Pakistan Flood-2010 was the worst natural disaster in the country's history. The disaster, termed as a 'Slow Evolving Tsunami' by the UN Secretary General, was an unprecedented natural disaster, affecting entire length of the country and causing maximum damages in the Provinces of KPK, Punjab and Sindh.
Within approximately one and a half month, these floods affected 78 districts out of a total of 141 districts of the country. These floods were caused by a very heavy spell of monsoon rains, which are described as the worst in this area in the last 80 years. As per the Pakistan Meteorological Department, 300 mm (12 inches) of rain fell over a 36-hour period in the northern parts of Pakistan. The resultant flood caused number of causalities, left two million homeless, standing crops over 21% of the total agriculture land were washed away, more than million livestock was killed, besides causing huge damage to infrastructure.
The Government machinery and Armed Forces responded immediately to the natural disaster and were joined by national as well as international humanitarian agencies in subsequent rescue and relief efforts. National Disaster Management Authority (NDMA) undertook many additional tasks related to co-ordination with federal/provincial ministries, armed forces, UN, NGOs, visits by various dignitaries and consignment handing etc along with co-ordinating rescue and relief operations during the flood disaster. To handle this massive disaster, existing staff including few additional officers attached from armed forces and federal ministries were re-organised/re-grouped in NDMA to meet the challenge of rehabilitation of flood victims.
Leaving behind a trail of death and destruction, the flood water has receded in most parts of the country. The overall flood situation has normalised in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa and Punjab, however, 254,241 acres of land in Sindh and Balochistan are still inundated. A significant proportion of displaced population has already returned. As against the 5928 relief camps all over the country during peak floods, the figure has come down to 228 relief camps where around 150,000 flood affected people are still living as of 31 December, 2010.
In order to provide financial support to the flood affectees, the Federal Government launched Watan Card Scheme. The modalities for disbursement of funds were finalised jointly by NDMA and NADRA, Rs 27.29 billion have been disbursed to 1.44 million people through these cards.
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