The several plans made by the authorities to re-settle thousands of flood affectees have clearly failed, as the Sindh government has failed to ensure the implementation of even a single plan, thus rendering people homeless.
In 2010, the Sindh government had announced to construct houses in six cities of the province, particularly in Karachi, to arrange settlements for around 0.435 million flood affected families of Sindh, currently rendered homeless due to unprecedented floods. Besides, many plans by the provincial government in this regard, but all those plans have miserably failed as no work could be carried out despite a passage of two years, sources told Pakistan Today.
According to details, the Planning and Development Department prepared a comprehensive plan to ensure the re-settlement of 2010 flood effected families in Karachi, Hyderabad, Sukkur, Larkana, Shaheed Benzirabad and Jamshoro cities/districts. For the first phase of the plan an amount of Rs. 2 billion were also allocated. However, the project could not take off at all, and as a result about 7 million flood affected people, up-rooted from their own houses, were still running from pillar to post to get shelter. They were still camped out under the sky and hoping to receive help from the rulers in view of the promises made to them by their elected representatives, the sources added.
Ironically, as many as 18,400 acres land was earmarked for the construction of these houses in six big cities of the province as mentioned above. The details of city-wise break-up of the earmarked land were as follows:
Karachi City: 9,000 acres in the order of 2,000 acres near Ghaghar Pahttak Deh Ghaghar, Dhabeji, 200 acres in Memon Goth near Razzakabad,400 acres in Cattle Colony, 400 acres on super high wayGadap Road Deh Ibrahium Hyderi and Deh Ghanghiro, 2,000 acres in Deh Allahphihai (near northern by-e-pass), 1,000 acres in Rcd/Northern by-e-pass Deh Mehio, 2,000 acres near toll plaza, 1,000 acres in Kemari Town.
District Jamshoro: 400 acres in Deh Boro Jabal (from Luhms to Sehwan Road), 1,000 acres near Nooriabad Industrial Area, 2,000 acres in Command Area of Darawat Dam District Hyderabad, 2,000 acres near Ganjo taker Zeal Pak (Airport-tm Khan Road) Hyderabad.
District Nawabshah: 1,000 acres on Airport Road/Taluka Nawabshah Shaheed Benazirabad. District Sukkur: 1,000 acres on Airport Shikarpur Road Sukkur.
District Larkana: 1,000 acres in Deh Areja, Taluka Bakrani in Larkana and 1,000 acres near DHA Karachi city.
The plan had also envisaged to settle 2, 25000 flood affectees in nine different areas of Karachi division, 85,000 at three different places in Jamshoro city/Ditrict, 50,000 affectees in Hyderabad district. In addition as per the formula prepared by the government planners, 25,000 families each were to be settled in Karachi, Sukkur, Shaheed Benazirabad and Larkana districts. But, nothing so far had been initiated to meet these targets as no requisite funds for the said project could be released. The sad aspect of this episode was the fact that instead of providing shelter to the flood affected people, as promised, the funds allocated for this project were diverted towards other projects.
The apathy and indifference of the state institutions was particularly exposed on the eve of launching rescue and relief work to help the flood displaced people of Sindh. The inhuman conduct of government officials with these flood affectees were witnessed, when as per the promises of the provincial government as many as 7 million displaced persons, belonging to different far flung areas of the province, traveled and got temporarily settled in open areas at various places in the above mentioned six cities. They did so with the knowledge that the chief minister and ministers had promised to provide them shelter as well as food essentials. But unfortunately, those promises were never fulfilled. Similar was the conduct of the government with regard to their promises to rehabilitate the damaged public infrastructure in the affected areas like schools buildings, dispensaries, and roads.
According to estimates, 2,500 schools all over Sindh were damaged or destroyed in 2010 floods. Most of the infrastructure facilities had so far not been restored even after the passage of two years. Some non-governmental organisations (NGOs), with the support of foreign donors, had restored a few of these infrastructure systems in certain districts. However, a majority of public buildings were still in need of restoration.
“Material cost of one house”: As per government estimates, the cost of the material required for constructing one house was around Rs 1, 28541. The details of the cost of different items of the required materials as officially provided were as follows: Rs 12,199 for a single roof, Rs 19,479 required for procurement of cement, Rs 23,056 for bricks, Rs 10,349 for sand, Rs 9,775 for doors and windows, Rs 3,902 for girders, Rs 4,781 for bamboo to be used in roof making, Rs 31,000 for labour force, Rs 4,000 for hand pumps, and Rs10, 000 on miscellaneous expenditure.
