Centre, Sindh govt’s poor flood response criticised

Noted experts, intellectuals, writers, human rights activists and civil society representatives expressed grave concern on Friday over the federal and Sindh governments’ failure in providing adequate relief and early recovery services to the flood-affected communities of the province. At a provincial-level consultation meeting to discuss issues confronting the flood-hit communities of Sindh, they pointed out that 84 percent people of the flood-affected areas face food insecurity. The meeting was organised by the People’s Accountability Commission on Floods (PACF) – a network of flood relief volunteers from the civil society and representatives of the flood-affected communities. 
The participants of the meeting said that the majority of the affected people have no health and education facilities. The government failed to address the health problems of these communities and it was only the WHO and UNICEF that provided them assistance to some extent. They demanded that the government should assure transparency in the distribution of Watan Cards so that only deserving people avail this facility They said the government should provide relief to the affected people without any corrupt practices. “It is the responsibility of the government to assure dewatering, so that people can return to agriculture for their livelihood,” they said.  The participants of the meeting questioned the performance of the government that was unable to accumulate even 56 percent of the funds needed for providing relief to the flood-hit people. They also lambasted the decision to allocate Rs 8 billion – needed for the restoration of 9,327 schools damaged by floods – to provincial lawmakers. The meeting was chaired by Nisar Affendi while the participants included Nisar Sheikh, Prof Manzoor Isran, Ali Hassan Chandio , Fazal Suleman Qazi , Fayyaz Niach , Sikander Brohi , Qasim Chandio, Atta Mohammad Shahni, Saleem Abbasi , Rafiq Ahmed Channa and Waheed Pahnwar.