani and senator Ajiz Dhamra were also present.” Cooked food was distributed among 50,000 people in different flood-hit areas. Shaikh said that in the main event organised at Jacobabad bypass, food was distributed to more than 3,000 people. As a part of the event, famous folk singers took the stage and tried to make the crowd forget about the devastation the rains had wrought. Rides were set up for children for the same purpose. Toys were distributed to children living in relief camps set up at City College and Eid Gah as well as those next to Ahmed Mian Canal and Jan Jacob Graveyard.

The Sindh government reportedly provided 30 sacrificial animals for 15 union councils of Kashmore. Food and toys were also distributed among 5,000 people in Thull, Mirpur Buriro, Mubarak Pur and Misri Pur.

Published in The Express Tribune, October 30th, 2012.

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			<title>Floods 2012: Unhappy relief dept official blames NGOs for not pulling their weight</title>
			<link>https://tribune.com.pk/story/457480/floods-2012-unhappy-relief-dept-official-blames-ngos-for-not-pulling-their-weight</link>
			<comments>https://tribune.com.pk/story/457480/floods-2012-unhappy-relief-dept-official-blames-ngos-for-not-pulling-their-weight#comments</comments>
			<pubDate>Sat, 27 Oct 12 01:33:58 +0500</pubDate>
			<dc:creator>
				<![CDATA[our.correspondent]]>
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			<category><![CDATA[Sindh]]></category>
			<guid isPermaLink="false">https://tribune.com.pk/?p=457480</guid>
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				<![CDATA[Haleem Adil Sheikh says NGOs, political parties are nowhere to be seen this year.]]>
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				<![CDATA[The government’s point man for handling relief operations in the wake of natural disasters, Haleem Adil Shaikh, has blamed local as well as international nongovernment agencies for what he called a lackluster response to the heavy rains in upper Sindh this September.

On Thursday, adviser Sheikh appealed to the nation to come forward and help the flood survivors. “We won’t appeal to international donors and NGOs. They are well aware of the situation but don’t work in the fields when we need them,” said a rather upset Sheikh, who was speaking at a press conference at the Karachi Press Club.

The government is trying is best to deal with the situation, but the political parties and NGOs that helped us deal with floods in 2010 and 2011 are absent this year, added Shaikh. The Sindh government is also helping around 2,500 internally displaced persons (IDPs) from Punjab and many more from Balochistan.

Six districts of upper Sindh - Jacobabad, Kashmore-Kandhkot, Shikarpur, Ghotki, Sukkur and Khairpur - were hit by torrential rains that started in August and continued till September. The situation has been brought under control in Shikarpur and Sukkur, but Khairpur and Jacobabad continue to be in need of a serious relief operation. “People have lost almost all of their valuables and are in a state of trauma. We have to share their pain,” pleaded Shaikh. There are 50,000 IDPs in Jacobabad, Kandhokot and Larkana, and the relief department plans to celebrate Eidul Azha with them.

Apart from the rains, excess water flowing from Balochistan as well as man-made breaches in embankments were responsible for causing flooding of these areas, claimed the adviser.

He requested Chief Minister Qaim Ali Shah to declare two union councils of Dadu district, Faridabad and Madho, calamity-hit.

Shaikh added that the government was also trying its best to help farmers whose agricultural fields had been swept away by the floods.

Published in The Express Tribune, October 27th, 2012.]]>
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			<title>Floods: Water drained from 70% flood affected areas, says CM advisor</title>
			<link>https://tribune.com.pk/story/456839/floods-water-drained-from-70-flood-affected-areas-says-cm-advisor</link>
			<comments>https://tribune.com.pk/story/456839/floods-water-drained-from-70-flood-affected-areas-says-cm-advisor#comments</comments>
			<pubDate>Thu, 25 Oct 12 16:24:44 +0500</pubDate>
			<dc:creator>
				<![CDATA[ppi]]>
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			<category><![CDATA[Pakistan]]></category>
			<guid isPermaLink="false">https://tribune.com.pk/?p=456839</guid>
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				<![CDATA[Advisor to Sindh CM for Relief unhappy with NGOs, philanthropists for not playing their role as UN seeks more funds.]]>
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				<![CDATA[Advisor to Sindh Chief Minister for Relief Haleem Adil Sheikh has regretted that citizens and philanthropists have not played their due role in providing relief to the flood-hit people, saying that the government has served the flood-hit people but citizens have not shown an encouraging response.

Addressing a press conference at Karachi Press Club on Thursday, Sheikh said that flood caused by recent heavy monsoon rains affected five districts of Sindh; however, now rainwater has been drained out from 70 per cent area and only 30 per cent area is still under flood water.

He seemed unhappy with non-governmental organisations (NGOs) which according to him waited for government’s appeal to them instead of launching relief programs on their own.

Pakistan’s recent torrential floods, triggered by heavy monsoon rains in different parts of the country, killed at least 412 people and injured 1,172 others besides affecting over 8.2 million more.

The United Nations International Children’s Emergency Fund (Unicef) revealed that 2.7 million children are among the affected flood victims and have been facing many challenges.

Funds needed for over one million flood victims

Over one million people in flood-affected areas of Pakistan are in urgent need of food and safe drinking water, the United Nations said Thursday as it called for funds to meet the situation.

"More funds are required to meet the critical needs in the areas affected by floods," UN spokesperson Martin Nesirky told the regular noon briefing.

Among them, the World Food Programme requires $25 million to continue and to extend food distributions to 700,000 people for two months, he said, citing the assessments by the Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA).

The United Nations Central Emergency Response Fund (CERF), the spokesman said, had allocated nearly $10 million for water, food, shelter and healthcare to 1.3 million people in the seven hardest-hit districts of Balochistan, Punjab and Sindh.

In 2010, Pakistan was hit by the worst floods in the last 80 years of history of the region. More than 2,000 people were killed, while estimates by international institutions said that the damage to infrastructure could be around $15 billion. The floods left 20 million survivors homeless and destroyed crops at over more than 7.9 million acres besides leaving 200,000 livestock dead.]]>
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			<title>Early winter poses further challenge for flood victims</title>
			<link>https://tribune.com.pk/story/456351/early-winter-poses-further-challenge-for-flood-victims</link>
			<comments>https://tribune.com.pk/story/456351/early-winter-poses-further-challenge-for-flood-victims#comments</comments>
			<pubDate>Wed, 24 Oct 12 17:23:33 +0500</pubDate>
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			<category><![CDATA[Pakistan]]></category>
			<guid isPermaLink="false">https://tribune.com.pk/?p=456351</guid>
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				<![CDATA[Pakistan Red Crescent Society has decided to continue relief efforts in flood-hit areas during Eid holidays.]]>
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				<![CDATA[The Pakistan Red Crescent Society (PRCS) on Wednesday, warned against the early onset of winter, adding that the cold will pose fresh challenges for flood victims.

Speaking to the media after visiting flood-hit areas of Sindh, PRCS announced that the challenges in rehabilitating the victims persist, despite various efforts made by local and international agencies.

"Weather and issues like sanitation have placed tens of thousands of people, including women and children, at risk from disease in relief camps," said Chairman PRCS Major General (Retd.) Chaudhry Muhammad Nawaz Khan.

Khan said that he was worried about the expected rise in water-borne and mosquito-borne diseases, with children being the most vulnerable.

He said that vast areas of land are still submerged in Sindh, Balochistan and Punjab, where relief efforts are yet to be initiated.

“If issues are not tackled in a quick and effective manner, it could lead to multiple problems,” he said.

Chairman PRCS said that the organisation has decided to continue relief efforts even during Eid holidays and has therefore cancelled leaves of field staff.

Khan said that the PRCS has arranged eight water filtration plants providing 150,000 litres of clean drinking water to the needy.

Moreover, construction of 6000 shelters and 1000 toilets is under way in Sindh while 20 mobile health units are currently providing medical services.

"We will do our level best to prevent further loss of human life, however, humanitarian assistance remains low. Stocks of some relief items has also depleted,” he lamented.

Stressing the need for more coordinated efforts, Khan said that the nation needs to urgently reorient its efforts to avoid deaths among children and adults during the cold.]]>
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			<title>Unless the flood tax is collected, Sindh’s rehabilitation might ebb away</title>
			<link>https://tribune.com.pk/story/453560/unless-the-flood-tax-is-collected-sindh%e2%80%99s-rehabilitation-might-ebb-away</link>
			<comments>https://tribune.com.pk/story/453560/unless-the-flood-tax-is-collected-sindh%e2%80%99s-rehabilitation-might-ebb-away#comments</comments>
			<pubDate>Fri, 19 Oct 12 00:13:16 +0500</pubDate>
			<dc:creator>
				<![CDATA[Hafeez Tunio]]>
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			<category><![CDATA[Sindh]]></category>
			<guid isPermaLink="false">https://tribune.com.pk/?p=453560</guid>
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				<![CDATA[Most district officers ignored the president’s orders to collect the 15% levy on payable income tax last year.]]>
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				<![CDATA[The bubble of the much-talked about “flood surcharge” burst as quickly as it came up. An auditor general report for the fiscal year 2011-12 reveals that most officials in Sindh either did not bother to deduct the one-time levy or misappropriated the amount they collected.


After two consecutive years of flooding in Sindh, the president decided that a flood surcharge would be levied. This was given legal cover through an ordinance on March 15, 2011. It came to 15% on payable income tax to be deposited with the federal treasury. The money was supposed to be spent on helping floor survivors get back on their feet.

This work was supposed to be done from March 15 to June 30 last year. However, most bureaucrats and district officials either ignored the task altogether or took the money.

The worst cases emerged from Tharparkar where roads and buildings district officers paid Rs119 million and Rs87 million to suppliers, but failed to deduct the flood surcharge worth Rs1.86 million from the bills.

In Naushero Feroze, buildings and education works officers spent Rs18 million during the year 2010-11. While the income tax was collected from the suppliers, the 15% surcharge amounting to Rs166,430 was not deducted, according to the audit report. The district management did not respond to questioning.

In Tando Muhammad Khan, the roads, works and buildings officers did not deduct Rs645,920 as the flood surcharge. When asked why not, the buildings officer told auditors that the tax would be collected from next year.

Roads officials blamed the timing of the ordinance on their failure to collect the money. The works department claimed it had deposited the money but there were no receipts to prove this.

In Sukkur, officials responsible for education, works and services and road spent Rs38 million and deducted Rs2.3 million in income tax from contractors and suppliers. But they failed to collect the Rs0.3 million flood tax on the same amount.

The district education officer did not even collect Rs90,000 in professional taxes from the contractors during the 2010-11 fiscal year. While officials claimed to have received the amount, they could not submit any papers to prove it, despite repeated reminders from the auditors.

It was much the same in Dadu, where road officials showed Rs3.2 million as collected in income taxes from some contractors. When asked by the auditors about the flood surcharge (Rs0.49 million), their reply was: “The amount would be recovered.”

The situation in Matiari was even worse. The officials not only avoided collecting the flood surcharge (Rs352,973) from income tax payers, they even did not collect Rs575,419 in income taxes.

During 2010-11, the district administration paid around Rs11.6 million to contractors and suppliers from whom income tax was not recovered. Similarly, the Matiari DCO spent Rs1.425 million but withholding sales tax amounting to Rs210,744 was not collected from suppliers.

In Badin, the DCO and the Civil hospital medical superintendent paid Rs10.3 million to various suppliers but the income tax amount of Rs330,362 was not collected. The audit team held the district officials responsible for the failure to collect government revenues.

Published in The Express Tribune, October 19th, 2012.]]>
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			<title>Help needed: Angry relief adviser tries to wake people up to Sindh’s flooding this year</title>
			<link>https://tribune.com.pk/story/453092/help-needed-angry-relief-adviser-tries-to-wake-people-up-to-sindh%e2%80%99s-flooding-this-year</link>
			<comments>https://tribune.com.pk/story/453092/help-needed-angry-relief-adviser-tries-to-wake-people-up-to-sindh%e2%80%99s-flooding-this-year#comments</comments>
			<pubDate>Thu, 18 Oct 12 01:30:12 +0500</pubDate>
			<dc:creator>
				<![CDATA[our.correspondent]]>
			</dc:creator>
			<category><![CDATA[Sindh]]></category>
			<guid isPermaLink="false">https://tribune.com.pk/?p=453092</guid>
			<description>
				<![CDATA[The response from the federal government has been weak, says Haleem Adil Shaikh]]>
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				<![CDATA[An angry Haleem Adil Shaikh, who is the chief minister’s adviser on relief work, held a press conference on Wednesday to speak against the federal government and especially the National Disaster Management Authority. More than 250 lives have been lost in the flooding in Sindh but they did not do their bit, he said.

More than three million people have been affected and rain-water is still standing over one million acres of agricultural land in almost seven districts (Jacobabad, Larkana, Khairpur Mirs, Qambar-Shahdadkot, Kashmore-Kandhkot, Ghotki and Sukkur). “It will take around three to four months for it to recede,” he said, which is why out of the total number of affected people around 2.6 million people are still living in camps. Referring to an initial survey conducted by his department, he said that a total 11,000 villages were hit by the recent rains, which destroyed 0.3 million houses and washed away cash crops standing over 250,000 acres of land. More than 260,000 houses have been damaged completely and 161,000 houses were partially affected.

Shaikh was equally unhappy with the health department as disease is spreading in the camps where there is an absence of medical teams.

Billions of rupees of the Kharif crops of rice (paddy), cotton, banana, chillies were destroyed in 10 districts.

Shaikh showed a map of areas where water is still standing on agriculture land because of rainwater that rushed down from the hilly areas of Balochistan towards Sindh. Balochistan’s water has affected two major union councils of Qambar-Shahdadkot district - Gaibi Dero and Bago Dero. The water is traveling towards Dadu district and will be drained in Hamal lake, Manchhar lake and through the FP Bund and main Nara valley drain.

Through deputy commissioners, the Sindh government spent 353 million rupees on rescue, relief. Shaikh claimed it distributed more than 75,000 tents, small carpets, mosquito nets, unlimited ration bags among the survivors.

To a question, he said that despite a promise of 25,000 tents, the NDMA distributed only 5,000.

Sites for small dams

Kohistan, Nagarparkar and Ubhan Shah hill areas are the main sites in Sindh for potential small dams, weirs and bunds to save the runoff rainwater.

A presentation on these developments was given by the Small Dams Organisation to the chief minister and the irrigation department on Wednesday. The organization had undertaken seven feasibility studies, out of which four are ready. Additionally, the annual development programme money helped rehabilitate by June 2011 the weirs and bunds in Nagarparkar and at Lakhhay jo Wandio.

This was the first meeting since irrigation minister Jam Saifullah Dharejo was sacked and the chief minister took control. He said he was not happy with the work done on protective bunds from Guddu to Thatta.

The meeting at Chief Minister House on Wednesday was attended by secretary Babar Effendi, Sindh Irrigation &amp; Drainage Authority MD Ahsan Leghari, secretary Agha Jan Akhtar and the chief and superintending engineers from across the department.

Growers and elected representatives have complained of corruption in the irrigation department, said the CM.

Secretary Effendi gave a briefing on flooding in six districts where 21,627 square kilometres have been hit. About 49 pumps have been installed to get rid of the water.

Crops destroyed over 

599,44 acres in Kambar

355,056 acres in Khairpur Mirs

285,487 acres in Ghotki

178,253 acres in Jacobabad

132,650 acres in Kashmore

22,900 acres in Sanghar

8,550 acres in Larkana

5,048 acres in Umerkot

3,750 acres in Hyderabad

212 acres in Dadu

Villages flooded

3,268 in Ghotki

2,765 in Shikarpur

1,827 in Kashmore-Kandhkot

1,747 in Kambar-Shahdadkot

448 in Khairpur Mirs

205 in Larkana

93 in Umerkot

57 in Hyderabad

44 in Benazirabad

39 in Sanghar

19 in Dadu

Published in The Express Tribune, October 18th, 2012.]]>
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				    <img src="https://i.tribune.com.pk/media/images/453092-FloodPHOTOFILE-1350496621/453092-FloodPHOTOFILE-1350496621.jpg" class="featured_image"/>
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			<title>Floods in Pakistan kill 455, affect 5 million</title>
			<link>https://tribune.com.pk/story/452746/floods-in-pakistan-kill-455-affect-5-million</link>
			<comments>https://tribune.com.pk/story/452746/floods-in-pakistan-kill-455-affect-5-million#comments</comments>
			<pubDate>Wed, 17 Oct 12 08:46:41 +0500</pubDate>
			<dc:creator>
				<![CDATA[afp]]>
			</dc:creator>
			<category><![CDATA[Pakistan]]></category>
			<guid isPermaLink="false">https://tribune.com.pk/?p=452746</guid>
			<description>
				<![CDATA[More than 3 million affected in Sindh, 890,000 in Punjab and nearly a million in Balochistan.]]>
			</description>
			<content:encoded>
				<![CDATA[Monsoon floods in Pakistan have killed 455 people over the past five weeks and affected more than five million, according to the latest figures from the government's disaster relief agency.

Pakistan suffered devastating floods in the past two years, including the worst in its history in 2010 when catastrophic inundations across the country killed almost 1,800 people and affected 21 million.

As in the previous two years, most of those hit by the latest floods were in Sindh province, where the National Disaster Management Authority (NDMA) said more than three million have been affected, with 890,000 in Punjab and nearly a million in Balochistan.

More than 260,000 people around the country have sought shelter in relief camps since early September, though this figure is down from the 290,000 reported by NDMA two and a half weeks ago.

The data published by NDMA on Monday said more than 1.1 million acres (450,000 hectares) of crops were affected by the floods.]]>
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			<image>
				    <img src="https://i.tribune.com.pk/media/images/452746-PakistanfloodsBadinAFP-1350463498/452746-PakistanfloodsBadinAFP-1350463498.jpg" class="featured_image"/>
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			</item><item>
			<title>Balochistan’s flood-induced misery on Senate’s radar</title>
			<link>https://tribune.com.pk/story/452601/balochistan%e2%80%99s-flood-induced-misery-on-senate%e2%80%99s-radar</link>
			<comments>https://tribune.com.pk/story/452601/balochistan%e2%80%99s-flood-induced-misery-on-senate%e2%80%99s-radar#comments</comments>
			<pubDate>Wed, 17 Oct 12 06:46:08 +0500</pubDate>
			<dc:creator>
				<![CDATA[zahid.gishkori]]>
			</dc:creator>
			<category><![CDATA[Pakistan]]></category><category><![CDATA[Balochistan]]></category>
			<guid isPermaLink="false">https://tribune.com.pk/?p=452601</guid>
			<description>
				<![CDATA[Upper house mulls mechanisms to expedite relief efforts for the victims.]]>
			</description>
			<content:encoded>
				<![CDATA[Seemingly opting for a ‘later than sooner’ approach, Senators on Tuesday finally decided to take up the debate regarding the millions left marooned by the floods in Balochistan – some seven weeks after flash floods wreaked havoc in the province.


The crux of the debate in the upper house was to ascertain a mechanism “to expedite relief efforts for the flood victims” in Balochistan. Lawmakers also demanded the formation of a ‘powerful committee’ to take up the issue on an immediate basis.

Around 250,000 people are living on roads in Jaffarabad, Nasirabad and Jhal Magsi, Senator Mir Hasil Bizenjo of National Party informed the house. “They [flood victims] are living like animals — not as human beings,” said Bizenjo, who recently visited the flood-hit areas of the province.

Earlier, Senate Deputy Chairman Sabir Ali Baloch suspended the whole business to kick off the debate on an adjournment motion moved by Leader of Opposition Senator Ishaq Dar to discuss flood-related issues of Balochistan. Bizenjo called for immediate assistance of the United Nations and other international donor agencies to avert the humanitarian crisis in the making in these regions.

“If you [the government] don’t call for the UN and other international donors for help, you will lose 50,000 people (due to hunger),” he warned.

Suddenly, the temperature of the Senate proceedings rose when Senator Rubina Irfan, also from Balochistan, said: “I [reject] the relief package for flood victims… It’s nothing but a photo session.”

Senator M Hamza of the Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) demanded the formation of a committee for raising funds for the natural disasters’ victims while Senator Ghulam Ali of Jamiat Ulema-e-Islam-Fazl (JUI-F) offered subsidised food items for the flood-stricken people.

Senator Kalsoom Parveen of the Balochistan National Party (BNP) informed the House that waterborne diseases were causing several deaths in the flood-affected areas. She urged the government to ensure health facilities in local health care centres as an immediate remedy. The house will continue the debate on floods in Balochistan today (Wednesday) and the Senate chairman is most likely to pass a ruling to form a committee to tackle the issue.

Question and answer session

The Senate witnessed two back-to-back walkouts due to the absence of relevant ministers during the questions and answers session.

The PML-N and Muttahida Qaumi Movement (MQM) staged a walkout as their written queries remained unanswered during the course of the proceedings. PML-N members staged a token walkout over the absence of the ministers whose questions were on the agenda while MQM members also staged a token walkout over the issue of heavy taxes by the government on overseas telephone calls.

Regarding the absence of ministers, Senate Deputy Chairman Baloch passed the ruling that the prime minister must take notice of this. Leader of the House Jahangir Badar informed the upper house that he will convey their concerns to the premier. “If they [ministers] cannot attend queries then [they should] leave their jobs. [I shall] put [this] before the premier,” Badar said.

edited by Musab Memon

Published in The Express Tribune, October 17th, 2012. ]]>
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				    <img src="https://i.tribune.com.pk/media/images/452601-floodPHOTOPPI-1350454205/452601-floodPHOTOPPI-1350454205.JPG" class="featured_image"/>
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			<title>Third consecutive flooding disaster</title>
			<link>https://tribune.com.pk/story/448690/third-consecutive-flooding-disaster</link>
			<comments>https://tribune.com.pk/story/448690/third-consecutive-flooding-disaster#comments</comments>
			<pubDate>Mon, 08 Oct 12 18:49:48 +0500</pubDate>
			<dc:creator>
				<![CDATA[Syed Mohammad Ali .]]>
			</dc:creator>
			<category><![CDATA[Opinion]]></category>
			<guid isPermaLink="false">https://tribune.com.pk/?p=448690</guid>
			<description>
				<![CDATA[The performances of both, government and donor agencies, in terms of disaster management, leave much to be desired.]]>
			</description>
			<content:encoded>
				<![CDATA[This was the third year in a row that we have witnessed devastating inundations across different parts of the country. This year, the floods have killed over 400 people and left several thousand people injured. Hundreds of thousands of people across thousands of villages have been displaced from their homes. Overall, nearly five million people are estimated to have been impacted by this latest flood over the past six weeks due to crop, livestock and infrastructure damage.

Last year, flooding impacted over nine million people. The year before, floods left a fifth of the country submerged, affecting more than 20 million people.

The devastation caused by two previous years of flooding should have demonstrated the apparent need for increasing our capacity to contend with natural disasters. Yet, provincial governments remained hesitant to allocate sufficient funds for disaster relief during the current year’s budget.

Given this lacklustre attitude, it is not surprising to note complaints pouring in from flood-hit areas — especially from more remote districts such as Jaffarabad and Naseerabad — due to insufficient resources available to provide immediate relief to the affected.

Earlier flood damage to homes, crops, livestock, health centres, schools and roads had already pushed multitudes of households in already poor and neglected districts to the point of despair. Now, access to basic facilities will be further diminished due to yet another year of flooding.

The performances of both, the government and donor agencies, in terms of disaster management, leave much to be desired. After the devastating 2005 earthquake, UN agencies helped create the National Disaster Management Authority (NDMA) and have continued working closely with the NDMA ever since. Nonetheless, despite seven years of its existence, even a moderately effective disaster risk management system has not yet been put in place at the provincial and district levels. Accountability systems to ensure that aid for disasters actually reaches the most deserving victims also merits more attention.

Additionally, there is an urgent need to prevent the gross acts of departmental negligence, which have compounded the damage, instead of mitigating or controlling it. For instance, irrigation department officials have been found complicit in canal breaches aimed at protecting large landowners at the cost of inundating the land of poor villagers. The delayed response in regulating flow of the Dera Ghazi Khan Canal during this year’s flooding also unleashed massive damage on the district’s infrastructure.

An increasing number of analysts are now pointing out how years of unthinking development and neglect of natural drainage systems of Pakistan’s major rivers are responsible for these increasingly severe instances of flooding, as well as for the increasing problems of waterlogging and salinity.

Even donor-funded projects, such as the Taunsa barrage rehabilitation have been criticised for causing massive flooding in Muzaffargarh. If such projects are, in fact, determined to have exacerbated the flooding, then international agencies, which funded these projects must also accept their share of responsibility for inadequate environmental impact assessments. The agencies must also share the burden of rectifying flaws and reversing the damage caused by the flaws. As things stand, however, the real price of institutional neglect and incapacity is being paid by poor people with the least responsibility for initiating unthinking development plans or for exacerbating climate changes behind the natural disasters, which are wreaking havoc on their already distressed lives.

Published in The Express Tribune, October 9th, 2012.]]>
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				    <img src="https://i.tribune.com.pk/media/images/448690-SyedMohammadAliNew-1349710126/448690-SyedMohammadAliNew-1349710126.jpg" class="featured_image"/>
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			<title>2012 floods hit Sindh the hardest: NDMA</title>
			<link>https://tribune.com.pk/story/448139/2012-floods-hit-sindh-the-hardest-ndma</link>
			<comments>https://tribune.com.pk/story/448139/2012-floods-hit-sindh-the-hardest-ndma#comments</comments>
			<pubDate>Sun, 07 Oct 12 05:01:52 +0500</pubDate>
			<dc:creator>
				<![CDATA[zahid.gishkori]]>
			</dc:creator>
			<category><![CDATA[Pakistan]]></category>
			<guid isPermaLink="false">https://tribune.com.pk/?p=448139</guid>
			<description>
				<![CDATA[According to official assessment 259 people died in Sindh and 61 in Balochistan.]]>
			</description>
			<content:encoded>
				<![CDATA[This year’s monsoon floods have killed over 259 people and rendered 3.2 million homeless in Sindh making it the worst-hit province.


According to the latest statistics of the National Disaster Management Authority (NDMA), the 2012 floods have so far left over 451 people dead and 2,916 injured, while a total of five million people have been affected.

Last year’s flood had affected over five million people, caused the deaths of 400 people. In 2010, the flood affected over two million people in 15 districts, with over 600 reported deaths.

This year, over 9,651 cattle heads have perished, crops on 1.5 million acres of farmlands destroyed, and 400,000 houses have been damaged or destroyed in 16,000 villages in all four provinces.

Nearly 0.32 million people are still living in 480 relief camps set up by the provincial disaster management authorities and NDMA across the country.

Thousands of people are living with their relatives, while over 30,000 are living under the open sky in Kashmore, Jacobabad, Jaffarabad, Khairpur and parts of Rahim Yar Khan.

In Sindh, floods injured 2,421 people, damaged or destroyed 0.5 million houses and swamped 171 union councils in 12,005 villages. Kashmore remains the worst-affected district in the province, where 54 people have been killed and over 1, 862 injured.

Over 51 people have been killed, 259 injured and over crops on 27,000 acres of farmlands have been destroyed in Shikarpur. In Jacobabad, 41 people have been killed and 77 injured.

Balochistan happens to be the second worst-affected province, where 61 people have died and 123 have been injured. More than 14,000 villages have been swamped as heavy rains wreaked havoc on the canal system in the province.

Over 60 people have lost their lives and 272 have been injured in several districts of Punjab, where around 1 million people in 1,512 villages have been affected.

UN Resident Coordinator in Pakistan Timo Pakkala, who frequently visits flood-hit areas, expressed his deep concerns over the deplorable situation in the flood-hit areas.

“Based on initial findings of the assessment and reports from the organisation working in the field, I’m concerned that the situation in the flood affected areas is extremely serious and current response may be inadequate. There is urgency to step up relief efforts.”

“We have concluded a joint rapid assessment with the government of the most affected areas to determine gaps and priorities in humanitarian grounds. The UN is ready to mobilise more resources but we would need a request from the government on the findings of the joint assessment,” he added.

Published in The Express Tribune, October 7th, 2012. ]]>
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			</item><item>
			<title>Over 400 killed, 275,000 houses destroyed in 2012 floods</title>
			<link>https://tribune.com.pk/story/447892/over-400-killed-275000-houses-destroyed-in-2012-floods</link>
			<comments>https://tribune.com.pk/story/447892/over-400-killed-275000-houses-destroyed-in-2012-floods#comments</comments>
			<pubDate>Sat, 06 Oct 12 11:49:29 +0500</pubDate>
			<dc:creator>
				<![CDATA[]]>
			</dc:creator>
			<category><![CDATA[Pakistan]]></category>
			<guid isPermaLink="false">https://tribune.com.pk/?p=447892</guid>
			<description>
				<![CDATA[NDMA chairman says 32,570 ration bags, 15,000 tents and 29 de-watering pumps were distributed.]]>
			</description>
			<content:encoded>
				<![CDATA[At least 422 people were killed and a total of 275,000 houses and shops were destroyed in recent floods that hit different parts of the country, National Disaster Management Authority (NDMA) Chairman Zafar Iqbal has said.

Speaking to a private news channel, Iqbal said that out of the 275,000 houses and shops that were destroyed, 235,831 were in Sindh, 25,442 in Punjab, 8,626 in Balochistan, 4,392 in Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa, 1,243 in Azad Kashmir and 70 in Gilgit-Baltistan.

A total of 155,662 houses and shops were damaged partially in the flood-hit areas of the country, including 132,282 in Sindh, 16,440 in Punjab, 4,289 in Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa, 1,564 in Balochistan, 1,017 in AJK and 70 in Gilgit-Baltistan, he added.

Answering a question regarding details of the relief operation, the NDMA chairman said a total of 32,570 ration bags, 15,000 tents and 29 de-watering pumps were distributed in the affected areas.

He said that more than 4,474,341 people were affected by the current floods. The number of villages badly affected by the floods is stated to be 13,465.

Iqbal also claimed that because of the lessons learnt from disasters of the past two years, the situation relating to epidemics and child mortality was under control.

He said that a majority of deaths took place in Sindh where 239 people died and 2,300 were injured. Sixty people were killed in Punjab and 272 were injured.

In Balochistan 51 people were killed and 115 injured.

According to figures updated on September 28, around 4.7 million people had been affected - 3.12 million in Sindh alone, 887,345 in Punjab and 704,822 in Balochistan, he added.]]>
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				    <img src="https://i.tribune.com.pk/media/images/447892-PakistanfloodsBadinAFP-1349524017/447892-PakistanfloodsBadinAFP-1349524017.jpg" class="featured_image"/>
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			<title>Floods 2012: PMA to provide medicines, water kits to survivors</title>
			<link>https://tribune.com.pk/story/445512/floods-2012-pma-to-provide-medicines-water-kits-to-survivors</link>
			<comments>https://tribune.com.pk/story/445512/floods-2012-pma-to-provide-medicines-water-kits-to-survivors#comments</comments>
			<pubDate>Tue, 02 Oct 12 03:44:23 +0500</pubDate>
			<dc:creator>
				<![CDATA[press.release]]>
			</dc:creator>
			<category><![CDATA[Sindh]]></category>
			<guid isPermaLink="false">https://tribune.com.pk/?p=445512</guid>
			<description>
				<![CDATA[PMA asks government to provide security to its volunteers and doctors who are serving in the disaster-struck areas.]]>
			</description>
			<content:encoded>
				<![CDATA[Pakistan Medical Association (PMA) will provide water purification kits and medicines to flood survivors in Sindh and Balochistan.


Its Sindh and Balochistan chapters will oversee the distribution. “Physicians are ready to treat patients if they are provided medicines. Residents of flood-affected areas do not have access to clean water and essential medicines,” said the medical body. Physicians in disaster-struck areas should contact Dr S M Qaisar Sajjad on 021-32251159 or 0303-2339179 to have water purification kits and essential drugs delivered to them immediately. They can also collect emergency packs from the PMA House in Karachi. The organisation has also asked the government to provide security to its volunteers and doctors who are serving in the disaster-struck areas.

Published in The Express Tribune, October 2nd, 2012.]]>
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			<image>
				    <img src="https://i.tribune.com.pk/media/images/445512-floodsbalochistanafp-1349149104/445512-floodsbalochistanafp-1349149104.jpg" class="featured_image"/>
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			</item><item>
			<title>Forgotten flood</title>
			<link>https://tribune.com.pk/story/445220/forgotten-flood</link>
			<comments>https://tribune.com.pk/story/445220/forgotten-flood#comments</comments>
			<pubDate>Mon, 01 Oct 12 20:36:21 +0500</pubDate>
			<dc:creator>
				<![CDATA[editorial]]>
			</dc:creator>
			<category><![CDATA[Editorial]]></category>
			<guid isPermaLink="false">https://tribune.com.pk/?p=445220</guid>
			<description>
				<![CDATA[Given our antics, perhaps, compassion has run out and this hardly augurs well for the people]]>
			</description>
			<content:encoded>
				<![CDATA[Whereas the 2010 and 2011 floods made headlines, those that struck this year have somehow gone virtually unnoticed. Only rarely does news of havoc caused by floods hits the headlines. The world seems not to have noticed and even within the country, there is a lack of awareness about the miserable state in which millions are surviving. The reasons for this callousness and indifference need to be taken note of.

The statistics themselves show just how much damage has been caused. Countrywide, the rains have affected some five million people and claimed 440 lives. As we saw in 2011, the worst-hit province is Sindh, where 3.2 million people have been affected, crops on about a million acres or more have been completely or partially destroyed and 2,500 persons left injured. This amounts to a calamity in a province still recovering from the aftermath of the devastating 2010-11 floods, which affected all districts of Sindh. As before, other provinces have also suffered. Ninety-five per cent of the residents of Jaffarabad and Naseerabad are shelterless according to a report in this newspaper; crops have also been damaged and 75,000 cattle heads washed away. In Punjab, too, notably in the southern district of Rajanpur, land has been destroyed and lives ravaged. In Azad Kashmir, we hear of some 2,500 homes being washed away, mainly by hill torrents that raced down mountainsides. The question of flood preparedness has been raised yet again but right now, it is rather academic. The issue at hand is what is being done to help these people. Unsurprisingly, it seems not enough.

Complaints have come in from many flood-hit areas, but especially those coming from Balochistan, that the flow of aid is insufficient and not enough medicines, food or clean water has been delivered, need to be taken seriously. Water-borne diseases are being reported. The National Disaster Management Authority continues to make its efforts, but there appears to be a severe shortage of resources, with international agencies also strained to the limit. Given our antics, perhaps, compassion has run out and this hardly augurs well for the people, who are once more left helpless in the face of a national catastrophe, with little expectation from the current government .

Published in The Express Tribune, October 2nd, 2012.]]>
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			<image>
				    <img src="https://i.tribune.com.pk/media/images/445220-PakistanfloodsBadinAFP-1349123044/445220-PakistanfloodsBadinAFP-1349123044.jpg" class="featured_image"/>
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			</item><item>
			<title>Rains hamper vegetable production</title>
			<link>https://tribune.com.pk/story/444545/rains-hamper-vegetable-production</link>
			<comments>https://tribune.com.pk/story/444545/rains-hamper-vegetable-production#comments</comments>
			<pubDate>Sun, 30 Sep 12 02:34:36 +0500</pubDate>
			<dc:creator>
				<![CDATA[imran.rana]]>
			</dc:creator>
			<category><![CDATA[Business]]></category>
			<guid isPermaLink="false">https://tribune.com.pk/?p=444545</guid>
			<description>
				<![CDATA[Additionally, due to present shortage, prices increase 40% for vegetables.]]>
			</description>
			<content:encoded>
				<![CDATA[Heavy rains in Punjab severely affected vegetable sowing and damaged crops cultivated this month; hampering production and resultantly pushing the prices for the autumn vegetables up, according to agriculture experts.


The vegetables to be sowed in the months of September and October will become ripe in January. The fall in production and delay, owing to heavy post-monsoon rains, could cause shortage in the markets, they said while talking to The Express Tribune.

Moreover, the present condition of the land will further delay the October sowing season hence lead to declining production, said the growers.

The onion crop harvested between August and November was adversely hit by recent rains and so did the potato crop. The rains washed away most of the harvest, they added.

According to a market survey, prices climbed almost 20% in most cases while prices for others have increased 40%.

Wholesalers and retailers are charging higher prices, increasing the burden on end consumers, to take advantages of this situation.

In addition to abnormal inflation in wholesale and retail prices, the negative impact could also lead to less vegetable exports, said Arshad Mahmood – a farming expert while talking to The Express Tribune.

According to Chaudhry Hameed, district officer of the Agriculture Department, the output of vegetables may also see declining trends. The major loss will be borne by farmers who sowed in September, he added.

Published in The Express Tribune, September 30th, 2012.]]>
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			<image>
				    <img src="https://i.tribune.com.pk/media/images/444545-PakistanfloodsBadinAFP-1348970967/444545-PakistanfloodsBadinAFP-1348970967.jpg" class="featured_image"/>
            </image>
			</item><item>
			<title>CM distributes: Rs0.3 million each to 75 families</title>
			<link>https://tribune.com.pk/story/444605/cm-distributes-rs0-3-million-each-to-75-families</link>
			<comments>https://tribune.com.pk/story/444605/cm-distributes-rs0-3-million-each-to-75-families#comments</comments>
			<pubDate>Sun, 30 Sep 12 00:04:49 +0500</pubDate>
			<dc:creator>
				<![CDATA[our.correspondent]]>
			</dc:creator>
			<category><![CDATA[Sindh]]></category>
			<guid isPermaLink="false">https://tribune.com.pk/?p=444605</guid>
			<description>
				<![CDATA[The survivors told him that there was a lack of medicine in relief camps.]]>
			</description>
			<content:encoded>
				<![CDATA[Chief Minister Qaim Ali Shah moved out of the comfortable confines of Chief Minister House on Saturday and got a little more hands-on with relief efforts in flood-hit districts.


Accompanied by ministers Agha Siraj Durrani, Haji Muzaffar Ali Shujra, Mir Hazar Khan Bijarani and Haleem Adil Shaikh, he visited Jacobabad and Shikarpur to hear the grievances of the survivors. The chief minister also distributed cheques worth Rs0.3 million each to families which lost members to the natural calamity.

While meeting some of the survivors at Jacobabad’s town hall, Shah said that President Asif Ali Zardari asked the Sindh government to do as much as it can to provide relief. The provincial government promptly released Rs75 million for immediate relief activities in Jacobabad. The chief minister added that a survey is under way and after assessing the damages, the government will compensate every affected family. More than three million people have been affected because of the downpour earlier this month. Jacobabad, Kashmore and Shikarpur are the worst-hit districts.

Recalling the super flood of 2010, the chief minister said, “About seven million people in twelve districts were affected and the government immediately came to their rescue by giving them Rs20,000 each through Watan Cards. But some of the survivors of the most recent disaster complained that they have yet to receive relief and that there is a lack of medicines in medical camps.

The chief minister responded by asking the health secretary to meet the shortage within 24 hours. Shah also distributed cheques worth Rs0.3 million each to 42 families. He was also scheduled to distribute bags of dry rations, but left for Shikarpur, where he distributed Rs0.3 million each to 33 families which lost members to the floods.

Published in The Express Tribune, September 30th, 2012.]]>
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			<image>
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			</item><item>
			<title>Flood 12: Growers ask govt to provide Rs10b for rehabilitation</title>
			<link>https://tribune.com.pk/story/444184/flood-12-growers-ask-govt-to-provide-rs10b-for-rehabilitation</link>
			<comments>https://tribune.com.pk/story/444184/flood-12-growers-ask-govt-to-provide-rs10b-for-rehabilitation#comments</comments>
			<pubDate>Sat, 29 Sep 12 02:29:30 +0500</pubDate>
			<dc:creator>
				<![CDATA[our.correspondent]]>
			</dc:creator>
			<category><![CDATA[Sindh]]></category>
			<guid isPermaLink="false">https://tribune.com.pk/?p=444184</guid>
			<description>
				<![CDATA[Seven of the worst-hit districts provided 62% of paddy crop in 2011.]]>
			</description>
			<content:encoded>
				<![CDATA[Even after the last drop of stagnant water has been drained from flood-hit districts, crop growers will still have to face a residue of problems. Billions of rupees will be required to deal with the fact that ravenous downhill torrents from the Kirthar Range swallowed a sizeable chunk of their crops.

At a meeting organised on Friday at the Sindh Chamber of Agriculture, growers’ representatives said that the government should announce a rehabilitation package of at least Rs10 billion for farmers in flood-hit areas. They claimed that around 60 per cent of the crops sown over 712,000 acres in six of the worst-hit districts - Jacobabad, Kashmore, Kandhkot, Shikarpur, Ghotki, Sukkur and Qamber-Shahdadkot - had been destroyed during the downpour over two weeks ago. Rice and cotton are the two major kharif (autumn) crops grown in the districts. Though the agriculture department has yet to conduct an extensive survey of the affected areas, a preliminary report published by the agriculture extension department stated that around 11 per cent of the province’s kharif crops were destroyed.

“The paddy crop has been affected the most,” said the chamber’s vice president, Mir Murad Talpur, adding that about 80 per cent of the crop has been destroyed. He based his estimate on the fact the seeds for the crop were sown late and hadn’t grown much before the ravaging floodwater swept through the cultivated area. Of the 1.57 million acres of paddy sown across Sindh in 2011, 62 per cent came from the six affected districts mentioned earlier. This year, according to agriculture department, cotton was cultivated on 288,260 acres in the left bank districts of Ghotki and Sukkur. The irrigation department added that the four right bank districts were inundated by more than three million acre-feet of water.

The growers urged the government to expedite efforts to rehabilitate the agriculture sector has been incurring massive losses since 2010. Muhammad Khan Sarejo, a grower, said that there had been mismanagement and corruption in the distribution of free seeds and fertilizer following the super floods in the previous two years. He said that the affected farmers should be given a cash compensation of at least Rs5,000 per acre so that they can buy raw materials themselves. The other growers attending the meeting supported the demand.

The growers also demanded that action be taken against irrigation officials, alleging that they failed to manage the water supply properly. “Many areas connected with the branches of Jamrahu East and Jamrahu West canals which spring from Nara are not even receiving drinking water,” said another grower, Syed Muhammad Ali Shah.

Published in The Express Tribune, September 29th, 2012.

&nbsp;]]>
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			<title>Flood 12: Govt reviews its response to disaster, says more  relief will be provided</title>
			<link>https://tribune.com.pk/story/444161/flood-12-govt-reviews-its-response-to-disaster-says-more-relief-will-be-provided</link>
			<comments>https://tribune.com.pk/story/444161/flood-12-govt-reviews-its-response-to-disaster-says-more-relief-will-be-provided#comments</comments>
			<pubDate>Sat, 29 Sep 12 01:59:34 +0500</pubDate>
			<dc:creator>
				<![CDATA[our.correspondent]]>
			</dc:creator>
			<category><![CDATA[Sindh]]></category>
			<guid isPermaLink="false">https://tribune.com.pk/?p=444161</guid>
			<description>
				<![CDATA[A commission set up to monitor relief activities does not feel that the government is doing enough.]]>
			</description>
			<content:encoded>
				<![CDATA[For nearly two weeks following the downpour which wreaked havoc in parts of Sindh, the media reported the government’s apathy and sluggish reponse to the natural disaster, quoting many flood survivors. But at a meeting organised on Friday at CM House, the provincial government assessed its response, which it feels has been plentiful.

Around 3 million people living in 13,221 villages have been affected by the downpour. At least 239 people have died so far and 359,131 houses have been badly damaged.

In his presentation, Provincial Disaster Management Authority’s director-general, Muhammad Hashim Raza Zaidi, said that deputy commissioners have been asked to run their district emergency operation centres round-the-clock and start using machines to drain water from low-lying areas.

Zaidi said that nearly 8 million livestock has been affected and many crops have also been ruined. Around 15 pumps are being used by the irrigation departments, of which 5 are in Jacobabad Air Base, 4 in Shikarpur and 13 in Sukkur. Around 30 medical camps and 61 camps have been set up in Ghotki, Sukkur, Shikarpur, Jacobabad Kashmore and Qambar-Shahdadkot and 50 veterinary camps have been set up for livestock.

The director general added that 58,352 patients have been treated so far at medical camps. The government has provided 67,252 tents, 117,288 ration bags, 139 dewatering pumps and Rs344 million to affected people. The army has also been taking part in the relief operations in close coordination with the disaster management authority.

Chief Minister Syed Qaim Ali Shah, who chaired the meeting, asked relief, health and livestock officials to provide relief goods to affected people. He said that the health and livestock departments should establish more camps to prevent an outbreak of disease. He also asked the finance department to release funds to relief department and the disaster management authority so that there is no lapse in relief.

Though the government claims that it has been stepping up and playing its role to alleviate the miseries of flood survivors, the Peoples Accountability Commission on Floods (PACF) disagrees. In a recent report, the commission said that the government and humanitarian agencies have failed to provide quick and adequate relief to the worst-hit areas, which led to more deaths.

Published in The Express Tribune, September 29th, 2012.]]>
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			<title>‘Medical relief in flood-hit areas inadequate’</title>
			<link>https://tribune.com.pk/story/444211/%e2%80%98medical-relief-in-flood-hit-areas-inadequate%e2%80%99</link>
			<comments>https://tribune.com.pk/story/444211/%e2%80%98medical-relief-in-flood-hit-areas-inadequate%e2%80%99#comments</comments>
			<pubDate>Sat, 29 Sep 12 01:29:36 +0500</pubDate>
			<dc:creator>
				<![CDATA[our.correspondent]]>
			</dc:creator>
			<category><![CDATA[Punjab]]></category>
			<guid isPermaLink="false">https://tribune.com.pk/?p=444211</guid>
			<description>
				<![CDATA[Red Crescent chief says they are providing relief to more than 55,000 people.]]>
			</description>
			<content:encoded>
				<![CDATA[Pakistan Red Crescent Society Director General Major General (retd) Nawaz Khan said on Friday that medical assistance available in the flood-affected areas was inadequate and urged other organisations and individuals working in flood affected areas to expedite efforts for the purpose.


He was speaking to the media during a visit to PRCS’s tent villages for people displaced by floods in Dera Ghazi Khan. Khan said his organisation in collaboration with the International Federation of Red Cross was providing food, temporary shelter and medical aid to more than 55,000 flood affected people in the country.

PRCS Punjab Secretary Muhammad Salim told The Express Tribune that 1,200 families were given food parcels and other relief items in the province every day. He said these families were also availing medical facilities at the camps PRCS was operating in flood-affected areas.

Salim said the PRCS had so far donated relief goods provided by other donors to 6,500 people at their camps.

Khan said the PRCS had installed 10 water filtration plants at its camps in Dera Ghazi Khan, Rajanpur, Jacobabad, Qamber, Shadad Kot, Naseerabaad and Jaferabad to prevent outbreaks of water borne diseases among the residents. He said each filtration plant was supplying 3,200 litres of drinking water per hour. He said among other treated at the medical camps, most were suffering from diarrhoea and malaria.

Besides these camps, he said, three mobile health unit of the PRCS were operating in the Punjab, seven in Sindh and six in Balochistan. He said each mobile unit had a male doctor, a woman medical officer, a dispenser, a lady health visitor, two health promoters and an EPI technician.

Medicines worth Rs1 million had been provided to each MHU, he added.

Integrated Recovery Programme

Khan said the PRCS was undertaking an Integrated Recovery Programme (IRP) in areas exposed to floods in six districts of the Punjab, Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa and Sindh. He said the organisation was focusing on livelihood, shelter, water, sanitation and health sectors.

Published in The Express Tribune, September 29th, 2012.]]>
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			<title>Pakistan floods kill 371, affect 4.5 million</title>
			<link>https://tribune.com.pk/story/443973/pakistan-floods-kill-371-affect-4-5-million</link>
			<comments>https://tribune.com.pk/story/443973/pakistan-floods-kill-371-affect-4-5-million#comments</comments>
			<pubDate>Fri, 28 Sep 12 14:30:14 +0500</pubDate>
			<dc:creator>
				<![CDATA[afp]]>
			</dc:creator>
			<category><![CDATA[Pakistan]]></category>
			<guid isPermaLink="false">https://tribune.com.pk/?p=443973</guid>
			<description>
				<![CDATA[More than a million acres of crops have been destroyed by the floods across the country: NDMA]]>
			</description>
			<content:encoded>
				<![CDATA[Monsoon floods in Pakistan have killed 371 people and affected nearly 4.5 million, the National Disaster Management Authority (NDMA) said on Friday.

Pakistan has suffered devastating floods in the past two years, including the worst in its history in 2010, when catastrophic inundations across the country killed almost 1,800 people and affected 21 million.

As in 2010 and 2011, most of those hit by the latest floods are in Sindh province, where the NDMA said 2.8 million were affected, with nearly 890,000 in Punjab and 700,000 in Balochistan.

Nearly 290,000 people around the country have been forced to seek shelter in relief camps, NDMA said in figures published on its website.

The floods began in early September, with nearly 80 killed in flash floods, mostly in the northwest and Pakistan-administered Kashmir.

An NDMA spokesman said the government was not yet appealing for foreign assistance.

"The government's point of view is that the situation will be handled from own resources," Ahmad Kamal told AFP.

More than a million acres of crops have been destroyed by the floods across the country, NDMA said, and nearly 8,000 cattle have been killed.

UN children's agency UNICEF, quoting a separate flood assessment, said at least 2.8 million people had been affected, including 1.4 million children, of whom more than 390,000 are under five.

UNICEF said it was providing 183,000 people a day with drinking water but warned it urgently needed more funds.

"Children from very poor families are among the worst affected by the severe flooding and they need our immediate help," said UNICEF Pakistan Deputy Representative Karen Allen.

"UNICEF urgently needs $15.4 million to scale up its water, sanitation and hygiene response to reach around 400,000 people over the next three to six months."

UNICEF said that according to its assessment, more than half of those affected by the floods were concentrated in just five districts, two each in Sindh and Balochistan and one in Punjab.

It said 360,000 people had been left without shelter and three quarters of children in the five worst-affected districts were unable to go to school, either because the buildings have been destroyed or because they are being used as temporary shelters.

The UN agency voiced particular concern about children forced from their homes, saying loss of access to safe water supplies left them vulnerable to diseases such as diarrhoea, malaria, measles, polio and pneumonia.

More than 20,000 families in Sindh have been provided with hygiene kits including water purification tablets, UNICEF said, as part of efforts to prevent deadly water-borne diseases.]]>
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			<title>MNA Faryal Talpur asks officials to personally supervise relief work</title>
			<link>https://tribune.com.pk/story/442415/mna-faryal-talpur-asks-officials-to-personally-supervise-relief-work</link>
			<comments>https://tribune.com.pk/story/442415/mna-faryal-talpur-asks-officials-to-personally-supervise-relief-work#comments</comments>
			<pubDate>Wed, 26 Sep 12 01:39:36 +0500</pubDate>
			<dc:creator>
				<![CDATA[our.correspondent]]>
			</dc:creator>
			<category><![CDATA[Sindh]]></category>
			<guid isPermaLink="false">https://tribune.com.pk/?p=442415</guid>
			<description>
				<![CDATA[Irrigation minister says that floods will not reach Shahdadkot.]]>
			</description>
			<content:encoded>
				<![CDATA[MNA Faryal Talpur urged the Sindh government and its departments on Tuesday to use all resources available in providing relief to the flood-affected people.


She was chairing a meeting of the Sindh ministers and district officers at the Presidential Camp Office, Naudero. Among those who attended the meeting were ministers Jam Saifullah Dharejo, Agha Siraj Durrani, Ayaz Soomro, MNA Shagufta Jumani, Senators Dr Karim Khawaja and Saeed Ghani, Irrigation Secretary Babar Afandi and Larkana Commissioner Dr Saeed Mangnejo.

According to Dharejo, the monsoon rains this year were more destructive than any other during the last 100 years.

Due to the shortage of drainage systems, Jacobabad and Kashmore were the worst-hit areas, he said, adding that the accumulated rain water is damaging properties in the area.

The irrigation minister said that the downhill torrents coming from Balochistan entered the Hairdin drain near Chakhi, situated at the Sindh-Balochistan border. The drain, which can carry 1,700 cusecs of water, overflowed as the water coming from Balochistan exceeded its capacity. Dharejo said that work to increase the capacity of the Hairdin drain to 7,000 cusecs is underway.

He refuted the statements by Haleem Adil Shaikh, the advisor to Sindh chief minister on relief, regarding threats of floods in Shahdadkot.

Sindh Irrigation Secretary Babar Afandi informed the meeting that the downhill torrents from Balochistan breached the Right Bank Outfall Drain-III at RD-116 on September 20, due to which water entered the Hairdin drain. The water then started moving towards Garhi Khairo, Qubo Saeed Khan and Shahdadkot. He said, however, that the situation is under control and all the damages will be plugged by tonight (Tuesday).

Larkana Comminssioner Dr Saeed Ahmed Mangnejo briefed the meeting about the casualties up till now. He said that around 123 persons were killed and 2,207 were injured in rain-related incidents in five districts - Larkana, Shikarpur, Jacobabad, Kashmore and Qamber-Shahdadkot. Almost 8,243 villages were submerged while more than 2.30 million people were affected. Standing crops over 3.50 million acres were reportedly damaged.

With regard to the relief operation, Mangnejo said that 26,132 people were rescued and 160,295 families were being provided food and medicines at 500 relief camps. “So far, we have distributed 55,250 bags of dry ration,” he said. Around 41 medical camps have been established in the rain-affected areas and 35 mobile dispensaries are also in the field.

Talpur asked Senator Karim Khawaja and District Health Officer Dr Abdul Fatah Bughio to supervise the medical aid being provided to the people in all five districts. MNA Shagufta Jumani was asked to supervise distribution of food and tents.

Published in The Express Tribune, September 26th, 2012.]]>
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			<title>Floods affect 700,000 in Balochistan: Officials</title>
			<link>https://tribune.com.pk/story/441648/floods-affect-700000-in-balochistan-officials</link>
			<comments>https://tribune.com.pk/story/441648/floods-affect-700000-in-balochistan-officials#comments</comments>
			<pubDate>Mon, 24 Sep 12 11:20:48 +0500</pubDate>
			<dc:creator>
				<![CDATA[afp]]>
			</dc:creator>
			<category><![CDATA[Balochistan]]></category>
			<guid isPermaLink="false">https://tribune.com.pk/?p=441648</guid>
			<description>
				<![CDATA[At least 51 people have died across the province; PM Ashraf declared three districts as calamity-hit areas.]]>
			</description>
			<content:encoded>
				<![CDATA[Flash floods triggered by record rains in Balochistan have affected around 700,000 people and destroyed hundreds of thousands of acres of crops, officials said Monday.

At least 51 people have died across the province and Prime Minister Raja Pervaiz Ashraf on Sunday declared three districts as calamity-hit areas.

He announced assistance worth Rs2.6 billion for relief and rehabilitation work in the province where a torrential monsoon spell this month smashed a 30-year record, they said.

Heavy rains lashed the province for 32 hours on September 11 and the meteorological department recorded 432 millimetres of rain, head of the provincial disaster management authority Akbar Durrani told AFP.

Officials released the figures almost two weeks after the rains hit the sparsely populated province.

Flash floods damaged crops over 380,000 acres of land in 13 districts, he said adding that the worst hit were Jaffarabad, Naseerabad and Jhal Magsi, where a large area remains submerged.

At least 22 people have died in Naseerabad alone and eight in Jafffarabad, Durrani said. The remaining casualties were reported elsewhere in the province.

Another 115 people were injured in the rains which also killed 1,778 cattle.

Around 700,000 people have been affected, many people suffered crop and property losses, Durrani said.

"We have already distributed 6,670 tents and 2,378 metric tons of food items, while the prime minister promised to immediately rush 20,000 more tents," he said.

The government has set up several medical camps where treatment has been offered to nearly 3,000 people suffering gastrointestinal diseases and more than 2,500 cases of malaria.

"We have not launched any appeal for foreign assistance. We are so far relying on own resources and we hope we can handle the situation," Durrani said.

He stressed the rescue work is over and rehabilitation work including repair of roads and infrastructure has started.

He said the level of disaster was much less than 2010, when unprecedented monsoon rains triggered catastrophic flooding across the country, killing almost 1,800 people and affecting 21 million.]]>
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			<title>Desperate flood-hit survivors sell relief tents to buy food</title>
			<link>https://tribune.com.pk/story/441460/desperate-flood-hit-survivors-sell-relief-tents-to-buy-food</link>
			<comments>https://tribune.com.pk/story/441460/desperate-flood-hit-survivors-sell-relief-tents-to-buy-food#comments</comments>
			<pubDate>Mon, 24 Sep 12 06:26:13 +0500</pubDate>
			<dc:creator>
				<![CDATA[sarfaraz.memon]]>
			</dc:creator>
			<category><![CDATA[Sindh]]></category>
			<guid isPermaLink="false">https://tribune.com.pk/?p=441460</guid>
			<description>
				<![CDATA[Prime minister’s promised relief package yet to be given to affected districts.]]>
			</description>
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				<![CDATA[A few days ago, Shikarpur’s assistant commissioner claimed that though efforts to provide relief are under way, people have still been heaping invective on the government. But the people who have received relief goods are only a fraction of those who still need help.


Around two weeks after parts of upper Sindh were hit by heavy downpour, people in flood-hit areas await the Prime Minister’s promised assistance. And though districts’ administrations may indeed not be doing enough, a few homeless people have alarmingly started selling tents given to them for Rs2,500.

Former federal minister and Pakistan Peoples Party MNA Aijaz Jakhrani hired a contractor at the cost of Rs50 million to distribute bags of dry rations to the marooned.

Each bag contains ten kilogrammes of wheat flour, two kilogrammes of rice, one kilogramme of sugar, two kilogramme of lentils and 250 grams of tea as well as a packet of candles and match boxes. A bag’s value is not more than Rs1,000 according to the market rates of the goods, but the contractor is charging Rs2,000. Bags and tents are being given to only those people handpicked by elected representatives.

When contacted, MNA Jakhrani told The Express Tribune that he has been in Jacobabad since the downpour ended and is trying to alleviate the suffering of the marooned. He refuted claims of nepotism in awarding the contract and said that there had been no favouritism in distributing the relief goods. “Rations and tents are being distributed without discrimination.”

He noted the dearth of other government officials in supervising the relief work. “I have distributed 7,500 tents. We have demanded more tents and I am hopeful that we will get more tents in a day or two.”

Jakhrani said that the relief package promised by the prime minister has not been given to the affected districts, but packages worth Rs50 million announced by the chief minister were distributed on Saturday. “I am personally air-dropping the relief goods and have so far distributed more than 5,000 bags of dry ration in Thull taluka and areas surrounding it.”

When asked about why upper Sindh gets flooded each time it rains, MNA Jakhrani said, “It is because of the faulty drainage system.” Though a mega drainage development project worth Rs650 million is under way in Jacobabad, it will take another year to complete.

Jakhrani said that Kashmore, Jacobabad and Shikarpur cities are not included under the Right Bank Outfall Drain (RBOD) scheme. “When the prime minister visited Jacobabad, I requested him to include these cities in the project so that the drainage problem can finally be solved.”

Irrigation officials said that RBOD is going to be constructed in three phases. The first one covers the area from Ustad Mohammad, Balochistan to Shahdadkot. The second phase starts from Shahdadkot to Sehwan Sharif and the third from Sehwan Sharif to Gharo Creek.

Published in The Express Tribune, September 24th, 2012.]]>
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			<title>Humanitarian challenges: PM unveils Rs2.6 billion  package for Balochistan</title>
			<link>https://tribune.com.pk/story/441530/humanitarian-challenges-pm-unveils-rs2-6-billion-package-for-balochistan</link>
			<comments>https://tribune.com.pk/story/441530/humanitarian-challenges-pm-unveils-rs2-6-billion-package-for-balochistan#comments</comments>
			<pubDate>Sun, 23 Sep 12 22:09:24 +0500</pubDate>
			<dc:creator>
				<![CDATA[]]>
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			<category><![CDATA[Balochistan]]></category>
			<guid isPermaLink="false">https://tribune.com.pk/?p=441530</guid>
			<description>
				<![CDATA[Tells relief agencies to distribute food in flood-hit Naseerabad, Jaffarabad and Jhal Magsi.]]>
			</description>
			<content:encoded>
				<![CDATA[Prime Minister Raja Pervaiz Ashraf on Sunday announced a special relief package of Rs2.6 billion for three flood-ravaged districts of Balochistan while reminding relief workers of both the urgency of air dropping aid and respecting the dignity of the flood victims.

Some Rs2 billion is earmarked for rebuilding damaged infrastructure in Naseerabad, Jaffarabad and Jhal Magsi and another Rs600 million will be used for relief materials, including food and medicines, in those districts.

The prime minister – who arrived in Dera Murad Jamali on the second consecutive day of his tour of the flood-hit areas – ordered immediate release of the amount.

He cautioned against dumping food and other relief goods and urged government agencies and relief workers to immediately distribute the same among the flood survivors and mitigate their sufferings.

In addition, he said that the federal government would pay for all the tents that the flood victims needed in the province.

Earlier, Prime Minister Ashraf reviewed the flood situation at a meeting and directed that in case of a transportation problem, a C-130 aircraft could be pressed into service for immediate disbursement of relief goods.

Attendees at the meeting included Balochistan Governor Nawab Zulfiqar Magsi, National Regulations and Services Minister Dr Firdous Ashiq Awan and Science and Technology Minister Changez Khan Jamali.

He also ordered provision of 20,000 tents instead of 10,000 earlier demanded by the provincial government. He said the federal government would provide all necessary funds for the acquisition of tents.

Premier Ashraf also announced a compensation of Rs400,000 each for the families of those who lost their lives in the deluge and directed the National Disaster Management Authority (NDMA) to coordinate and send a list of the deceased for payments.

On Saturday, the prime minister announced a similar amount for the families of 15 people, who lost their lives in southern Punjab. He assured that medicines needed for the flood-affected people would be provided by the federal government.

Raja Pervaiz Ashraf said the flood ravages were a challenge for the entire nation. He  commended the services of the provincial government and the armed forces for effectively carrying out relief activities.

He asked Minister Changez Jamali to visit the affected regions to personally monitor the situation. He stressed the need for “well-coordinated efforts” among various government departments working for relief and rehabilitation.

He directed the National Highway Authority (NHA) and Wapda to focus on improving the infrastructure in the devastated areas.

Earlier, the prime minister had an aerial visit of the inundated areas of Dera Murad Jamali to witness the extent of damage caused by the flash floods.

Thousands of acres of land in Naseerabad, Jaffarabad and Jhal Magsi have been swamped by hill torrents, uprooting thousands of people and ravaging road and communication networks.

The prime minister also distributed relief goods among the displaced people and assured that the government would ensure assistance reaches all flood victims.

Published in The Express Tribune, September 24th, 2012.]]>
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			<title>Rain, flood damage compensation after assessment is completed: PM</title>
			<link>https://tribune.com.pk/story/440900/rain-flood-damage-compensation-after-assessment-is-completed-pm</link>
			<comments>https://tribune.com.pk/story/440900/rain-flood-damage-compensation-after-assessment-is-completed-pm#comments</comments>
			<pubDate>Sat, 22 Sep 12 16:20:30 +0500</pubDate>
			<dc:creator>
				<![CDATA[]]>
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			<category><![CDATA[Pakistan]]></category>
			<guid isPermaLink="false">https://tribune.com.pk/?p=440900</guid>
			<description>
				<![CDATA[Raja Pervaiz Ashraf says government is collecting the data of damages caused by rain and floods in the country.]]>
			</description>
			<content:encoded>
				<![CDATA[Prime Minister Raja Pervaiz Ashraf said on Saturday that the federal government is currently collecting the data on the damages caused by rain and floods in the country and that any compensation package would be announced once the compilation has been completed.

The prime minister though assured that the government will compensate the people for their damaged crops and houses, and will rehabilitate them, restore ruined infrastructure. He also directed Minister for Climate Change Rana Farooq Saeed to facilitate the flood-hit communities at all costs.

He announced a package of Rs100 million for the provision of food, tents and other relief goods to the thousands, who have been displaced, and a compensation of Rs400,000 for each of the 15 people, who lost their lives in the flash floods.

The Baitul Maal has also been instructed to buy essential items from Utility Stores and provide them to the affected people as soon as possible.

Ashraf said that the government was ensuring the speedy transportation of medicines to the affected areas, which will be provided to the people free of charge to save them from diseases. He announced raising the height of a dam in Rojhan Mazari by four feet. Rojhan Mazari has already been declared disaster hit.

He informed that President Asif Ali Zardari had phoned him from London, instructing him to visit each and every flood affected area of the country and ensure that no one was without food, shelter or medicines.]]>
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			<title>On top of the floods: More than 25 upper Sindh villages inundated</title>
			<link>https://tribune.com.pk/story/440709/on-top-of-the-floods-more-than-25-upper-sindh-villages-inundated</link>
			<comments>https://tribune.com.pk/story/440709/on-top-of-the-floods-more-than-25-upper-sindh-villages-inundated#comments</comments>
			<pubDate>Sat, 22 Sep 12 03:22:34 +0500</pubDate>
			<dc:creator>
				<![CDATA[our.correspondent]]>
			</dc:creator>
			<category><![CDATA[Sindh]]></category>
			<guid isPermaLink="false">https://tribune.com.pk/?p=440709</guid>
			<description>
				<![CDATA[Villagers immediately informed irrigation officials but they failed to reach.]]>
			</description>
			<content:encoded>
				<![CDATA[The trial by Nature of the people of upper Sindh continued on Friday when a 30-foot breach occurred in Garhi Hassan Shakh near Faisal Golo village, Thull. The gushing water flooded more than 25 villages that were already under strain from the rain-related flooding.


The villages included Faisal Golo, Muhabat Banglani, Barkat Ali Banglani. Villagers immediately informed irrigation officials but they failed to reach.

Mehboob Ali Golo, Himmat Golo, Nazar Banglani, Ghous Bux Banglani told the media that two to three feet of water had accumulated in their villages from the rains.

As the district administration was not doing anything to help with the already standing floodwater, they had started draining it on their own - but the breach set them back severely.

Published in The Express Tribune, September 22nd, 2012.]]>
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			<title>We’re being treated like unwanted guests: relief camp’s residents</title>
			<link>https://tribune.com.pk/story/440087/we%e2%80%99re-being-treated-like-unwanted-guests-relief-camp%e2%80%99s-residents</link>
			<comments>https://tribune.com.pk/story/440087/we%e2%80%99re-being-treated-like-unwanted-guests-relief-camp%e2%80%99s-residents#comments</comments>
			<pubDate>Fri, 21 Sep 12 01:25:35 +0500</pubDate>
			<dc:creator>
				<![CDATA[sarfaraz.memon]]>
			</dc:creator>
			<category><![CDATA[Sindh]]></category>
			<guid isPermaLink="false">https://tribune.com.pk/?p=440087</guid>
			<description>
				<![CDATA[Shikarpur’s assistant commissioner said that relief bags will be distributed soon.]]>
			</description>
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				<![CDATA[With each passing day, the people living in a relief camp set up in Shikarpur feel more agitated. They say that the government has indeed set up a camp, but relief remains elusive.  

When the rain first thrummed the roof of Mai Qaima Jatoi’s house in Roshan Abad village in Shikarpur, she simply shrugged it off. People in her neighbourhood were already talking about moving to safer ground, but she refused to budge. When the roof crumbled, so did her staunch belief that she was safe. Qaima immediately headed to the relief camp set up in Government High School No.1. Eight days later, she wonders if her life is better than it would have been had she stayed put.

Around 600 people are living at the camp. They share four toilets. Together, these two numbers sum up the camp’s sanitary conditions. A whole host of insects, including mosquitoes and flies, torment the camp’s residents, who are pleading for it to be sprayed with repellants. Some people complained that medicines are not available and that camp’s doctors are giving the same drugs to patients, regardless of the medical condition.

“We don’t want to live in this hell! We just want tents and a month’s worth of rations so that we can return to our villages,” Qaima told The Express Tribune angrily. “We know that the government will not drain water from our villages. We will just have to wait for it to evaporate.” She claimed that stale food is being served at the camp and because of this, many children there are suffering from gastroenteritis.

Rasti Jatoi, who came to the camp from Roidad Jatoi village near Chak, told The Express Tribune that plastic bags filled with cooked rice are being distributed to the flood-hit people. But the food is stale and the quantity is meager. “We’re victims of a natural calamity. We aren’t here for recreation. But the administration is treating us like unwanted guests,” said Jatoi. “When [politicians] need our votes, they visit our villages and meet each villager to muster support. Now, when we are in trouble, they are nowhere to be found,” she added bitterly.

Abdul Qadir Shaikh and his brother, Rasool Bux Shaikh, also headed to the camp after their houses in Khan Chand Abad, a low-lying locality of Shikarpur, were damaged during the downpour. “Between two and three feet of water is still stagnant in our area and nothing has been done to drain it,” said Abdul Qadir. He and his brother own a vegetable stand and are waiting for the water to be pumped so that they can earn a livelihood.

Dr Faiz Mohammad Magsi, who works at the camp, dismissed claims its residents were not being given proper medical care. “We have all the required medicines and patients are being treated very well.” He was quite miffed at the fact that the people were complaining, since he felt that they knew very little about diseases and their treatment.

Shikarpur’s assistant commissioner, Asim Qureshi, told The Express Tribune that food is being dispatched from one central point to the district’s camps. “People are never satisfied no matter what you do for them.” The assistant commissioner said that the victims will be given tents and rations so that they can go back to their villages.

Published in The Express Tribune, September 21st, 2012.]]>
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			<title>Flood 12: Around 11% of Sindh’s crops destroyed</title>
			<link>https://tribune.com.pk/story/439567/flood-12-around-11-of-sindh%e2%80%99s-crops-destroyed</link>
			<comments>https://tribune.com.pk/story/439567/flood-12-around-11-of-sindh%e2%80%99s-crops-destroyed#comments</comments>
			<pubDate>Thu, 20 Sep 12 09:09:05 +0500</pubDate>
			<dc:creator>
				<![CDATA[sarfaraz.memon]]>
			</dc:creator>
			<category><![CDATA[Sindh]]></category>
			<guid isPermaLink="false">https://tribune.com.pk/?p=439567</guid>
			<description>
				<![CDATA[Farms in Jacobabad and Kashmore were some of the worst-hit.]]>
			</description>
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				<![CDATA[Like a giant, watery scythe, torrents from Balochistan slashed crops in flood-hit areas of Sindh, leaving large gashes in growers’ wallets.


The farmers were initially exhilarated when the first few drops of water descended from the sky, hoping that the pests attacking their crops would be driven away. But now, as crops stand swathed in water, smiles have turned into frowns. The water gushing from hilly areas of the neighbouring province eroded the terrain as it swept into Sindh, picking up silt and small rocks which were subsequently peppered on the crops.

According to a survey by the agriculture extension department, three main kharif (autumn) crops - paddy, sugarcane and cotton - were planted on around 1.5 million hectares in Sindh. About 11 per cent of them have been completely destroyed and about seven per cent partially damaged by the recent downpour. Most of the crops planted in lower parts of the province have been spared. The growers in upper Sindh, however, were not so lucky. The crops in Kashmore and Jacobabad have been worst-hit by the rainwater.

Cotton was sown in 584,558 hectares throughout Sindh, out of which 12 per cent was completely destroyed and nine per cent partially damaged. Paddy was sown in over 678,142 hectares. The rainwater completely destroyed about 12 per cent of the crops and around nine per cent was partially damaged. Sugarcane was sown in over 271,085 hectares, out of which two per cent was completely destroyed and the same amount was partially damaged.

The agriculture extension department’s director, Riaz Ahmed Dayo, told The Express Tribune that cotton crops are extremely sensitive and have been ruined by the onslaught of muddy water. The crops’ buds are soggy and coated with a film of black grime, which has rendered them useless. The director said that the paddy and sugarcane crops, which are hardier, can still be salvaged. If stagnant rainwater is drained from the fields where the two crops have been planted, some of the growers’ losses can be cut.

Though the rainwater has yet to be drained, the government has already announced that it will provide seeds, fertilizers and other raw material to growers, who will also be exempted from the revenue tax.

Published in The Express Tribune, September 20th, 2012.

&nbsp;]]>
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			<title>Shahbaz Sharif visits flood-hit DG Khan</title>
			<link>https://tribune.com.pk/story/439717/shahbaz-sharif-visits-flood-hit-dg-khan</link>
			<comments>https://tribune.com.pk/story/439717/shahbaz-sharif-visits-flood-hit-dg-khan#comments</comments>
			<pubDate>Thu, 20 Sep 12 08:54:58 +0500</pubDate>
			<dc:creator>
				<![CDATA[owais.jafri]]>
			</dc:creator>
			<category><![CDATA[Punjab]]></category>
			<guid isPermaLink="false">https://tribune.com.pk/?p=439717</guid>
			<description>
				<![CDATA[Talks about rehabilitation, compensation, Khosa’s contribution.]]>
			</description>
			<content:encoded>
				<![CDATA[“I will personally monitor the rehabilitation process in the flood-hit areas and not let politics hinder or taint it,” Chief Minister Shahbaz Sharif said on Wednesday.

He was talking to the reporters during his visit to a children’s home in a flood relief camp in Dera Ghazi Khan.

Sharing the Punjab government’s plan to stop the hill torrents on permanent grounds in all tribal belt of DG Khan, the chief minister said a comprehensive inquiry will be held into breaches in DG Khan Link Canal.

He announced a Rs500,000 compensation for the families of those who died in the recent floods. He also announced setting up a complaint cell for the flood affected people, which he said he would visit every time he came to the area.

Sharif directed the department concerned to update the list of flood victims for issuance of Watan cards. He said Watan Cards must be distributed after proper scrutiny but without any discrimination.

Talking about the agricultural devastation, he said that the Punjab government had already announced a relief package for farmers which included free of cost seeds, fertilisers and rehabilitation of lands besides compensation for their losses.

Commissioner Tariq Mehmood told the chief minister that health officials had been sent to several rural areas and that the areas were being monitored for dengue mosquito breeding.

Sharif denied differences with the Khosa family.

“We have no differences ...The PML-N is proud to have dedicated members from the Khosa family,” he said.

He praised Dost Muhammad Khosa and other party members for visiting the flood-hit areas and for their assistance in the flood relief activities. He said they would also be available for monitoring relief and rehabilitation work.

Later, Sharif visited Jampur, Dajal and Rojhan and monitored the speed of rehabilitation and relief activities.

Published in The Express Tribune, September 20th, 2012.]]>
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			<title>Floods have left 369 dead, nearly 3m affected</title>
			<link>https://tribune.com.pk/story/438871/damage-assessment-floods-have-left-369-dead-nearly-3m-affected</link>
			<comments>https://tribune.com.pk/story/438871/damage-assessment-floods-have-left-369-dead-nearly-3m-affected#comments</comments>
			<pubDate>Wed, 19 Sep 12 04:36:51 +0500</pubDate>
			<dc:creator>
				<![CDATA[zahid.gishkori]]>
			</dc:creator>
			<category><![CDATA[Pakistan]]></category>
			<guid isPermaLink="false">https://tribune.com.pk/?p=438871</guid>
			<description>
				<![CDATA[NDMA’s initial estimates say 200,000 still waiting for shelter; Sindh now worst-hit province.]]>
			</description>
			<content:encoded>
				<![CDATA[Floods caused by the current torrential rains have affected close to 3 million people and damaged around 2.2 million acres of crops across the four provinces — killing a total of 369 people so far.


According to initial estimates, some 200,000 people are awaiting shelter and relief goods — weeks after heavy flooding destroyed various districts across the country, officials dealing with natural disasters told The Express Tribune on Tuesday.

“The estimated damages to infrastructure and private and public property is around Rs250 billion in all four provinces,” revealed a senior official associated with the monitoring cell of the National Disaster Management Authority (NDMA).

In comparison, the 2010 floods had damaged crops and other infrastructure amounting over Rs800 billion.

“Over 369 people have lost their lives and 1,168 have been injured during the current floods,” initial estimates prepared by the NDMA stated.

Nearly 2 million acres of crops have been destroyed in all four provinces as well as Azad Kashmir (AJK) and Gilgit-Baltistan (G-B), with Sindh appearing to be the worst-hit province.

Over 12,559 cattle in total have perished and the current flash floods have forced over 600,000 people to take shelter in relief camps.

Sindh 

In Sindh, a total of 1.6 million people have been affected and 0.8 million acres of crops have been partially or completely damaged. Around 138 persons have died so far, 600 injured, 0.25 million houses damaged, over 0.3 million acres lands affected and 7,000 cattle perished.

Balochistan

In Balochistan, nearly 80 people have died, 170 injured and 0.2 million houses completely destroyed leaving most of the affected households without shelter. The NDMA, however, is yet to assess the damages of crops and land in the province. Heavy rains have also damaged 40,000 houses, killing 5,056 cattle across the province and the Shahi canals system – a system to water crops in Nasirabad and Jaffarabad – has been destroyed.

Punjab and others

In Punjab, the floods have affected 0.6 million acres out the total 1.14 million acres of crops in various districts and 65 people have so far lost their lives. Nearly 320 have been injured, 503 cattle have perished, 25,453 houses washed away and over one million people affected in floods.

In Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa (K-P) 46 people have lost their lives, 56 injured, and 6,000 houses damaged.

Around 36 people have died in AJK, 40 injured, 2,500 houses damaged.

Five people have lost their lives in the federal capital as well. However, assessment regarding damages of cattle, crops and land is still going on in these areas.

Woes

Meanwhile, Balochistan has again complained to PM Raja Pervaiz Ashraf on Tuesday after not receiving any relief package from Islamabad despite repeated appeals.

“We have repeatedly urged Prime Minister Ashraf to declare all flood-hit districts of the province “calamity-hit” but he never listened to me,” said Federal Minister for Science and Technology Mir Chengez Khan Jamali.

“Today (Tuesday) I called him (Premier Ashraf). He promised to visit Balochistan on Saturday or Sunday to express solidarity with the flood victims,” he said.

Jamali once again appealed to the UN to contribute relief goods for flood victims in areas like Killa Saifullah, Dera Allah Yar Khan, Dera Murad Jamali and Dera Bugti — the worst-affected areas of the current monsoon rains.

Timo Pakkala, who is the UN’s resident coordinator in Pakistan, told The Express Tribune that the government has indicated that they have sufficient resources and would not require international assistance. “We, however, are undertaking an initial rapid assessment with the government in the affected areas to get a better picture.”

Published in The Express Tribune, September 19th, 2012.]]>
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			<title>Rain and ruin</title>
			<link>https://tribune.com.pk/story/438564/rain-and-ruin</link>
			<comments>https://tribune.com.pk/story/438564/rain-and-ruin#comments</comments>
			<pubDate>Tue, 18 Sep 12 19:45:44 +0500</pubDate>
			<dc:creator>
				<![CDATA[editorial]]>
			</dc:creator>
			<category><![CDATA[Editorial]]></category>
			<guid isPermaLink="false">https://tribune.com.pk/?p=438564</guid>
			<description>
				<![CDATA[We must ask if more could have been done to prevent the disaster on the scale on which it occurred.]]>
			</description>
			<content:encoded>
				<![CDATA[Perhaps, we have become just a little immune to disaster; unwilling to acknowledge it when it occurs. The accounts coming in from Sindh and Balochistan describe the havoc that has been caused as being as terrifying as that seen in 2010 and 2011. But somehow, this time around, we seem to be hearing less about the floods, with a kind of glazed indifference hanging in the air. It is hard to explain quite why this should be the case.

In Sindh, the scenes suggest that oceans have rolled out across parts of the province. According to official sources, 95 per cent of Jacobabad is stated to be under water. Children who had been stranded in villages where no one could reach them, died due to sickness and neglect. The situation in other districts, notably those in the north, is said to be little better.

Authorities say that hill torrents rolling into Sindh from Balochistan have added to the problems occurring there. Balochistan itself faces peril and over a million people are stated to have been rendered homeless in the two provinces. Vast tracts of land have been destroyed and over 100 deaths have been reported. The toll of illness, as stagnant water collects, is no doubt still to come.

The prime minister has announced a two billion rupees relief package for Sindh. After surveying the situation, the UN has also said it will do what it can to help. But the fact remains that just months ago, as the monsoon season began, major humanitarian agencies had warned clearly that they were short of funds, given the expenditures of the past two years.

It is also true that misuse of funds that were previously allotted has made donors reluctant to give more to Pakistan. Efforts at home, from the government and other institutions, must get underway to manage matters better and to prevent further suffering. We must also ask if more could have been done to prevent the disaster on the scale on which it occurred and whether we have learnt anything at all from our encounters with floods over the past few years. By now, we should be familiar with the devastation they can cause, affecting millions within days.

Published in The Express Tribune, September 19th, 2012.]]>
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			<title>The flood-hit areas look like giant oceans: Federal minister for climate change</title>
			<link>https://tribune.com.pk/story/438222/the-flood-hit-areas-look-like-giant-oceans-federal-minister-for-climate-change</link>
			<comments>https://tribune.com.pk/story/438222/the-flood-hit-areas-look-like-giant-oceans-federal-minister-for-climate-change#comments</comments>
			<pubDate>Tue, 18 Sep 12 00:25:24 +0500</pubDate>
			<dc:creator>
				<![CDATA[our.correspondent]]>
			</dc:creator>
			<category><![CDATA[Sindh]]></category>
			<guid isPermaLink="false">https://tribune.com.pk/?p=438222</guid>
			<description>
				<![CDATA[The prime minister said the Rs2 billion would be given for relief work in the flood-hit areas of the province.]]>
			</description>
			<content:encoded>
				<![CDATA[The torrents from Balochistan have accentuated the impact of the downpour in upper Sindh, says the federal minister for climate change, Rana Farooque.


A press conference was organised on Monday in which the federal minister and provincial minister for rehabilitation, Haji Muzzaffar Shujra, had a chance to elaborate on the government’s plan to deal with the disaster.

“The recent downpour has broken all past records for rainfall. But water from the hilly areas of Balochistan is also gushing into Sindh, wreaking further havoc,” said the minister. He added that the government is contemplating building a large drain with the capacity to drain 50,000 cusecs to deal with stagnant rainwater.

He added that government will approach different stakeholders and the prime minister will also hold a meeting to review the situation.  He said that the downpour in Sindh has killed 106 people and injured 4,000 others. The minister had recently visited the flood-hit districts to witness the devastation that the rainfall had wrought in several parts of the province. “The affected area looks like a big ocean. Officials are working round-the-clock to drain stagnant water,” he added.

The prime minister said the Rs2 billion would be given for relief work in the flood-hit areas of the province. Out of this amount, Rs200 million each will be given to the administration of Jacobabad and Kashmore. Around Rs100 million has been allotted to Shikarpur and Rs70 million each to Ghotki, Sukkur and Khairpur. “The Prime Minister has asked the finance department to release the amount quickly so that rations can be distributed to the displaced people,” said Farooque.

The federal minister said that crops have been damaged and livestock has been washed away. “We will provide seeds, fertilizers and other items to growers, who will be exempted from the revenue tax.”

The provincial minister for rehabilitation, Haji Muzaffar Ali Shujra, said, “We are working 24 hours to provide relief, but media is creating hype focusing negative stories only.”

Published in The Express Tribune, September 18th, 2012.]]>
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			<title>Forget relief goods for now and just drain the rainwater, marooned people plead</title>
			<link>https://tribune.com.pk/story/438236/forget-relief-goods-for-now-and-just-drain-the-rainwater-marooned-people-plead</link>
			<comments>https://tribune.com.pk/story/438236/forget-relief-goods-for-now-and-just-drain-the-rainwater-marooned-people-plead#comments</comments>
			<pubDate>Mon, 17 Sep 12 21:27:03 +0500</pubDate>
			<dc:creator>
				<![CDATA[our.correspondent]]>
			</dc:creator>
			<category><![CDATA[Sindh]]></category>
			<guid isPermaLink="false">https://tribune.com.pk/?p=438236</guid>
			<description>
				<![CDATA[Five people have died since Sunday in flood-related accidents across upper Sindh.]]>
			</description>
			<content:encoded>
				<![CDATA[As the government’s apathy towards the misery of the people in flooded districts continues, the death toll for flood-related accidents climbs steadily. If an epidemic kicks in, the daily casualty rate could accelerate sharply.  

Flood-related accidents have claimed the lives of at least five people in different parts of upper Sindh since Sunday. A five-year-old girl, Dua, was killed and her uncle, Ghulam Qadir Thaheem, was injured when the roof of their house in Family Line, Jacobabad, collapsed.

In Ghotki, three-year-old Mashooq Leghari was crushed when the wall of his house in Ibrahim Leghari village fell on him.

A four-year-old boy, Ali Mohammad Leghari, drowned in rainwater that had accumulated outside his house in Meeran Leghari village.

In another incident, a 45-year-old woman, Hayatan Jagirani, was electrocuted while she was washing clothes in Rajoo Jagirani, a village in Shikarpur.

In a separate incident, Umer Marwani died at a roadside camp at Tangwani Road. He had left Tangwani town with his family four days ago. His wife, Salamat Khatoon, claimed that Umer died of hunger. “Nobody is willing to take care of us,” she claimed.

Rainwater has been drained from Shikarpur city and life has gone back to normal for most of its residents. However, other parts of the Shikarpur district, including union council Jagan, Nabi Shah Wagan, Sultankot and Raheemabad, are still submerged. Even several important buildings, such as Shah Latif University, Women’s hospital and the district’s judicial complex, are still inundated.

The roads leading to many villages in the Shikarpur, Lakhi Ghulam Shah and Garhi Yasin talukas are inundated, making them impossible to access.

Hundreds of houses have collapsed, leaving thousands without shelter.

Farms are also submerged and growers are afraid that if the water is not drained within the next few days, the crops will be ruined. According to reports, between five and six feet of water is stagnant in Jagan, which is the district’s lowest lying area.

A large number of homeless people have set up makeshift shelters on roads while others have headed to relief camps established by their districts’ administrations. But the government’s effort to provide relief has been negligible and the marooned have become so pessimistic about its role that they have simply limited their demands to the removal of rainwater. Chief Minister Syed Qaim Ali Shah said that Rs5 million would be given to each rain-hit district, but this amount has yet to be distributed.

Shikarpur’s deputy commissioner, Dr Azhar Hussain, told The Express Tribune that pumps will be installed on Tuesday to drain water from all areas where it is stagnant. “We were providing cooked food to the displaced people and now we have also started distributing tents as well as one week’s worth of ration to them so that they can go back to their villages,” he said.

Around 1,750 tents have been handed out so far.

A day earlier, Dr Hussain told journalists that according to the first survey of the district completed on September 15, 22 people had died while 239 others were injured in Shikarpur. Around 16,104 houses have collapsed.

The deputy commissioner added that around 21,632 people are living in eight relief camps which have been set up in Shikarpur, Garhi Yasin, Khanpur and Lakhi Ghulam Shah talukas. The people living in the camps are being served cooked food twice.

With additional input from APP

Published in The Express Tribune, September 18th, 2012.]]>
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			<title>‘The situation in Jacobabad is worse than when the floods hit it in 2010’</title>
			<link>https://tribune.com.pk/story/437787/%e2%80%98the-situation-in-jacobabad-is-worse-than-when-the-floods-hit-it-in-2010%e2%80%99</link>
			<comments>https://tribune.com.pk/story/437787/%e2%80%98the-situation-in-jacobabad-is-worse-than-when-the-floods-hit-it-in-2010%e2%80%99#comments</comments>
			<pubDate>Mon, 17 Sep 12 01:36:41 +0500</pubDate>
			<dc:creator>
				<![CDATA[nafees.soomro]]>
			</dc:creator>
			<category><![CDATA[Sindh]]></category>
			<guid isPermaLink="false">https://tribune.com.pk/?p=437787</guid>
			<description>
				<![CDATA[Children have started dying because of disease and malnutrition.]]>
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				<![CDATA[Almost 95 per cent of Jacobabad district is under water and it will take weeks to drain it.

“We haven’t reached all the areas of the district yet,” an official told The Express Tribune on the condition of anonymity. “The situation is difficult to describe - it’s worse than when the floods hit Jacobabad in 2010. Back then the water just rushed through the area. But this time around, the entire district has been inundated.”

The district government has six helicopters which it uses to drop rations in various areas and rescue marooned people. “We have boats that can be used to access areas where the rainwater is particularly deep. The water is everywhere - an aerial survey will clearly reveal the dire situation in the district,” said the official.

He added that relief camps have been set up and food was being given to the people, but he did not comment on when the district’s administration will drain rainwater. The army is working round-the-clock to rescue people, said the official.

Seven children died on Sunday because of diseases and malnutrition in Thull taluka. A three-year-old girl, Rani, died in Khan Muhammad Soomro village and a seven-year-old boy, Zahoor Ahmed Noonari, died in Yar Ali Pahor. “Our village is completely submerged and there has been nothing for our children to eat for the past three days,” said Majnoon Faqeer, Rani’s father. The people of the area also lamented the lack of medical facilities for children.

A three-year-old-boy, Wahid Khoso, Beebal Khoso, 5, and Noor Hasan Khoso, 8, died of gastroenteritis in Ameer Bux Khoso village near Thull taluka. Their parents said that about 40 other children in the village were suffering from fever and diarrhea. They added that no medical team has visited their village. The roof of a house in Khabar Channo village collapsed, killing two children, including Nadeem, 3, and Shabnam, 5. “About 2,400 people, including children, have visited the Thull taluka hospital in the last three days,” said Dr Amanullah Khoso.

Some attempts by villagers to drain the water ignited a clash as one tribe tried to draw off the water to the turf of another. Three people have been injured in Muhammad Malook Sarki village when the Khosa and Sarki tribes tried to create a path through the road so that the rainwater could be drained from the area. Members of the Buriro tribe brawled with them, contending that the water would flow into their area.

Published in The Express Tribune, September 17th, 2012.]]>
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			<title>PM announces Rs2b relief package for flood victims</title>
			<link>https://tribune.com.pk/story/437556/pm-announces-rs2-billion-relief-package-for-flood-victims</link>
			<comments>https://tribune.com.pk/story/437556/pm-announces-rs2-billion-relief-package-for-flood-victims#comments</comments>
			<pubDate>Sun, 16 Sep 12 12:30:53 +0500</pubDate>
			<dc:creator>
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			</dc:creator>
			<category><![CDATA[Pakistan]]></category>
			<guid isPermaLink="false">https://tribune.com.pk/?p=437556</guid>
			<description>
				<![CDATA[Ashraf directs immediate release of Rs710 million for Sindh.]]>
			</description>
			<content:encoded>
				<![CDATA[Prime Minister Raja Pervaiz Ashraf announced a special relief package worth Rs2 billion for the flood victims on Sunday.

During his visit to the flood-affected areas of Sindh, Ashraf directed the immediate release of Rs710 million for Sindh, which includes Rs200 million each for Kashmore and Jacobabad, Rs70 million for Ghotki, Rs100 million each for Sukkur and Mirpur.

The prime minister stated that more funds would be allocated as required.

Appreciating the role of the armed forces and the provincial governments in providing relief to the people, Ashraf said children, elderly and women should get relief.

He also ordered for the provision of 25000 tents for the flood-affected areas on immediate basis.

Ashraf added that similar relief packages should be finalised for South Punjab and Balochistan.]]>
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			<title>‘Sukkur city has turned into a dirty version of Venice’</title>
			<link>https://tribune.com.pk/story/437434/%e2%80%98sukkur-city-has-turned-into-a-dirty-version-of-venice%e2%80%99</link>
			<comments>https://tribune.com.pk/story/437434/%e2%80%98sukkur-city-has-turned-into-a-dirty-version-of-venice%e2%80%99#comments</comments>
			<pubDate>Sun, 16 Sep 12 00:00:59 +0500</pubDate>
			<dc:creator>
				<![CDATA[our.correspondent]]>
			</dc:creator>
			<category><![CDATA[Sindh]]></category>
			<guid isPermaLink="false">https://tribune.com.pk/?p=437434</guid>
			<description>
				<![CDATA[As people fear epidemic, administration still sluggish in draining away the water.]]>
			</description>
			<content:encoded>
				<![CDATA[A putrid, nauseating smell permeated the air on Saturday in Sukkur city, especially at Bakhar Chowk, Shalimar, Jail Road and Numaish Chowk, as sewage festered in the stagnant rainwater. The clouds have vanished from the sky, and the sun cooks everything below.


In these conditions, the city’s residents wait impatiently for some respite, agitated that they cannot move about freely because of the dirty water. Though efforts to drain water are underway in areas, such as Royal Road and Jeay Shah Chowk, they have been sluggish at best. Many other parts of the city are still submerged.

“It is the first time in my life that I have seen people using boats to go from one locality to another. The power has been out for three days now - it’s a nightmare,” said Kamran, a 28-year-old man who lives in a house on Royal Road. “Our neighbourhood has turned into Venice, but the water is quite dirty,” he quipped, laughing at his own misery.

A young woman living near Latif Park had a similar tale to tell. “I have never seen so much water accumulate in this area in my entire life,” she told The Express Tribune. “The ground floor of our house is completely submerged and all our furniture has been ruined.” She said that the rainwater had also rushed into her father’s grocery store at Tonga Stand and swallowed almost all of its contents, causing a huge loss. “We are afraid that the stagnant rainwater might cause an epidemic,” she added.

Husna, a frail, elderly woman, sat at her doorstep, waiting for her daughter to return from work with something to eat. She was famished as she had not eaten over the past three days. “Sometimes I feel that we are not human beings because we don’t have any rights in this country,” she said bitterly. “Poor people take birth in terrible conditions, lead wretched lives and die miserable deaths.”  Majid Ali Shah, who runs a flour mill at Royal Road, said that the area had been under four feet of water for the last five days. “The water was everywhere,” he told The Express Tribune. “My mill and house are under water. I’ve suffered a huge loss,” he said, pointing angrily towards a pile of soggy grain discarded on the road. “I have thrown it out on the road for the cows and buffaloes to eat. The administration has failed. If they had made sincere efforts from the very first day, the water would have been pumped out long ago.”

Ghulam Ali, who sells pakoras at Numaish Chowk, said, “About four feet of water has accumulated in my neighbourhood and we find it difficult to go on with our daily activities. Four people, including a girl, were electrocuted in our locality.”  “My wife works in two houses and brings some leftover food. We cannot cook anything because water is still standing in my house,” said Ali. “Labourers who earn on daily basis have been affected the most by the rains. They can’t eat when they don’t earn.”

Published in The Express Tribune, September 16th, 2012.]]>
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			<title>Millions spent on infrastructure down the drain</title>
			<link>https://tribune.com.pk/story/437422/millions-spent-on-infrastructure-down-the-drain</link>
			<comments>https://tribune.com.pk/story/437422/millions-spent-on-infrastructure-down-the-drain#comments</comments>
			<pubDate>Sat, 15 Sep 12 20:49:43 +0500</pubDate>
			<dc:creator>
				<![CDATA[Hafeez Tunio]]>
			</dc:creator>
			<category><![CDATA[Sindh]]></category>
			<guid isPermaLink="false">https://tribune.com.pk/?p=437422</guid>
			<description>
				<![CDATA[In Sukkur, pumping stations are submerged and craters have developed on recently built roads.]]>
			</description>
			<content:encoded>
				<![CDATA[The recent downpour has shown that the government learnt little from the super floods that hit Sindh in the past two years. The people of rain-hit areas now hope that the government will learn one fact: it takes around six days of downpour to expose shoddy efforts to improve infrastructure.


The moonsoon rain began on September 8, wreaking havoc throughout upper Sindh.

Back in January 2011, the North Sindh Urban Services Corporation (NSUSC) started managing the sanitation systems of Sukkur, Rohri, Shikarpur, Khairpur and Larkana. It announced that the sanitation and water supply systems in these cities would be modernised. Though the corporation claims that it has spent millions of rupees on this, the downpour shows that the money was not well-spent.

In Khairpur, the chief minister’s hometown, a mega drainage project and road network scheme were completed at the cost of Rs400 millions just four months ago. After the downpour, the drainage system collapsed and craters developed in the newly constructed roads.

Around Rs4 billion has been spent on the construction of drains in Larkana. But despite this, rainwater has accumulated in many areas and pumps are required to drain it. There are 33 pumping stations in the city and according to reports, when the NSUSC took over, it said that all of them were in shambles. Only 13 have been fixed so far at a cost of Rs250 million.

In a press release issued on Saturday, the NSUSC’s director of operations and services, Syed Abid Hussainy, said that rainwater is going to be drained from almost all areas that the organisation is responsible for. He said that around 80 per cent of the rainwater was removed in the first two days of the downpour, but the remainder could not be removed from low-lying areas in Sukkur, where three disposal stations  had become inundated.

Missing funds

The relief department and administrations of rain-affected districts were stunned to learn on Thursday that the cheques given to them on the chief minister’s orders couldn’t be cashed. This was because the amount released by the finance department was not transferred to the relief department’s accounts.

As soon as heavy rains devastated parts of the province, the relief department approached the finance department, which issued a cheque worth Rs139 million on September 12. Without delay, the relief department began issuing cheques worth Rs5 million to deputy commissioners of affected districts. But the cheques couldn’t be cashed. According to government procedure, the deputy commissioners of each district must send their requirements to the relief department, which sends a summary to the chief minister, requesting approval for funds. The chief minister then asks the finance department to release the budget to relief department’s accounts. The adviser to the chief minister on relief, Haleem Adil Shaikh, has sent a letter to the chief minister, complaining about the problem with the cheques. He said that out of a total budget Rs500 million allocated to his department, the finance ministry has released only Rs150 million. But even this amount has not been transferred so far. The relief department has now allotted Rs339 million to the rain-hit districts.

When contacted, the finance secretary said that there was some technical problem which is why the funds were not released. “The amount will be transferred to the relief department’s account by Tuesday,” he said.

Published in The Express Tribune, September 16th, 2012.]]>
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			<title>Flooding 2012: Livestock department scrambles to protect animals</title>
			<link>https://tribune.com.pk/story/436917/flooding-2012-livestock-department-scrambles-to-protect-animals</link>
			<comments>https://tribune.com.pk/story/436917/flooding-2012-livestock-department-scrambles-to-protect-animals#comments</comments>
			<pubDate>Sat, 15 Sep 12 02:47:58 +0500</pubDate>
			<dc:creator>
				<![CDATA[sarfaraz.memon]]>
			</dc:creator>
			<category><![CDATA[Pakistan]]></category>
			<guid isPermaLink="false">https://tribune.com.pk/?p=436917</guid>
			<description>
				<![CDATA[Teams have been dispatched to Jacobabad to treat animals.]]>
			</description>
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				<![CDATA[The media’s reports on hazards in rain-affected regions have proved to be beneficial - for the cattle. While the livestock department has been jolted into action and started vaccinating animals in Gulanpur, a union council in Kashmore, its residents still beg for some respite.

Following the downpour, various stories were published in newspapers. Among them was a story depicting the miseries of Gulanpur’s residents, in The Express Tribune. The same day, the livestock department’s secretary, Abid Ali Shah, director-general Dr Akbar Soomro and director Dr Abdullah Mevati visited different areas in Jacobabad and Kashmore to assess the situation on the ground.

Teams from the department have started vaccinating cattle in Gulanpur, but no rescue measures have been taken by the district’s administration to move stranded people to safer places.

The livestock department’s deputy director for Kashmore, Dr Abdul Fatah Bhutto, told The Express Tribune that seven mobile teams had visited various villages of Gulanpur and vaccinated 6,000 animals. Other teams have also visited different areas of Tangwani, Mir Asghar Khan Bijarani, Ghouspur, Dari, Buxapur, Badani and Karampur. He said that two camps have also been established in Gulanpur and Dakhan Bungalow. Not only are cattle being vaccinated at the campus but medicine is also being provided.

But people are still looking desperately for help and the district administration has yet to initiate relief efforts. When contacted, Kashmore’s deputy commissioner, Munawwar Ali Mithiyani, simply told The Express Tribune to contact the district’s control room.

He seemed to be unaware of the hardships that Gulanpur’s residents are facing.

Sanaullah, an official working at the control room, told The Express Tribune that army carrying out the major relief work and said that Major Babar, who is supervising the rescue work, should be contacted.

When contacted, the major said, “We were on our way to Gulanpur and just as we were about to reach it, we received an emergency call from Tangwani and headed there instead. ”

Published in The Express Tribune, September 15th, 2012.

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			<title>Rain drain: Marooned farmers call for loan write-offs</title>
			<link>https://tribune.com.pk/story/436931/rain-drain-marooned-farmers-call-for-loan-write-offs</link>
			<comments>https://tribune.com.pk/story/436931/rain-drain-marooned-farmers-call-for-loan-write-offs#comments</comments>
			<pubDate>Sat, 15 Sep 12 02:34:12 +0500</pubDate>
			<dc:creator>
				<![CDATA[our.correspondent]]>
			</dc:creator>
			<category><![CDATA[Sindh]]></category>
			<guid isPermaLink="false">https://tribune.com.pk/?p=436931</guid>
			<description>
				<![CDATA[Crops of cotton, rice, sugar cane and chillies have been affected in southern Sindh.]]>
			</description>
			<content:encoded>
				<![CDATA[Widespread rains have destroyed crops in Mirpurkhas, Thatta, Badin and Umerkot, which should be declared calamity-hit districts and agricultural loans of the affected growers written off.

These demands, amid calls for a “relief package”, came on Friday at a meeting held at the office of Sindh Chamber of Agriculture, where a large number of farmers from the southern districts of Sindh had gathered.

The growers are suffering losses caused by natural disasters for the third consecutive year, noted Mir Murad Ali Talpur, who chaired the meeting. The crops of cotton, rice, sugar cane and chillies have all been affected.

According to the Sindh Agriculture Department statistics, cotton has been sown over 32,636 acres in Mirpurkhas, 25,238 acres in Umerkot and 15,426 acres in Badin. Similarly, sugar cane is grown over 37,635 acres in Thatta, 30,164 acres in Badin and 18,950 acres in Mirpurkhas. Badin produced 8,522 tonnes of chilly in 2011-12, followed by Thatta, Mirpurkhas and Umerkot. Thatta was among the top five producers of rice in Sindh last year. Talpur put the total loss at about one-third of the cultivated area. “A small or medium grower needs up to three years to recover the financial losses of just one year,” he said. Cultivation is mostly financed by private loans with high interest rate and when crops are destroyed it takes another two seasons to recover.

A grower from Tando Muhammad Khan, Nabi Bux Sathio, warned of a looming shortage of cotton, chilly and sugar cane.

Cotton growers are being paid a maximum of Rs1,500 per 40kg against the official rate of Rs2,600 per 40kg. “The middlemen are taking advantage of the rain and are exploiting farmers,” claimed Sathio. He blamed the government for conniving in the financial murder of growers by not monitoring the cotton sale price.

A Mirpurkhas-based grower, Zahid Hussain Bhurgari, urged the government to conduct a survey of the rain-hit agricultural lands and compensate the affected farmers.

Published in The Express Tribune, September 15th, 2012.

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			<title>Devastating monsoon: Sindh, Balochistan hit much worse than Punjab</title>
			<link>https://tribune.com.pk/story/436479/devastating-monsoon-sindh-balochistan-hit-much-worse-than-punjab</link>
			<comments>https://tribune.com.pk/story/436479/devastating-monsoon-sindh-balochistan-hit-much-worse-than-punjab#comments</comments>
			<pubDate>Fri, 14 Sep 12 01:04:06 +0500</pubDate>
			<dc:creator>
				<![CDATA[zahid.gishkori]]>
			</dc:creator>
			<category><![CDATA[Pakistan]]></category>
			<guid isPermaLink="false">https://tribune.com.pk/?p=436479</guid>
			<description>
				<![CDATA[Unlike Punjab, no organised relief effort by government and NGOs was witnessed.]]>
			</description>
			<content:encoded>
				<![CDATA[While the recent monsoon rains wreaked widespread havoc in Punjab, the situation in Sindh and Balochistan paints an even more dismal picture.


The second day of the National Disaster Management Authority (NDMA)-arranged trip to the flood-affected areas for select journalists, government officials and UN representatives, took the group to two districts in Sindh and three districts in Balochistan.

Briefing journalists and officials regarding the situation in western Sindh, provincial disaster management authority (PDMA) Director General (DG) Hashim Zaidi placed the number of people affected by the floods in the region at two million.

“The floods have pushed people from five districts of Sindh below the poverty line,” Zaidi said.

Zaidi focused his briefing on Kashmore and Jacobabad districts in particular. Talking about confirmed casualties in the two districts so far, he said 21 people were killed in Kashmore, while six were killed in Jacobabad. The number of injured people in both districts stood at 46 and 39, respectively.

A PDMA handout further revealed that another 21 people were killed and 74 were injured in Shikarpur.

Around 90% of all crops in the three districts have been destroyed. Meanwhile, in Jacobabad, 0.2 million houses have been completely or partially damaged by the floods. Around 30,000 families in Kashmore district’s Tangwani tehsil are still stranded at the rooftops of their houses.

In Balochistan, we visited Jaffarabad and Nasirabad districts. While the number of casualties in the districts remains unconfirmed, the briefing by Balochistan home secretary Naseebullah Khan and PDMA DG Tahir Munir revealed that 98 per cent of the people in the two districts were affected by the floods. In addition, 100 per cent of all crops have been destroyed; In Jaffarabad alone, 0.15 million acres of agricultural land remains under water.

An aerial view of the districts revealed both urban and rural areas were inundated with water four to five feet deep. Interestingly, Jacobabad airbase also appeared to be inundated. Several F-16s were seen outside their hangars.

All offices and schools remained closed in the districts. Many clung to main roads and highways, which seemed to be the only patches of dry land in various areas. Locals complained they had no food or drinking water.

Talking to The Express Tribune, Jacobabad district health officer Dr Dara said the situation was likely to worsen in a few days due to possible outbreaks of waterborne diseases.

Unlike Punjab, there was no trace of organised relief effort by the government and NGOs in these districts. Only a handful of trucks carrying relief supplies were seen. The Pakistan Army is so far the only entity carrying out relief operations in the area.

Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP) Kashmore president Fida Gilani said NDMA and the federal government had completely ignored flood victims in Sindh.

“There is no relief for three million people in Kashmore and Jacobabad facing the worst kind of disaster,” Gilani claimed.

PPP MNA Ejaz Jakhrani echoed Gilani’s sentiments. “The present government is sleeping,” he claimed, adding that there was no coordination between NDMA and PDMA in dealing with the disaster.

The affected districts’ governments have forwarded their demands to the government. In addition to seeking relief supplies to alleviate the situation, such as tents, medicines, drinking water and dewatering pumps, they have asked for Rs50million in reconstruction funds for each flood-stricken district. They further demanded that the government declare the districts calamity-hit areas.

So far NDMA has announced 2,500 tents each for districts in Sindh and Balochistan.

Meanwhile, federal minister for climate change Rana Farooq Saeed Khan, who was part of NDMA-arranged trip, was supposed to meet President Asif Ali Zardari on Thursday night to brief him on the latest flood situation in the country and recommend a course of action. At the same time, President Zardari directed federal information technology minister Mir Changez Khan Jamali, also part of the trip, to oversee the relief effort in Balochistan.

A high level meeting of top officials was also held in Quetta on Thursday to review the overall flood situation. The meeting resolved that the irrigation department will dispatch all machinery to the Kirthar Canal to meet any emergent situations.


Published in The Express Tribune, September 14th, 2012.]]>
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			<title>Rain stops in upper Sindh, but relief work yet to start</title>
			<link>https://tribune.com.pk/story/436347/rain-stops-in-upper-sindh-but-relief-work-yet-to-start</link>
			<comments>https://tribune.com.pk/story/436347/rain-stops-in-upper-sindh-but-relief-work-yet-to-start#comments</comments>
			<pubDate>Fri, 14 Sep 12 00:45:00 +0500</pubDate>
			<dc:creator>
				<![CDATA[our.correspondent]]>
			</dc:creator>
			<category><![CDATA[Sindh]]></category>
			<guid isPermaLink="false">https://tribune.com.pk/?p=436347</guid>
			<description>
				<![CDATA[The military has stepped in but govt officials are nowhere in sight.]]>
			</description>
			<content:encoded>
				<![CDATA[Despite the provincial government’s claims about providing relief, there seems to be no respite for people living rain-affected regions. Though the military has initiated efforts to battle potential hazards, many people are fending for themselves as corpses festering in stagnant water threaten to cause deadly epidemics.


Stagnant rainwater in the worst-hit districts, including Sukkur, Ghotki, Shikarpur, Jacobabad, Kashmore, Larkana and Khairpur, has yet to be pumped out. According to reports, Tawangi, a town in Jacobabad, is completely submerged under about six feet of water. The damage that the downpour has wrought on the town cannot be assessed since access to the area is difficult.

Downhill torrents from Balochistan have inundated three union councils of Thull and breaches occurred in many watercourses, adding to the miseries of the marooned.

Residents of Gulanpur, a union council in Kashmore, are still seeking help from the district’s administration, which they claim is nowhere in sight. Around 18 people have been reportedly died in different dehs of Gulanpur. According to the official survey, two high schools, three middle schools and dozens of primary schools in the union council have been damaged. At least 3,000 katcha houses have collapsed and 1,000 pacca houses have been partially damaged in the union council. Paddy crop sown over more than 700,000 acres in Gulanpur have been destroyed completely.

Stagnant water has caused the spread of gastroenteritis among children and if no measures are taken, an epidemic could spread in the area. There were reports that about a 100 new cases of the disease sprang up in Khairpur on Thursday. There have also been cases of skin diseases and a rise in the incidence of malaria, but the exact figure is unclear since a comprehensive survey has yet to be conducted. There were reports that around 800 people in Jacobabad visited hospitals to have waterborne diseases treated.

Breaches have occurred in Gehno shakh, Tangwani shakh and Lundi shakh. As a result, three union councils, Saeedokot, Sher Wah and Thull Purano, became submerged and the gushing water is heading towards Thull town. A woman, Kazbano Lashari, was washed away with the strong current of water in Saeedokot.

More than 30,000 residents of the three union councils are homeless, as the strong currents damaged houses and huts in more than 200 villages. Approximately ten kilometers of railway track near Thull has been inundated and train service has been suspended. Rainwater has also accumulated in many parts of Qamber, including, Barkat Shah Muhalla, Chandio Muhalla, Gopang Muhalla, Brohi Muhalla.

Downhill torrents from Kirthar Range are putting tremendous pressure on the Flood Protection Bund. A part of the bund near Ghaibi Dero developed fractures on Thursday and water started seeping out. Villagers rushed to the spot and plugged the cracks.

Relief efforts

Earlier, Chief Minister Qaim Ali Shah took a two-day tour of upper Sindh and announced Rs25 million as relief funds for each affected district. He also asked districts’ administrations to take all-out measures to provide relief, but it seems that his instructions have fallen on deaf ears. Bodies and dead animals are floating in the stagnant rainwater, posing a health hazard to the stranded people who are desperate for help.

A meeting on the relief measures was to be held on Thursday at Chief Minister House, but was postponed as Shah had his hands full with the fire that broke out in the Ali Enterprises factory in Baldia two days ago.

Though the government’s efforts to provide relief might be sluggish, troops from the Pakistan Army have already jumped into action.  It has deployed over 1,000 soldiers to rescue people from the worst-hit areas and pump out stagnant water. So far, it has evacuated 3,681 people to safer places on MI-17 and boats.

Air Chief Marshal Tahir Rafique Butt, Chief of the Air Staff, Pakistan Air Force (PAF) flew over the flood affected areas of Jacobabad to survey the extent of the damage. He asked the PAF Disaster Management Cell at the Air Headquarters, Southern Air Command, to begin relief activities. PAF’s air transport, including the helicopter fleet, is also standing by and can be used whenever required by National Disaster Management Authority.

Published in The Express Tribune, September 14th, 2012.]]>
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