Islamabad: UN team led by its head in Pakistan and NDMA – National Disaster Management Authority – team under leadership of its Chairman Zafar Iqbal Qadir will leave Islamabad for flood-hit Sindh on Thursday.
This was stated by the NDMA chairman on Wednesday in a press conference held at the Prime Minister’s Secretariat.
He said the UN team and NDMA teams would visit the affected areas to asses the situation and future strategy. The chairman said that the teams would also meet with the provincial officials including the chief minister of Sindh.
He said that in Sindh people were living without shelters in certain areas from they are unwilling to move or inaccessible for teams to reach. However, the exact number of such people is not certain as officials’ still lack data, he added.
He said that Thar was basically a desert where rains were never expected but this time torrential rains caused floods in the area, all the current situation was not predictable and it happened all of a sudden due to climate change.
Chairman NDMA said that he himself, the UN Representative in Pakistan, along with a team of professional & technical people will visit the flood ravaged areas to undertake assessment of the damages and their financial impact after which the government will decide to carry out the relief work by itself or involve the UN & Bilateral Donors.
The Chairman NDMA assured that every effort will be made to mitigate hardships of the affectees. To a question that UN and foreigner organization were expecting rains as well as floods while criticizing Pakistan for making no preparations, he said that no scientist said that and certain groups with vested interest were making such claims. Nevertheless, he accepted that approach of Pakistan toward disasters is reactive, so far, and not proactive. He said that climate change has shifted the paradigm as well but “we are still living in past”. Till date the rains have crossed the limit of 300 mm which was unpredicted in Sindh.
To another question, he said that the Government of Pakistan had decided to appeal for help to the Pakistani nation but as when they are going to urge people to help the flood affectees is their choice.
According to a rough estimate, more than 4 million people have been affected by the floods. Hundreds of people are missing or died, over 80 pc crops have been destroyed and hundreds and thousands of houses have been destroyed besides 200,000 cattle killed.
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