Flood-hit areas: Sindh forms committees for rescue, damage assessment

KARACHI: Sindh Chief Minister Syed Murad Ali Shah on Thursday decided to constitute district-level committees comprising deputy commissioners concerned, representatives from Corps-V, Engineering Corps, local government, PDMA, and local communities to conduct a survey and damages assessment right from village level so that proper relief could be provided to the rain-affected people.

“The purpose is to reach to the affected families and support them in a transparent, proper, and decent way,” the CM told this to participants while presiding over a rain emergency and relief meeting here, said a statement issued by a spokesperson of the CM House.

The CM Sindh said the committees being formed at the district level would not only work for relief, rescue, survey, early recovery, and damage assessment but procure all the required material and goods, right from tents, mosquito nets, food items, medicines, machinery, and such other things.

It was pointed out that the Provincial Disaster Management Authority (PDMA) has distributed 80,000 tents and has placed an order for another 180,000 tents but a requirement of one million tents has been generated by the district admonition.

The chief minister said the River Indus was in high flood, Guddu Barrage has 517392 cusecs upstream and downstream flows, Sukkur Barrage 597753 and Kotri 297178 cusecs flows.

“Comparatively our embankments of our rivers are in a better position than the flood situation of 2010 and 2011 but even then, various vulnerable points are under pressure,” he said and added if the mountains range of Punjab received more rain the flows in the river would increase thereby exerting more pressure on the protective walls.

Murad said the people living in the Riverine Belt had vacated their houses and had started lining the embankment of the river. In case of any emergency situation, they would migrate further to the main roads.

Copyright Business Recorder, 2022