ISLAMABAD: UN team led by its head in Pakistan and NDMA team under
leadership of its Chairman Zafar Iqbal Qadir will leave Islamabad for
flood-hit Sindh today (Thursday).
This was stated by the
National Disaster Management Authority (NDMA) chairman on Wednesday in
a press conference held at the Prime Minister’s Secretariat.
He
said that 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. Online
