ECNEC green-lights Rs194.6b flood protection project

The Executive Committee of the National Economic Council (Ecnec) approved several development projects worth hundreds of billions of rupees on Tuesday, including a mega project for the protection from floods.

The Ecnec met with Finance Minister Ishaq Dar in the chair. The finance ministry said in a statement the meeting approved the flood protection project, which would cost Rs194.62 billion. The project included foreign financing amounting to Rs10.86 billion.

The committee also approved a Rs12 billion project to supply water to Thar coal through the Mukhi Farash link canal. Under the project, water will also be available for power generation and irrigation.

The construction of 36-kilometre-long Sindh Coastal Highway was also approved in the meeting. The project would cost Rs16.20 billion, the statement said. The construction of National Highway from Sanghar was also approved, costing Rs12.52 billion.

According to the ministry statement, the participants of the meeting directed for removing technical issues in the way of the New Balakot City Development Project. They approved the Narang Mandi and Narowal Link to Lahore-Sialkot Motorway.

A plan to prevent malnutrition and stunting among children in 36 districts was also approved. The ministry statement said that the government would complete this project through external financial assistance.

The ministry also approved the allocation of Rs8.28 billion for the Katchhi Canal project; Rs200 million for the Auditor General of Pakistan; Rs3.8 billion for FC Khyber Pakhtunkhwa North.

Six months after the Government of Pakistan declared a national emergency, approximately 1.8 million people are still living near contaminated and stagnant floodwater pools. Nutrition, food security and public health are the major concerns as many of these people are in temporary shelters, lack basic food items (at risk of sliding into emergency level of hungers) and increased cases of malnutrition.

Besides other humanitarian needs in Sindh province, PDMA Sind has declared an urgent need for dewatering activities in the districts of Nausharo Feroze, Khairpur, Sukkur, Jhatta, and Ghotki. To achieve this, five excavators, dewatering pumps, and fuel are required to complete the dewatering process and provide the people in these areas with appropriate livelihood standards.

Flooding in Balochistan continues to affect vulnerable populations, with stagnant water remaining visible in some Union Councils within Nasirabad division. Malaria and other waterborne diseases are becoming an increasingly concerning issue, with Vector Borne Disease (VBD) positivity rates at 74 per cent in Sohbatpur, 62 per cent in Jhal Magsi, 52 per cent in Nasirabad, 52 per cent in Jaffarabad, and 41 per cent in district Kaachi. The high temperatures in the region are proving to be a challenge for those living in tents, whose health, WASH, and shelter needs to be focused.Prior to the flooding, rates of chronic and acute malnutrition were already high (more than emergency threshold) in the affected areas.

Currently, 12 million children in Pakistan, more than half of whom live in flood-impacted districts, experience stunting, a condition that leads to permanent harm to their minds, bodies, and immune systems. Pakistan has the 25th highest infant mortality rate globally, with almost half of all deaths in children under 5 being caused by undernutrition (WorldAtlas, 2018, UNICEF 2021).

More than 1.5 million children lacking Severe Acute Malnutrition (SAM) services, with 170,000 of them suffering from SAM with complications lack stabilization treatment.According to the International Labour Organization (ILO), The floods in Pakistan have had a devastating effect on the workforce, with 4.3 million workers in affected districts experiencing job losses and disruptions.

This amounts to 20 per cent of the pre-flood workforce. The agriculture sector was the most significantly impacted, with 43 per cent (1.9 million people) affected, followed by the services industry 36 per cent (1.5 million people), and industry 21 per cent (0.9 million people).