UN and Islamabad launch $1.9b appeal

NDMA chief says situation in Sindh represents a challenge.

ISLAMABAD: The government of Pakistan and the United Nations (UN) on Friday launched a joint appeal titled “Pakistan’s Flood Relief and Early Recovery Plan 2010” seeking $1.9 billion in addressing the residual relief needs and early recovery needs of the flood-stricken families for the next 12 months.

The much-awaited programme document which highlights key challenges, prioritising projects for early recovery and reconstruction phase, was released at the National Disaster Management Authority (NDMA) secretariat. Funding requirements have been revised on the basis of fresh needs assessment. However, the overarching goal of this plan is to prevent excess morbidity and mortality and to enable flood-affected communities to return to their normal lives.

A total of 470 projects were submitted of which 397 have been approved by the government. “The reason for the delay in the launch of projects was because each scheme was looked into closely,” said NDMA’s chairman Lt-Gen Nadeem Ahmed. He said the progress of the projects will be assessed in January 2011.

NDMA’s chairman said that all the flood victims belonging to Punjab and Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa have returned home but the situation is still intense in Sindh where only 65 per cent of the flood survivors have gone back to their areas of origin. Ahmed said that the situation in Sindh will be a challenge in the coming two months as the government has to provide relief there as well as pump out water from large tracts of land.

Funding will be prioritised by facilitating 29 worst affected districts and through facilitating agriculture projects.  Those projects which are adequately funded or partially funded will also get funds while there will be a monthly coordination meeting with the stakeholders to revise the needs, explained Ahmed.

Addressing the ceremony, Minister of State for Economic Affairs Hina Rabbani Khar said that the floods have caused unprecedented destruction affecting one-tenth of Pakistan’s population. Seventy-eight districts have been affected, as a result of which more than 20 million people have been adversely affected while more than 1,900 have lost their lives, and approximately 1.6 million homes have been damaged or destroyed, she said. Khar added that the Pakistan Initial Floods Emergency Response Plan was launched on August 11 seeking an initial $459 million to meet the immediate relief needs of flood-affected communities. “Islamabad is hosting Pakistan Development Forum where the main focus would be on the floods,” she added.

Published in The Express Tribune, November 6^th, 2010.