NDMA apprises Senate panel of flood damage

Says thousands of kms of highways, millions of livestock affected, over a million houses damaged

ISLAMABAD:

The Senate Standing Committee on Planning was apprised by the National Disaster Management Authority (NDMA) on Friday that the devastating floods had affected 5,063 kilometres of highways and 243,733,488 livestock as well as damaged more than 1.17 million houses.

The meeting of the standing committee was held under the chairmanship of Senator Attaur Rehman.

During the meeting, Dinesh Kumar inquired about the absence of planning minister from the meeting, saying that it should not be taken lightly.

After the NDMA apprised the meeting about the destruction caused by the floods, the planning secretary said that 26 districts of Balochistan had been affected. He mentioned that 400 small dams were to be built and aerial surveys were now being conducted to determine the condition in the flood aftermath.

He said that the government had sent cash relief into the flood affectees’ accounts without the involvement of third parties, adding that Rs1.2 billion had been distributed among them by Wednesday.

The members of the committee said that the areas spared by the floods also suffered due to cut-off roads while power had yet to be restored in many areas well.

The planning secretary said that they helped for 15 days, urging the NDMA to take responsibility. “Preliminary estimates have been made by the provincial governments and the Provincial Disaster Management Authority (PDMA).”

The NDMA officials said that the rains at the Sulaiman Mountains lasted 20 days, and only 3mm of rain was recorded at two places on Friday. They added that similar rain patterns were not expected this month, adding that this year’s rains were higher than expected.

Officials told the meeting that the Space & Upper Atmosphere Research Commission was preparing a damage report.

The committee thus sought the report in the next meeting.

Earlier, during the meeting, officials of the Civil Aviation Authority (CAA) said that the airport in Dera Ismail Khan would be more suitable than Bannu as the location was ideal for it, adding that they also looked at the airport from a commercial point of view besides the arrival of large planes.

The planning secretary said that the overall development budget of Pakistan was Rs2,200 billion, comprising Rs700 billion of the federation and Rs1,500 billion of provinces. He said that due to the surge in inflation, the cost of projects was also increasing.

He also said that the Sukkur-Hyderabad Motorway worth Rs308 billion would be constructed through public-private partnership, where the government would invest only Rs8 billion to Rs10 billion.

He added that the China-Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC) would revive many stalled infrastructure projects.