National Disaster Management Authority (NDMA) while strongly rejecting the assessment made by the World Food Programme (WFP) regarding the food insecurity in Sindh has said neither there is any fear of food shortage nor would any such situation to arise in future.
Chairman NDMA, Dr Zafar Qadri while talking to the media persons here on Thursday said that the share of Sindh in overall food production of the country was considerable. "There is no shortage of food in Sindh while for the ongoing Rabi season, the seeds of wheat and sun flower have been provided to the growers by the government of Sindh to avoid any shortage of food in the province in future".
WFP in its recent report has pointed out that 34 percent of the flooded areas of Sindh were still under water and Sindh still remained the most food deprived province of the country, with food insecurity at 72 percent and malnutrition as high as 23 percent.
The chairman said that the Damage Need Assessment (DNA) report that is being compiled by the Asian Development Bank (ADB) and the World Bank would be launched by the end of December.
"The UN flood assessment report was sent to the governments of Sindh and Balochistan for approval two weeks back. After the approval of the report, a meeting was held on December 14 in NDMA office which discussed the projects based on the recent 'flood assessment report.' The meeting was attended by the UN representatives and officials of the Sindh and Balochistan provinces," Dr Zafar Qadri said.
During the meeting various projects related to the restoration of the flood-affected areas were discussed. "It has been estimated that an amount of $480-500 million is required for the projects which the government has to arrange through the donors. Almost 40 percent ($150 million) out of the already appealed $357 million have been received so far. The fiscal year of most of the countries ends on December 31. So, it is being expected that the donors would disburse considerable amount of money to Pakistan after the end of their fiscal year," the chairman added.
"According to estimates, for the project on 'Shelter' in which 2-5 lac shelters would be provided to the flood-affected people of Sindh while 9000 would be given to Balochistan with estimated cost of $188 million. For water and sanitation $53.5 million, for food and agriculture $100 million, for education sector $30.5 million, for nutrition $19 million, for health 4 51 million, for routine infrastructure $42 million, and for protection of vulnerable communities $12 million have been estimated," the chiarman revealed.
Dr Zafar said that the total number of flood-affected people was 4.8 million, and in Balochistan it was 0.332 million. He said that the final approval of the projects is expected next week. The chairman admitted that the NDMA lacks the capacity required to overcome the worst disasters due to the lack of staff. He said that a 'work plan' is being prepared that is about the pre-planned preparations to avoid the complications and huge damages during the disasters in future. The plan would be finalised till February 2012.
Comments
Comments are closed.