Days after rains lashed different parts of Sindh and caused floods, displacing many from villages and remote towns, Sindh Chief Minister Syed Murad Ali Shah approved on Friday a Rs700 million grant for carrying our relief work in rain-affected areas.
Presiding over a meeting called to review relief measures in areas facing rain disasters, the CM also issued directives for providing food, mosquito nets, tents and fodder for cattle to flood victims, and said he was working on a plan arrange funds to support and rehabilitate them at the earliest
Saying that the provincial government had been making efforts to provide relief to flood-affected people, the CM admitted that the relief measures were not enough, adding that people in rural areas had been making demands for fodder and mosquito nets for their livestock.
He said that he, along with Pakistan Peoples Party chairperson Bilawal Bhutto Zardari, had visited rain and flood-affected districts, including Karachi, Mirpurkhas, Umerkot, Tharparkar, Sanghar and Badin, where people were facing problems.
In the recent days, various areas in Sindh witnessed floods as a result of heavy rains and a high-level flood passing through the Guddu Barrage. Consequently, many very forced to leave their homes.
Sharing the numbers of persons displaced by floods, Sindh government spokesperson Barrister Murtaza Wahab said on Tuesday that at least 500,000 families, comprising 2.5 million people, had been affected by the calamity and one million acres of agricultural land was destroyed. Besides, 20 district in Sindh have been declared calamity-hit.
The Express Tribune reported on Wednesday that of them, roughly 70,000 families from Sanghar, Mirpurkhas and Umerkot districts had found refuge at a desert mound, setting up new tent city in the outskirts of Umerkot. By government estimates, around 700,000 displaced people are in Umerkot district. This number, however, continues to increase.
Given the prevalent situation, the CM finally ordered finance secretary Hassan Naqvi on Friday to immediately release Rs700 million to the senior member Board of Revenue (SMBR) and the Provincial Disaster Management Authority (PDMA), which have been assigned relief work in flood-hit areas.
At this, the SMBR pointed out that as part of relief measures, the provision of fodder and veterinarian facilities was the responsibility of the livestock department.
The livestock department had already set up veterinarian camps in Malir, Surjani Badin, Umerkot, Mirpurkhas, Sanghar and Tharparkar, Sindh chief secretary Mumtaz Shah told the CM, assuring that the department would also make arrangements for the provision of fodder.
Building collapse
Karachi commissioner Sohail Rajput informed the meeting that the four-storey building that collapsed in Allahwala Town, Korangi the previous night was constructed on a 80 square yard plot, which was bifurcated into two 40 square yard sections.
"The building was constructed without the approval of the SBCA," he said, adding that four people were killed in the incident and seven others were injured.
At this, the CM directed him to identify other crumbling and dangerous structures in the area and evacuate them.
It was also highlighted in the meeting that Allahwala Town was a private housing society and lacked proper drainage system. Some participants even linked the collapsed to stagnant water standing there.
The commissioner, however, said that of 194 drainage lines in the city, 154 had been cleaned and unblocked, and the problem of overflowing gutters had been resolved for the most part. Rainwater, too, has been drained in most areas except some, including Surjani Town and villages in Malir, he added.
Published in The Express Tribune, September 12th, 2020.
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