Pakistan lawmakers, UN join hands to speed up flood relief work in Sindh before winter sets in

Karachi: The United Nations and lawmakers of the Sindh Assembly joined hands to speed up the flood relief work to rehabilitate maximum number of victims in the province before winter sets in.

The consensus to this effect was reached as the parliamentary committee in Sindh for flood relief and rehabilitation work held its second meeting at the Assembly building.

Deputy Speaker of Sindh Assembly Rehana Laghari, who chaired the meeting, expressed her concern that floodwaters had yet to be cleared from a number of calamity-hit parts of the province as winter was about to begin.

She noted that there would be a manifold increase in the demand for essential relief goods including food packages, clothes, tents, medicines, and makeshift washrooms for flood victims during the winter.

She said the government had the utmost resolve to join with the concerned global donor and relief agencies and local charities to speedily resolve issues related to relief work.

Parliamentary Secretary for Health Qasim Siraj Soomro said the provincial authorities had been getting help from the World Bank and the UN for the restoration of the secondary healthcare facilities in the province.

Adviser to UN Resident Coordinator in Pakistan Bronwyn Russel said the humanitarian agencies were accountable before the lawmakers who wanted to know the details of the relief work.

She conceded that the UN and its subsidiary agencies, owing to the limitation of the resources, couldn’t conduct the relief work in all the areas devastated by floods.

She said that there was an urgent need to send a fresh emergency appeal to the world community to get more assistance as the foreign aid so far received by Pakistan was highly insufficient to complete the relief work.

The provincial health officials told the committee that there had been an alarming increase in malaria and dengue cases in the calamity-hit areas of Sindh after the flood emergency.