In the meeting between Sindh Chief Minister and IRC CEO, wider cooperation to help the flood victims was discussed. Photo: File
Karachi: The Chief Minister of Sindh, Murad Ali Shah, has said that according to a report, another 5 million people of Sindh province may go into poverty due to the flood situation, because the life of Harsheba has been severely affected by climate change and heavy rain.
He said during an online meeting with the head of the International Rescue Committee, David Miliband, that according to the Disaster Needs Assessment Report, the total losses due to floods are about 61 percent and 75 percent of the total losses.
The International Rescue Committee (IRC) has agreed with the Sindh government to support post-flood relief activities, climate change projects and support in the health sector, particularly in relation to malnutrition.
The chief minister said that the devastating effects of floods have destroyed a significant part of the public sector investment in the province as it has spread across all sectors. He added that 24 out of 30 districts have been declared disaster prone where the floods have affected more than 12.4 million people.
The August September 2022 floods have claimed more than 1,000 lives, damaged more than 2 million houses and killed more than 450,000 livestock. The Chief Minister said that around 20,000 schools and more than 1,000 health sectors have been damaged.
The floods also damaged approximately 8,500 km of road network and 7,300 km of irrigation network and are estimated to increase the provincial poverty rate by pushing an additional 5 million people below the poverty line and 4.3 More than a million additional people are at risk of food insecurity.
The IRC CEO said that his organization is interested in working with the provincial government on relief activities, projects related to climate change and in the health sector, especially in relation to malnutrition and maternal and child health.
He further said that his organization is working in eight districts of the province, Dadu, Jamshoro, Thatta, Sajawal, Badin, Tharparkar and Umarkot to deal with the problems of malnutrition in maternal and child health care. Chief Minister Sindh and Mr. Miliband also discussed the strategic plan prepared by the provincial government.
Strategic Action Plan: The Chief Minister of Sindh said that the ‘Strategic Action Plan’ prepared by his government is aimed at dealing with floods in Sindh and guiding the priorities in the short, medium and long term perspective. He said that the main focus of the strategic action plan is to work on strategic priorities for planning, programming and implementation for Sindh in the post-flood context, while the strategic action plan has prioritized key areas to solve systemic problems.
These areas, particularly related to natural disasters, include ‘correcting systemic problems, people-centred approaches, building on existing models and systems and aligning existing budget frameworks with resource complements’. Strategic Action Plan Irrigation and water resources infrastructure (including drainage systems), housing and community facilities, livelihoods, communication (road infrastructure), education, health, and human impacts (poverty, social security, food (focuses on safety, psychosocial effects).
Murad Ali Shah told the IRC chief that farmers have been given cash to buy wheat seed at the rate of Rs 5,000 per acre, which has resulted in a large crop of wheat in the current Rabi season in Sindh. He further said that flood affected people are being given cash for reconstruction/repair of their damaged houses for which work has been started in Hyderabad and Sukkur Division.
The IRC CEO told the Chief Minister that he will discuss with his team the problems facing the provincial government and then come to Karachi for a personal meeting to finalize the program of relief activities.
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