b) stabilizing the country's economy;
c) creating a government of inclusion, and
d) combating extremism and creating a culture of moderation.
In July 2010, heavy rains in the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, Sindh, Punjab and Balochistan regions of Pakistan, flooded nearly one-fifth of Pakistan and left approximately 20 million residents displaced. Floods had destroyed 2.2 million hectares of standing crops and threatened future plantings. An estimated 3,915 km of highway and 5,646 km of railway were also damaged. The country had not yet fully recovered from the floods of 2010 when heavy monsoon rains in August 2011 triggered more flooding in lower parts of Sindh and northern parts of Punjab. According to official data, over four million acres of land had been inundated; 2.5 million acres of crops destroyed and over a million houses damaged or washed away. Out of the 5.44 million people affected by the floods, there were 2.60 million women and 1.96 million children. 64 percent people in the flood-affected areas were without clean drinking water, 67 percent food stock had been destroyed and 280,000 families had lost their livestock. More than 9,232 schools had also been damaged - 8,820 in Sindh, 297 in Balochistan and 115 in Punjab. The government's highest priority was to provide for the flood victims and restore basic services and infrastructure in the affected are
Pakistan's National Disaster Management Authority (NDMA) acted as the primary coordinating agency at the federal level. During the flood crisis, the NDMA collected all aid from governments, agencies, NGOs, and INGOs and distributed them among the Provincial Disaster Management Authorities via five forward operating bases, one in each province. The NDMA distributed hundreds of thousands of blankets, tents, meals, as well as water and food. Visit Pakistan Floods: Relief, Recovery and Rehabilitation for more information on NDMA's aid distribution. The Government immediately called on international support in the face of the disaster and continues to work with the international community. Initially, more than USD$1.6 billion of funding was pledged by the international community for rehabilitation for the flood-affected community. International financial institutions put together between USD$2 billion and USD$3 billion to contribute to rehabilitation and rebuilding destroyed infrastructure. The National Database and Registration Authority (NADRA) launched the transparent disbursement of flood relief cash grant/aid of Rs. 20,000 (USD$233) per family by disseminating Watan Cards in flood-affected areas to facilitate the victims in receiving. Till February 2011, over Rs. 27,000,000,000 was disbursed through the processing of 1,400,000 Watan Cards across the country.
In 2011, the NDMA worked on the same strategy to provide relief in the flood-affected areas that it had in the previous year. In coordination with the concerned District Disaster Management Authorities (DDMAs) and Provincial Disaster Management Authorities (PDMAs), the NDMA provided food worth Rs 1.5 billion to the flood-hit people of Sindh, while 25 NDMA teams were working in the affected areas. Rs.40 to 50 million had also been provided to each district so that the concerned authorities could manage and arrange all required items. President Asif Ali Zardari visited the flood-affected towns to review the relief work, following which he appealed to the UN and the international community for humanitarian and rehabilitation assistance. After a team of UN agencies visited the flood-affected areas for needs assessment, an appeal to raise $356 million under its Rapid Response Plan 2011 was launched, to be spent initially on 91 projects in the flood-affected areas of Sindh and Balochistan to address emergency needs. 47 % of the assessed funding requirements have been received so far. Visit Pakistan Flood Response for up to date information on international contributions. The President also appealed to the people of Pakistan from various segments of society, including the expatriate community, to make generous contributions and assist in the rescue, relief and rehabilitation efforts. President Zardari has set up a special Flood Control Cell at the Aiwan-e-Sadr to regularly interact with the elected representatives and DCOs and monitor the flood relief activities in the areas affected, via satellite video conferencing. Important steps towards recovery and rehabilitation by the president include directions to:
- chalk out a workable comprehensive master plan for dealing with the issue of drainage of stagnated water from flood-affected areas;
- expedite and complete on priority basis all reconstruction projects of damaged roads and infrastructure;
- launch the Rabi Assistance Plan to ensure the availability of seeds to the farmers for sowing the Rabi crop in lower and upper Sindh on time;
- ensure proper distribution of Pakistan Cards among the flood affectees.
Furthermore, the Sindh Government has been given a time period of one year, starting November 2011, to complete infrastructure projects related to irrigation and roads. The President also advised the government to set up a dedicated bank to finance these projects and invite private entrepreneurs to rebuild roads, bridges, rail tracks and other infrastructure on Build-Operate and Own (BOO) basis.
As a nation, we face challenges, some of them undeniably tough, like the threat of extremism, a troubled economy, a...