Three teams of doctors from Punjab have been sent to Turbat, Balochistan while another three would be sent shortly for medical aid to the flood-affected areas, Chairman, National Disaster Management Authority (NDMA), Lieutenant General Farooq Ahmed (Retd) said on Wednesday.
Briefing the media here on the current situation of relief activities, he said 960 tonnes of relief goods had so far been sent to the rain-hit areas. The NDMA Chairman said 111 tonnes of relief goods were shipped via sea to Balochistan and it had been decided that if weather improved then mostly ships would be used instead of aircraft to ferry relief goods to the affected areas.
He said relief goods had also been sent through 54 flights of C-130 aircraft that pressed into service from the very first day after the floods. Farooq Ahmad said the federal government had sent 73 truckloads of relief items besides providing 17,500 tents, 32,000 blankets and 4000 mattresses to people in the affected areas in NWFP and Balochistan.
He said the Center had so far provided 200 million rupees each to Sindh and Balochistan and 50 million rupees to Federally Administered Tribal Areas. To a question about assessment of total damages by floods, he said international experts along with local teams were expected to complete the survey in next three to four weeks after which a report on damages would be prepared.
Dismissing the impression of any ban on non-governmental organisations (NGOs) to operate in the affected areas, he said, "We only want co-ordinated efforts, so we asked the NGOs to work in co-ordination with the government organisations." Responding to a question about international aid, the NDMA chairman said the international donors could assist in terms of cash and kind.
Farooq said Inspector General of Frontier Corps Salim Hayat was monitoring the relief operations in Balochistan and over 15,000 troops had so far been deployed in the affected areas. He said a total of 239 people had been killed due to flash floods - 111 in Balochistan, 100 in Sindh and 28 in NWFP- and 199 people were still missing in these areas.
Outlining the damages in Balochistan, he said total affected population was 1.1 million and over 100,000 people were rendered homeless. He said major highway N-25 had now been opened to traffic while repair work on the Gwadar Highway was under way as it had been damaged at six various spots.
Farooq Ahmed said there was a prediction of light rains in the next three days and hoped that would not further affect the relief activities. Answering a question, he said damaged embankment in Shahzad Kot was being repaired and 50,000 people were being evacuated to safer places.