ISLAMABAD: In response to the July 2015 flash floods in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa's Chitral district, the United States government, through the US Agency for International Development (USAID), is providing $326,000 this year to help repair the area’s drinking water infrastructure and agricultural economy.

“We are working to restore the provision of food and drinking water, and put people’s lives back on track as soon as possible,” said USAID Mission Director John Groarke.

“I want the distressed families to know that the American people stand with them during these trying times.” he said in a statement issued from Islamabad.

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This week, USAID began helping repair 10 gravity-flow water supply pipelines that provide drinking water to more than 11,000 residents in Ayun union council of Chitral.

In addition, the United States government will buy 141 metric tons of wheat seed, enough to support 3,500 farming families, and help nearly 100 small businesses reopen, including 30 water mills which are essential for grinding grains, the handout said.

Since 2009, the US government has contributed more than $1 billion in humanitarian assistance to Pakistan, the statement added.

Chief Minister Pervez Khattak said earlier in July that the infrastructure devastated by flash floods in Chitral would be restored temporarily within one month while permanent rehabilitation would take six months, Dawn newspaper reported.

Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Assembly was informed in August that the damage caused to infrastructure by torrential rains and subsequent floods in Chitral had been assessed at around Rs4 billion.

Over 300,000 people were affected by the calamity, the provincial government said at the time.