PESHAWAR, Aug 30: The NWFP government, in collaboration with donor agencies, has undertaken survey of areas hosting Afghan refugees to assess damage to the infrastructure.

Speaking at a press conference at Peshawar Press Club on Friday, Town-I Nazim Haroon Bilour said the district government with the assistance of United Nations Children’s Fund had launched community infrastructure development projects in the city to improve the municipal services affected due to the presence of refugees.

Unicef’s representative, Farooq Khan Abbasi, said the UN agency had granted $200,000 for water supply schemes and improvement of drainage system in Town-I. He said Afghan refugees had affected municipal services in Town-I, as according to some estimates it hosted 400,000 refugees - the largest refugee concentration at a place during the 20-year stay of Afghans in Pakistan.

The Nazim said the previous government did not utilise Afghan refugee areas’ rehabilitation funds on the hosting areas which stressed the city’s municipal system, including water supply, health, education and sanitation. He said the district government was in contact with other donor agencies  to provide funds for the rehabilitation of the localities.

Giving details of the schemes launched with the partnership of Unicef and Pakistan Village Development Programme, an NGO, he said that in the first phase of the programme, six tubewells had been installed while construction of drainage system was under way. He said Unicef had agreed to provide 100 fibreglass dustbins for garbage collection.

Other projects include school teachers training, students orientation and training in planning and monitoring of public service delivery mechanism.