Residents use a donkey cart to carry their belongings out of the flooded streets of Pangrio town in the Badin district on Wednesday. – Photo by Reuters

ISLAMABAD: The government, through the United Nations, has launched an appeal for $356 million international assistance for the people of rain- and flood-affected areas despite the fact that it has not utilised Rs5 billion collected for flood victims last year.

According to sources, the fund set up for collecting donations last year still has Rs5 billion and despite efforts made by the National Disaster Management Authority the government is reluctant to release the amount for relief and rescue operation.

Bureaucratic hitches are said to be the main reason behind non-utilisation of the funds.

When contacted, former NDMA chairman Gen (retd) Nadeem Ahmed confirmed that an amount of Rs5 billion not used so far was lying with the government and because of bureaucratic hitches it was not being provided to the authority to expedite its operation in the affected areas.

“I brought the issue to the knowledge of decision-makers but the funds were not released,” he said.

The government, the NDMA and the UN launched an appeal to the international community, on Sunday, seeking $33.2 million as rapid response to the disaster so that the money could be spent on water and sanitation, food and shelter.

An official said the funds collected earlier had not been released because disaster management had become a provincial subject after the 18th Amendment.

According to official figures, more than eight million people have been affected by the heavy monsoon rains and the death toll has reached 250.

Meanwhile, the Speaker of the National Assembly has written a letter to Prime Minister Yousuf Raza Gilani suggesting that the NDMA should be wrapped up because of what she called its ‘poor response’ to rescue and rehabilitation needs in Sindh.

Dr Fehmida Mirza said the NDMA had not reached the flood-hit areas even a month after the disaster. “The NDMA is earning a bad name for the government and, therefore, it should be wrapped up,” she said.

She said people in the affected areas were not blaming the NDMA but the political leaders for their plight.

Mr Gilani also expressed dissatisfaction over the performance of the NDMA and lashed out at its chief during a visit to Nawabshah on Friday.

However, a source in the NDMA said Gen (retd) Nadeem had told the speaker during a meeting last year that funds were available with the government and should be spent to provide relief to people.

NDMA spokesman Irshad Bhatti said the authority was not ready to cope with the disaster this year because the meteorological department had forecast 10 per cent less rains in Sindh. “And some of the districts hit by the floods were not
mentioned in the forecast.”

The spokesman agreed that the government had made a delayed call to the international community for help and said the
NDMA had provided the help it could. “We have provided 150,000 tents, 150,000 water treatment tablets, 60,000 mosquito tents and two water treatment plants to each affected district,” he said.

He said it was not the responsibility of the provincial governments and PDMAs to provide rescue and relief goods to the affected people.

“The basic duty of the NDMA is to coordinate among different stakeholders like NGOs, philanthropists and foreign donors to generate funds and their utilisation is the responsibility of the PDMAs,” the spokesman said.

Another NDMA official said that after last year’s floods some protection measures had been suggested, including raising the canal embankments at an estimated cost of Rs48 million but it had not been done and now the government had spent over Rs2 billion on rescue and relief work.

Had the suggested measures been taken, the destruction caused by the current floods could have been minimised, he said.

The official said a fund set up by Earthquake Reconstruction and Rehabilitation Authority for the victims of the 2005 earthquake also had Rs800 million which is not being used to help the flood-affected people.