KARACHI: Sindh Chief Minister Syed Murad Ali Shah has said that his government has started the reconstruction of 2.1 million houses to rehabilitate more than 12.6 million flood-affected people, which exceeds the population of 154 countries.

“We are also supporting water, sanitation, and hygiene interventions. A funding of Rs39 billion has been secured to connect 264,250 houses with safe sanitation facilities.”

This he said while talking to journalists after reviewing the progress of reconstruction of the houses at the Sindh Peoples Housing for Flood Affectees (SPHF) office on Tipu Sultan Road on Thursday.

Provincial ministers Sharjeel Memon, Nasir Shah, Makhdoom Mahbood and DG SPHF Khalid Shaikh were present on the occasion.

The chief minister said that Rs550bn was required for the construction of 2.1m houses against which his government, with the support of donor agencies, had secured Rs440bn and the shortfall of Rs110bon would be met through foreign funding and federal government support.

Murad Ali Shah said that the initiative aimed at implementing a sustainable rehabilitation strategy after 2.1m houses were damaged by the floods of 2022, affecting 12.36m people. A total of 85 per cent of the affected homes were mud-thatched houses.

Mr Shah said that the initiative was driven by the vision of PPP Chairman Bilawal Bhutto-Zardari who, being the foreign minister, successfully mobilised funds at Geneva Conference in January 2023 and the Donors Conference in Sindh on February 8, 2023.

The CM said 525,000 houses were currently under construction and over 100,000 houses had already been completed.

“At the project’s inception, we received financial assistance from the World Bank amounting to $500 million, supplemented by $227 million from the Sindh government. To date, we have secured around 70 per cent of the necessary funding for the project’s successful completion, with additional support currently in the pipeline from the Islamic Development Bank and the Asian Development Bank,” he said.

He added that by the end of next year, the government would complete between 1.2 and 1.5m houses.

“When we talk about the reconstruction of 2.1m new houses, we are talking about the rehabilitation of more than 12.6m flood-affected population, which exceeds the population of 154 countries.”

Mr Shah said that the positive impacts of this comprehensive housing reconstruction program were evident through the beneficiaries’ self-reliance, as they were rebuilding multi-hazard-resistant houses themselves.

He added that the programme employed the latest and most transparent technologies/Manage­ment Information Systems, ensuring that grants for housing reconstruction were transferred directly into the beneficiaries’ bank accounts.

Published in Dawn, June 7th, 2024