UN mission shooed back from Sindh

KARACHI: The United Nation (UN) Assessment Mission was asked to cancel its visit to the cyclone-affected areas in Thatta, Badin and Karachi districts by the Provincial Disaster Management Authority (PDMA). The government can address the issue itself, the PDMA told the UN mission.

The mission was supposed to assess the property losses to the people in the affected areas. It also wanted to help in the rehabilitation and planning process as well as in the supplying of goods

But after government officials told the mission that the disaster was not so vast that it would need outside help, the UN group is returning to Islamabad.

Operational Director Provincial Disaster Management Authority Khair Mohammed Kalwar said that the mission was not cancelled but just postponed, “We have just asked them to postpone their mission because there was no such calamity and the situation is back to normal.” Most of the people in the relief camps have returned back to their homes, he added.

Kalwar said that, given that they had prepared the contingency plan regarding the cyclone and rains together with the UN, there was no reason for them to cancel a trip by the world body’s mission.  He said that a meeting with officials of the UN mission will be held today and they will decide how to proceed further.

Meanwhile, officials said that the PDMA has said to the UN mission in a letter, which was acquired by The Express Tribune, to cancel the visit because their further assistance is not required.

Officials said that the PDMA Director Operation informed the mission that the chairman of the National Disaster Management Authority (NDMA) and DG, PDMA, have visited the affected areas of Thatta and Badin and people are already back in their homes. Further, they have said that the loss to the property and land is being assessed by the district disaster management committees (DDMAs) while the government is also taking care of other rescue and relief duties.

Meanwhile, the Pakistan Fisherfolk Forum (PFF) has condemned the government’s decision to ask the mission to return to Islamabad. In a statement issued by PFF secretariat, the spokesman for the organisation, Sami Memon, said that the government does not want to carry out rehabilitation work itself nor does it want international agencies helping out.

According to PFF, scores of houses in different villages located near the sea have been damaged or destroyed. Moreover, dozens of boats of fishermen have been damaged by the heavy downpour that accompanied the cyclone. “They do not have proper food or easy access to potable water and the disaster management is saying nothing has happened,” Memon claimed.

Published in the Express Tribune, June 11^th, 2010.