ISLAMABAD: Administrative control of flood-hit areas in the country will be transferred to safe districts for one month under the newly launched federal government’s Adopt a District program, Planning Minister Ahsan Iqbal announced on Tuesday.
According to the plan, districts with plenty of administrative and human resources will take over control of flood-affected areas.
Speaking at the National Disaster Management Authority (NDMA) in Islamabad, Iqbal pleaded on the province governments, particularly Punjab and Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa, to work with the federal leadership to ensure the program’s success.
“Punjab is largely unaffected hence we are giving it the major responsibility to aid flood-affected areas of Balochistan and Sindh,” he said.
He also stressed the need to set up mobile hospitals in affected areas to deal with the spread of water-borne diseases that are on a rapid rise due to inundation of water.
The minister appealed to doctors to set up medical camps wherever possible for the flood-hit people and also called on the unaffected population to donate generously for rehabilitation work.
Iqbal appealed to the health sector to ensure they help the government as outbreaks of diseases were being witnessed in several areas and are expected to increase.
The death toll from the devastating floods has touched 1,559, including 551 children and 318 women, while 973,632 livestock animals also died, the National Disaster Management Authority’s (NDMA) latest report showed.
The numbers also showed that 374 bridges were damaged and that 12,716 kilometers of road infrastructure were affected.
It indicated that there were close to 2 million destroyed homes overall.
As a result of the extensive loss of agricultural areas, Pakistan’s food security has also suffered significantly.
Moreover, NDMA Chairman Lt Gen Akhtar Nawaz said Pakistan has so far received 114 flights carrying relief goods from 20 countries.
Lt Gen Nawaz said 55 to 60% of relief goods have been sent to Sindh which is the most affected province followed by 15-20% to Balochistan.
