The United Kingdom (UK) government on Tuesday announced that it would help over half-a-million people in Pakistan recovering from last year's floods by building flood-resistant homes, restoring vital irrigation and drainage systems, creating jobs, replacing animals and fodder, as well as providing seeds, tools and fertilisers ahead of the upcoming Kharif planting season.
The support amounts to 20 million (2.7 billion rupees), majority of which will go to the worst affected areas of Sindh, as well as to Punjab and Balochistan, said a press release issued by DFID (Department for International Development) here on Tuesday.
This tranche of UK aid will among other things:
-- Build 5,000 flood resistant one room brick homes in Sindh, benefiting some 35,000 people;
-- Provide cereal seeds and tools to hundreds of thousands of people in time for the Kharif planting season;
-- Provide kitchen gardens with vegetable seeds and tools to more than 50,000 people in Punjab and Sindh, so they can grow food for their family;
-- Benefit tens of thousands of households and farms by the restoration of irrigation and drainage systems so they can start planting for the main Kharif season;
-- Pay tens of thousands of men and women cash for working to help rebuild infrastructure;
-- Give 12 chickens, two goats or fodder to each of 12,110 households;
-- Provide 7,530 flood resistant seed storage containers, to prevent loss of vital food stores in future flooding; and
-- Restore 10 acres of fish ponds so people can catch their own food.