'Flood hit families to get Rs100,000 each'

Abdul Hafeez Sheikh says foreign aid will be disbursed impartially.

Finance Minister Dr Abdul Hafeez Sheikh said that flood-hit families will be given Rs100,000 each in accordance with the damage assessment made by the World Bank and the Asian Development Bank.

Sheikh said foreign aid will be disbursed impartially. He was commenting on a question regarding the recently released Oxfam report warning that funds for flood releif were drying up and threatening the aid and reconstruction effort.

He said farmers in flood-hit areas will also be receiving subsidies, explaining farmers will be given loans on a lower interest rate of eight per cent as opposed to the normal rate of 13.5 per cent.

He added that flood rehabilitation will continue for the next year and that the activities of the United Nations and National Disaster Management Authority (NDMA) will continue as well.

Ealier today, Oxfam released a report warning that three months into Pakistan’s unprecedented flood crisis, funds were drying up, putting millions at risk with swathes of farmland still under water. A top Red Cross official also warned today that thousands of flood victims in Pakistan are likely to receive no aid at all. The official said the international community might also fail to understand the full extent of the disaster.

UN officials say 10 million people are in need of immediate food assistance and health authorities have reported 99 confirmed cases of cholera. “The funding shortfall is so serious that existing regular food rations to 3.5 million people could be in jeopardy,” Oxfam said.