Number of flood-affected people in KP soars to 4.2m

The number of flood-affected people in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa soared to 4.2 million with reports of more destruction on Thursday. Official death toll also reached 847 after the confirmation of 46 more casualties, while the number of villages destroyed across the province was reported as 468, rendering 720,608 people homeless, Provincial Information Minister Mian Iftikhar Hussain told media here. The minister said 100,110 houses had been destroyed and 56,695 houses partially damaged. Other figures of infrastructure destruction included 233 roads, 208 bridges, 169 educational institutions, 37 health facilities, 307 water supply schemes, 39 government buildings, 561 electricity transformers, 172 electric poles and five grid stations, he said, adding that the floods also killed 7,793 cattle heads and livestock and swept away crops on 26,737 acres of land. Mian Iftikhar said the destruction figure was on the rise as more cases of human and material losses came to light daily as access was made to the affected areas. He said more relief camps had been established in government buildings, raising the number of camps to 385 in the province where more than 0.1 million people of 15,349 families have been accommodated. About relief goods, he said 105,530 food packets, 86,000 blankets and 12,448 tents had so far been distributed among the affected people. He said that mobile teams of the Health Department were vaccinating the people in the affected districts like Peshawar, Charsadda, Nowshera, Mardan, DI Khan, Buner, Swat, Shangla, Kohistan and Dir Upper while in Peshawar alone 4,858 people had been provided healthcare facilities. The minister said that 12 medical teams were working in Charsadda, four in Nowshera and 19 in DI Khan providing services in the affected areas along with Unicef and Red Crescent Society staff. He said that besides the district administrations, Pakistan Red Crescent Society, World Food Programme, Unicef and other welfare organisations were fully engaged in relief activities. Admitting that many people were still waiting for relief, he said relief items were being sent where access was possible either through land route or by helicopters. He argued that the government could not be blamed if access was not possible to some places. He said the fumigation, animal vaccination and work on water supply restoration was also going on. To a question about assistance from Islamic states, he said Saudi Arabia had sent 150 tents for which the government was thankful to the Kingdom. About grant from the federal government, he said that no grant had so far been released but the provincial government was hopeful that the Centre would look into the miseries of the people of the province and would contribute maximum possible amount. The minister asked the countrymen, expatriate Pakistanis and the international community to extend help to the needy in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa. He said flood damage in the province was 95 per cent of the damage that the entire country had faced due to floods. Mian Iftikhar also thanked a Bangladesh-based NGO, Obrak, for distributing relief items among the affected in Lala Killay, Peshawar and said that the UN, the US and China had responded to the disaster so far and sent assistance. To a query, he said the provincial government had been releasing whatever amount the district administrations had demanded for relief. The minister said the rehabilitation of roads and other infrastructure had been launched in the areas where weather conditions were improving. Many roads have been opened but dozens more were still closed and efforts were being made to restore communication system at the earliest, he said.