PESHAWAR: The Khyber Pakhtunkhwa government has termed the flood situation in Chitral very critical and demanded of the federal government to provide helicopters to it for transportation of relief goods to the affected localities.

Addressing a press conference here on Sunday, Provincial Minister for Information Mushtaq Ahmed Ghani said that the helicopter of provincial government was out of order so it had to rely on army in that regard.

He said that 32 people were killed and one was injured in the flood so far. The casualties were reported from Malko, Othal, Reshun, Broz, Ayun, Reshun Bandogol, Hanjal, Greenshut and Goker areas of Chitral, he added.

Know more: Relief operation continues in flood-hit Chitral as death toll reaches 31

The minister said that 348 houses were destroyed completely, 77 were damaged, 43 water supply schemes were damaged and 27 bridges were washed away by the flood. Similarly, 50 shops, five mosques, six hotels, nine buildings, four schools, and over 200 fodder stocks were also destroyed and about 1,700 domestic animals were washed away, he added.

Mr Ghani said that due to destruction of the infrastructure, the affected areas could not be accessed and efforts were made to provide tents so that the people could be facilitated in their respective areas as they were not ready to migrate to other localities.

He said that government had provided 565 tents, 2860 blankets, 141 mats, six bundles of life jackets and 70 hygiene kits to the people in the affected areas.

In addition to the Rs140 million package announced by chief minister for the flood-hit areas, he said, provincial government released Rs2.6 million to livestock department, Rs14 million to health department and Rs140 million to local government department.

The minister said that Frontier Works Organisation was tasked with rehabilitation of roads and local administration was directed to expedite work on data collection so that the affected families could be compensated.

About situation in Peshawar, the minister said a girl child lost her life when she slipped into Budhni Nullah. Efforts were underway to retrieve her body. Floodwater entered houses and shops while district administration and workers of Rescue 1122 shifted the families in the affected areas to building of government-run school, he added.

The minister said that government had already alerted the people through loudspeakers about possible flood. There were still chances of floods in the affected areas because the growing encroachments had complicated the problems, he added.

Mr Ghani said that government was determined to remove all encroachments across the province. He said that in the past, successive governments never paid attention to that issue. That’s why people grabbed state lands and narrowed the streams which resulted into many problems, he added.

The minister said that provincial government had decided to impart special training to police so that the personnel of reserve police could take part in rescue work during natural disasters.

He said that all the deputy commissioners were directed to remain alert, take timely action for relief of the affected people and maintain data for provision of early compensation.

The officials of Provincial Disaster Management Authority said that sufficient food and non-food items were provided to the affected people.

Published in Dawn, July 27th, 2015

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