Rehabilitation of 2.4 million rain-affected people to cost Rs67bn, Sindh govt tells UN

The Sindh government has estimated the initial requirement of around Rs67 billion to rehabilitate 2.48 million rain-affected people in Sindh and pay them compensation for the loss of lives, houses and cattle.

This emerged in a meeting held between representatives of the Sindh government and a United Nations delegation at the CM House on Friday.

The Sindh government was represented by Sindh Revenue Minister Makhdoom Mahboob, Local Government and Information Minister Syed Nasir Hussain Shah, Law Adviser Murtaza Wahab, Chief Secretary Mumtaz Shah, Senior Member Board of Revenue (SMBR) Qazi Shahid Parvez and Principal Secretary to CM Sajid Jamal Abro, while the UN delegation members included UN Pakistan Humanitarian Coordinator Julien Harneis, WFP Country Director Chris Kaye, Unicef Chief Field Office Cristina Brugiolo, United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs’s Tanvir Illahi, WFP provincial head Dr Aftab Bhatti and United Nations Resident Coordinator Office’s Imran Leghari. The revenue minister, chief secretary and SMBR briefed the UN delegation on the devastation caused by heavy rains in Sindh.

The delegation was told that a maximum 743.01mm rainfall and a minimum 73.6mm was recorded in different areas of Sindh during the 2020 monsoon reason and the rains had caused havoc in different cities and towns, after which Chief Minister Syed Murad Ali Shah had to declare 20 districts as calamity-hit areas.

The chief secretary explained that 136 people had died during the heavy rains, 86 sustained multiple injuries, 15,233 villages were badly affected, 2,488,616 people displaced, and crops standing over 1,094,150 acres had washed away. Regarding the damages to houses, the meeting was told that 5,729 pacca houses and 71,614 katcha houses were completely destroyed, and 10,504 pacca houses and 126,674 katcha houses were partially damaged. A total of 45,961 livestock also perished during the rains, it was told.

The chief secretary said that 73 breadwinners of different families died in the calamity and it had been decided to pay Rs500,000 as compensation to those families each, which totalled Rs36,500,000. Other than breadwinners, 63 others also died due to the rains and the total compensation to be paid to their families would be Rs18,900,000 at the rate of Rs300,000 each.

The rains caused serious injuries to 86 persons and their compensation had been estimated at Rs8,600,000 at the rate of Rs100,000 each. Similarly, the reconstruction of 5,729 pacca houses collapsed during rains would cost Rs1,145,800,000 at the rate of Rs200,000 each house, it was told.

The repair of 10,504 partially-damaged pacca houses would cost around Rs1,050,400,000 at the rate of Rs100,000 each. The reconstruction of the 71,614 katcha houses that were destroyed would require a total of Rs7,161,400,000 at the rate of Rs100,000 each. Repair work for the 126,674 partially damaged katcha houses would cost Rs6,333,700,000 at the rate of Rs50,000 each.

The meeting was told that as many as 21,000 cows, buffaloes, horses had perished in the rains and their compensation had been fixed at Rs50,000 each, amounting to Rs1,050,000,000. Similarly, 24,961 sheep, goats and donkeys had died in the calamity and their compensation had been fixed at Rs10,000 each, totalling Rs249,610,000.

The total sum of the rehabilitation was computed to be Rs67,054,910,000. The revenue minister said the provincial government had from its own resources extended maximum support to the people displaced due to the downpour. “The support made so far was not enough and there was a wide gap between the supplies of tents, ration bags, mosquito nets, jerrycans, kitchen sets, animal mosquito nets and tarpaulin sheets,” he said.

The UN delegation members told the Sindh government that they had visited all the affected areas of Karachi, Mirpurkhas and Hyderabad divisions. The condition of the affected people and their cattle was quite painful but the media was not highlighting their plight, they said.

The UN delegation assured the Sindh government of their full support and cooperation to provide relief to the calamity-hit people and rehabilitate them. The delegation also urged other donor agencies to visit the affected areas, assess the situation and support the poor people.