Recent heavy rains, flash floods: NDMA directed to jointly conduct damage assessment survey: minister

ISLAMABAD: Minister for Planning, Development and Special Initiatives Ahsan Iqbal on Wednesday said that a joint survey will be carried out by the federal and provincial governments to assess the damages caused by recent floods in the country.

“The federal government had directed the National Disaster Management Authority (NDMA) to jointly conduct a damage assessment survey of recent heavy rains and flash floods across the country. All provincial governments and Pakistan Army would fully support the NDMA to conduct the survey to expedite the rescue and relief activities in the flood-hit areas of the country,” the minister said while addressing a press briefing along with Chairman NDMA Lt General Akhtar Nawaz.

He said that after the survey, the presentation of total losses would be presented to the multilateral partners such as the World Bank to receive help from the international institutions.

He said that the government would provide assistance to those families who lost their houses in the calamity besides building the damaged infrastructure.

The minister said the federal government has announced a compensation of one million rupees each to the families who lost their dear ones during the floods. He said this compensation had been provided to 80 percent of the people.

He said that Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif has also decided to immediately launch a special package for the flood-hit areas of Balochistan.

The chairman NDMA said some 630 people had died and 1,130 people were injured due to recent rains and flash floods. Moreover, he said 1.087 million people were directly or indirectly affected by the rains, 72,500 houses were damaged, and 1.011 million animals were also affected.

He said that on average, the country faced 150 percent more than average rainfall. He said that Balochistan was the worst-hit province which received 280 percent more rains followed by Sindh that received 228 percent extra rains.

He said that 98 percent of Tarbela Dam had been filled to its capacity while only 38 percent of Mangla dam had so far been filled due to less rains in the catchment areas.

He said that three districts of Balochistan including Lasbela, Jhal Magsi, and Jafarabad were badly hit by the rains, three from Punjab including Mianwali, DG Khan, Rajanpur, three from Sindh including Dadoo, Sajawal and Thatha, and four from KP including DI Khan, Tank, Laki Marwat, Kohistan and Charsada.

He said the information given was based on the initial assessment while the final and accurate assessment would be ascertained after the joint damage assessment survey.

Copyright Business Recorder, 2022