KARACHI: The recent heavy downpour and floods have damaged 1.7 million houses fully and partially in Sindh, creating an urgent need for shelter.
This was informed by Chief Minister Sindh Syed Murad Ali Shah in a meeting chaired by Chairman PPP and foreign Minister Bilawal Bhutto Zardari here at CM House on Monday.
“As the Sindh govt intends to immediately initiate rehabilitation efforts for the affected families; therefore, we are finalizing a standard for housing reconstruction for the affected people,” the CM said.
At this Chairman Bilawal Bhutto suggested that the houses should be weather-resilient so that they could withstand future calamities. He said that keeping in view the impact of climate change there was a need to construct weather-resilient houses for flood-affected people so that they could survive even if another natural calamity like floods or heavy rains hit the province. “But this may take more time to select the technology; therefore, the package for construction of damaged houses must be finalized at the earliest,” he urged the CM.
Bilawal directed the Sindh government to start disbursement of cash for the seed the growers have purchased to grow the Rabi crop across the board within the next 20 days.
“The flood/ rain have already caused huge loss to the growers and now they have prepared their lands for Rabi crops; therefore, they must be supported to meet the requirement of their agricultural inputs.”
The chairman PPP was told that the standing crops over an area of 3.6 million acres have been damaged in the recent flood which caused an Rs421 billion loss to the growers.
CM Murad Ali Shah said that to provide relief to farmers, it has been decided to provide free inputs to them.
“As a first step, an exercise is under way to compensate the farmers for wheat seed through cash transfers,” he said and added that Rs5000 would be given per acre.
The CM said that his government has provided Rs8.39 billion and the federal government has pledged to contribute Rs4.7 billion. He added that the total requirement for the purpose was Rs13.5 billion.
To a question, the CM told the PPP chairman that the provision of subsidy on fertilizer was going to be worked out once the funding commitments from the federal government were made. He added that Rs46 billion were required for this intervention.
The CM told the chairman that the World Bank was supporting the farmers holding land up to 25 acres. At this, Bilawal directed the CM to give compensation for wheat seed to all farmers across the board regardless of the size of their landholding.
CM Advisor Manzoor Wassan told the meeting that wheat was sown over an area of 2.43 million acres.
Murad Ali Shah said that Rs45.51 billion would be required if fertilizer was given to the growers. He added that DAP and urea for wheat would cost Rs39.48 billion, the seed for oil crops Rs1.85 billion, and fertilizer (DAP and urea) for oil seed crops Rs41.8 billion.
Bilawal formed a committee under Manzoor Wassan with Sharjeel Memon, and Syed Nasir Shah to collect and verify the data of farmers so that disbursement could be made at the earliest. He said that the farmers should be sent text messages to transfer funds to their accounts or through the mobile phone cash system.
Replying to a question, the CM told the chairman that so far Rs220 billion, including Rs110 billion pledged by the World Bank, Rs55 billion by the federal govt, and Rs55 billion Sindh govt, have been arranged. He added that the estimated funding for fully damaged houses was Rs300 billion.
Shah told the PPP chief that the PC-1 of the housing project was lying with the Planning Commission of the federal government. At this Bilawal said that he would get it approved by the federal government. He assured the CM that more donors would be approached to meet the total fund requirement.
The PPP chairman was told that so far 749,979 tents, 525,177 Tarpaulin, 3.6 million mosquito nets, and 2.2 million ration bags have been distributed by the provincial government, NDMA, Pak Navy, and Air Force.
The chief minister told his party chief that poverty in Sindh would increase by between 8.9 and 9.7 percent points, “Multidimensional poverty is expected to increase by 10.2 percentage points,” he said and added among the provinces, the housing stock in Sindh has been worst affected, accounting for 83 percent of the total housing damages.
The chairman PPP directed the Sindh government to implement social protection plan so that poverty could be controlled.
Shah said that on 31st August 2022, an area of about 1,988,919 acres (2.0 M Acre) was under inundation along the right bank of River Indus and the estimated volume of water was approximately 14 MAF. He added that as on November 10, 2022, an area of 1,547,959 acres have been evacuated which was about 78 percent of the total inundated area on right bank and the remaining area of land under water on the right bank side was 440,960 Acres (0.44 M Acre).
Copyright Business Recorder, 2022
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