ISLAMABAD: Pakistan decided to form a national flood response body after holding a high-level emergency meeting on Monday, as monsoon claimed 75 more lives across the country and took the national death toll to 1,136 since the beginning of the season in June.
According to official estimates, more than 33 million people have been affected by the unprecedented floods that were caused by heavy monsoon rains in the country and damaged roads, bridges and crops across the country.
Pakistan’s senior government functionaries have visited flood-affected areas in Sindh, Balochistan and Khyber Pakhtunkhwa provinces in recent weeks to monitor relief operations while seeking international help to deal with the situation.
“At national flood emergency meeting today, we have approved the establishment of National Flood Response & Coordination Center to provide [institutional] response to the flood calamity,” Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif said in a Twitter post, adding that the center would be led by him and include federal ministers, representatives of armed forces, provincial chief ministers and experts.
“The Center will serve as a bridge between disaster management authorities, donors & government institutions,” he continued. “It will collect & analyze latest information & pass it on to the relevant govt agencies. It will also oversee rescue & relief work including restoration of infrastructure.”
Pakistan’s planning minister Ahsan Iqbal also told Reuters in an interview on Monday that the recent floods in the country had caused significant damage to infrastructure which could cost the country over $10 billion.
“I think it is going to be huge,” he said. “So far, (a) very early, preliminary estimate is that it is big, it is higher than $10 billion.”
“People have actually lost their complete livelihood,” Iqbal added.
Recently, the country’s army chief, General Qamar Javed Bajwa, urged affluent citizens, expatriate Pakistanis and friendly nations to step forward and help the flood victims while visiting Khairpur district in Sindh.
“Given the magnitude of the floods, the rehabilitation work may take years,” he said.
