The National Disaster Management Authority on Wednesday refused to divulge the sector-wise allocations of UN funds for flood-relief, after Sindh and Balochistan rejected the proposed allocations.
NDMA Chairman Dr Zafar Qadir said that the controversy of the issue prohibited him from making the details public, but did admit that, “Sindh and Balochistan disputed the sector-wise resource allocation to meet the immediate life-saving needs of their flood-hit people proposed by the UN.” Qadir added that the updated UN appeal for the flood-hit areas would now be around $400 million.
Speaking at a press conference, Qadir said the representatives of the two provinces have asked for a couple of days to declare their exact requirements. The revised response plan to mitigate the sufferings of flood victims will be ready soon, Qadir added.
According to Qadir’s statistics, 5.15 million people have been directly affected by the floods: 4.82 million in Sindh and one-third of a million in Balochistan. The number of affected houses stands at 800,000, including 470,000 damaged but repairable homes, and 330,000 completely destroyed houses.
The chairman said that a sufficient quantity of seeds for this year’s ‘rabi’ crop (crops sown in the winter) is available, quoting figures collected by Sindh government officials. “It has been decided to do away with the proposed projects in the flood hit areas which were not cost-effective,” he added.
Qadir said around 85% of affected families had returned to their areas, with only 15% still living in temporary shelter. Water has receded in 90% of the affected areas and stagnant water from the remaining 10% will be drained out in the next two weeks.
Qadir had further statistics. He said 2.28 million acres of cropland was lost and 116,557 heads of cattle perished in Sindh. Over 200 health facilities were damaged or destroyed in both the provinces, out of which 80 were currently non-functional.
The rains have affected more than one million children in the two provinces, where approximately 9,781 schools are reported to have been destroyed or damaged. The number of affected schools was 9,250 and 571 in Sindh and Balochistan respectively.
Published in The Express Tribune, November 24th, 2011.
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