Flood money went to BISP: Civil society report

Thousands of people still don’t have shelter, says the volunteer network.

KARACHI: The federal and provincial governments diverted billions of rupees for relief work to the Benazir Income Support Programme (BISP), according to a civil society report, which was issued on Thursday by the Peoples Accountability Commission on Floods (PACF), a network of volunteers and representatives of flood-affected communities in Sindh. 

According to the report, eight million rupees was set aside for the rehabilitation of flood-affected people in nearly 200 villages and for the construction of 40,000 houses under the annual development programme for 2011-2012. The amount was allocated to MPAs to do work in their constituencies.

The report, titled ‘Critical Situation of Humanitarian Funding for Flood-Affected Communities’ said that around  90 per cent of flood water has reportedly receded from affected areas, but more than 55,953 peoples and 10,000 families still live in temporary settlements in Sindh.

About 42 per cent of the residents in temporary settlements have said that they don’t have clothing and support to face the cold. Critical needs include the renovation of about 2,800 partially damaged schools and transitional schools structures in 1,450 schools that were totally damaged.

The report claimed that Rs12 billion was reserved for the Sindh Social Relief Fund in 2010 and 2011 to mitigate natural disasters and emergencies, but the money has gone into the BISP instead. The report also claimed that nearly 68 per cent of flood victims have been discriminated against and denied relief in areas such as Mirpurkhas, Badin, Umerkot and Tharparkar.

The report quoted the government figure of spending Rs2.281 billion on emergency relief services in the shape of dry rations, drinking water, tents, plastic sheets, transportation, suction pumps but it was not enough.

Published in The Express Tribune, February 17^th, 2012.