PHOTO: AFP
Chairing a high-level meeting in Islamabad to review measures for the eradication of locust, the prime minister received a briefing on the national action plan to cope with the locust attack, an official handout said.
The meeting was attended by National Food Security Minister Khusro Bakhtiar, Adviser on Finance Hafeez Shaikh, Special Assistan on Information Firdous Ashiq Awan, National Disaster Management Authority (NDMA) Chiarman Lt-Gen Muhammad Afzal and other officials.
The chief ministers of Sindh, Punjab, Balochistan and Khyber Pakhtunkhwa also joined the meeting via video links and briefed the participants about the locust situation in their respective provinces and the efforts to control the plague, according to a statement issued by the Sindh government.
The prime minister was informed that committees for inter-provincial coordination, surveillance and monitoring purposes had been formed, while an apex committee to deal with the matter and control room had also been also established.
District-level bodies were also formed to deal with the matter. The finance ministry informed the participants of the meeting that funds had been provided to the NDMA. The cooperation of China to tackle locusts attack in the country also came under discussion.
“The government is aware of the seriousness of the matter,” the prime minister told the meeting. “It is a national emergency and the federal government will make all-out efforts to control the locust,” he added.
According to the Sindh government’s statement, the prime minister also agreed to a proposal from Sindh Chief Minister Syed Murad Shah for hiring aircraft from China or the United Arab Emirates (UAE) for the aerial spray of the affected areas.
During the meeting, the chief ministers briefed the prime minister about the locust situation and conveyed their suggestions to deal with it. Briefing about the situation in Sindh, Shah said the provincial government had spent Rs696.19 million to control the locust but the threat was serious.
Shah informed the meeting that 168,701 acres of crop area and 997,260 acres of desert land were affected by locust in the province. He added that the insect had spread to Thar and Nara deserts, where it would breed during July-December period.
The desert locust swarm was reported in the Nara desert of Sindh in May last year and the chief minister approached the federal government to initiate ground and aerial spray. In June, the federal plant protection department (PPD) initiated a ground operation against the plague.
Shah complained that the PPD had aircraft but no funds to purchase fuel, therefore he gave them a grant of Rs10 million. “The Sindh government has also released Rs335.095 million to the provincial agriculture department to purchase vehicles, spray machines, pesticides and fuel,” he added.
“Out of Rs335.095 million Rs209.746 million has been utilised so far,” Shah said. He also informed the meeting that Rs16 million had been released to the deputy commissioners of five districts – Ghotki, Sanghar, Tharparkar, Umerkot and Khairpur to combat locust.
The PPD and the Sindh Agriculture Extension Department conducted anti-locust spray over 805,624 acres in the province, Shah said. This includes 46,015 acres, where aerial spray had been conducted, the chief minister said.
The locust reached Pakistan from East Africa through the desert on the country’s southwestern border with Iran last year. Since then the farmers are struggling to combat the worst locust plague in nearly three decades.
The crisis is so severe that the government has declared a nationwide emergency and urgently appealed for help from the international community. China has sent an emergency response team of experts to Pakistan to help control the plague.
Chinese experts have visited almost all the affected areas, including Tharparkar desert in Sindh, southwest Balochistan and different affected districts of Punjab where locusts have already laid eggs.
Chinese Ambassador to Pakistan Yao Jing said on Friday that drugs 300-tonne anti-locust drugs will arrive in Pakistan from China next week in the first phase to control the spread of locust in the country.
“China will provide anti-locust spray and machinery to Pakistan in three phases,” Yao said during a meeting with NDMA Chairman Lt-Gen Afzal. “Chinese technicians will also train Pakistani workers in the use of spray machinery.”
On the occasion, the NDMA chairman said that China could help Pakistan control locust and establish an emergency air ambulance service. They also discussed the establishment of an isolation hospital in Pakistan to deal with epidemic diseases.
With additional input from Hafeez Tunio in Karachi
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