KARACHI – The provincial government has officially ended all flood-relief activities in the province, saying that the efforts will be now concentrated on the rehabilitation of flood survivors.
This was confirmed by Sindh Rehabilitation Minister Haji Muzzaffar Shujra, who while talking to Pakistan Today on Saturday, said that shifting its efforts from relief towards rehabilitation, the Sindh government will soon hand over 2,000 houses to flood-affected families in the first phase.
However, according to the Provincial Disaster Management Authority (PDMA) Sindh, 130 relief camps are still present in different districts of the province with 104,710 people of 14,970 families living in such camps.
“The genuine people affected by floods have returned to their villages but around 30,000 to 40,000 are still living in relief camps, who are mostly gypsies,” said the minister. Some others are not leaving the camps for their hometowns in fear of landlords or other influential as they have to pay back their loans which they took before the floods, he added.
Shujra said that more than 7,000 houses will be reconstructed and handed over to the flood-affected families. “In the first phase, 2,000 reconstructed houses will be given to the families displaced by floods in Jacobabad, Kandhkot, Kambar-Shahdadkot, Dadu, Thatta and other districts,” he added.
The provincial minister also said that despite the Sindh government contacting the federal government for release of funds for flood survivors many times, the centre is still reluctant.
Due to this the work on strengthening and repair of dykes was delayed, he said, adding that if the federal government does not give funds, the provincial government will contact other international funding agencies.
