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Islamabad: The unusual monsoon rains has adversely effected Sindh. In order to apprise representatives of Media about the current situation in the flood affected areas and initiatives of Federal government and the National Disaster Management Authority (NDMA) in providing rescue and relief to the affected population, the Chairman NDMA, Dr. Zafar Qadir conducted a Press Briefing. The representatives of leading print and electronic media attended the briefing.
Informing representatives of the media about the floods, Dr. Zafar Qadir said that due to the floods, 80% of Banana, Dates, Chilli, Sugar Cane and especially Cotton crop (equivalent of 2.3 Million Bales destroyed), and a total of 690,000 houses have been destroyed. He informed that Badin-Karachi road is also inundated, making relief provision an even more difficult task. Dr. Zafar Qadir said that the physical infrastructure is in shambles at the hands of flood waters.
Giving details of rescue and relief efforts by the Federal government and the NDMA in the flood hit areas, Chairman NDMA said that the erratic weather pattern caused this calamity as 280 mm rain was recorded within 48 hours, while 300 mm rain has been recorded on 7 September, 2011 and there has been a forecast of more rains during the next 5 to 7 days.
He informed that NDMA was the first to dispatch tent consignment to the affected areas and so far 43,000 tents have been provided to the flood hit areas, while 18000 are being transported which will reach the affected areas tomorrow.
He informed that the Federal government has already purchased the entire tent production of the country and 100,000 more tents will be dispatched to the affected areas in the next ten days. The Chairman NDMA said that so far 600,000 family ration packs have been provided to the flood affectees out of which more than 500,000 have been the contribution of the NDMA.
He informed that the Sindh government provided dewatering pumps but as the requirement was more, NDMA got dewatering pumps manufactured from Gujranwala even during the Eid holidays.
Dr. Zafar Qadir said that 8.5 Million Aqua tablets, 10 Million Sanitation tablets have been provided to the affected areas, the NDMA is procuring maximum manufactured capacity of Anti-Malaria Guns and 50,000 family ration packs are supplied daily to the flood affected population. The Chairman NDMA said that as soon as the water will recede, NDMA will launch Early Recovery initiatives in the affected areas.
A detailed question and answer session ensued after the briefing. Answering various questions of the journalists, the Chairman NDMA said that he himself, the UN Representative in Pakistan, along with a team of professional and technical people will visit the flood ravaged areas on 8 September to undertake assessment of the damages and their financial impact after which the government will decide to carry out the relief work by itself or involve the UN and Bilateral Donors. The Chairman NDMA assured that every effort will be made to mitigate hardships of the affectees.
For more information, contact:
Ahmed Kamal
Spokesperson
National Disaster Management Authority (NDMA)
Tel: +9251 9215412
Cell: +92300 5278981 and +92331-5657779
Email: maf@ndma.gov.pk