Monitoring Desk
ISLAMABAD: The flash floods in Pakistan may create a situation of food security in coming days as rice, banana, onion and other agriculture produces have been badly affected.
Minister for Planning, Development, and Special Initiatives Ahsan Iqbal Monday said that the recent floods and torrential rains have also damaged 40-50 percent cotton crop across the country.
He said Pakistan is witnessing more devastation than that caused by the flood in 2010.
The minister informed that 0.9 million livestock and one million houses have been washed away in the recent floods while over 1000 people lost their lives.
The Minister made these remarks while speaking at the event titled, “an overview and findings of the Rural Poor Stimulus Facility (RPSF) – Waseel-e-Khurak, pilot project” that was organized by the Scaling Up Nutrition (SUN) in collaboration with Ministry of Planning Development & Special Initiatives.
In 2013, he said when the PML-N government took the charge, the country had already faced devastated floods in 2010 and it launched the fourth phase of Pakistan flood protection programme to minimize the impacts of such floods.
“In May 2017, we got approved the Programme from Council of Common Interest duly signed by all the provinces and it was agreed that new infrastructure would be built under the programme”, he added.
He said it was also agreed that Rs 177 billion would be spent under the Programme and the provinces would contribute half of the amount.
However, he said despite completing the final roadmap to spend Rs 177 billion under the programme, the next PTI government dumped this programme in the cold storage and not a single rupee was spent on this programme.
Had we spent Rs 177 billion under the programme, the loss would be far less than what we are facing now, he added.
Ahsan Iqbal said a big challenge is ahead as the 30 million people have been affected and the government have to help them standing on their feet.
He expressed his resolve that under the leadership of Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif, the government would complete the rehabilitation process of the flood hit areas.
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