QUETTA: The Provincial Disaster Management Authority (PDMA) of Balochistan will coordinate with the non-governmental organisations engaged in flood relief so that they could reach the regions where their assistance was needed the most, the chief minister’s adviser on Home and Tribal Affairs said after a meeting with the NGO heads on Tuesday.

The representatives of NGOs briefed Mir Ziaullah Langove, the adviser, about their work in different districts.

Mir Langove later told a press conference that rains and floods had robbed the poor of their livelihood and displaced over 1.5 million people.

“Since Pakistan is not a developed country, it cannot cope with this emergency alone. Balochistan badly needs assistance from NGOs because it’s the least developed province in the country,” Mir Langove said.

He said although rains had abated, vast areas were still under water and rescue teams were unable to reach out to millions of marooned people in the province.

However, Mir Langove added, the Army and the administration had joined hands to rescue them through helicopters.

“I hope rescue teams will do their best to provide food items and drinking water to the people stranded in Nasirabad division,” the adviser said.

He said the funds allocated by the prime minister for flood victims should be used to provide relief to those in dire need. “The National Disaster Management Authority has a huge responsibility and the nation is looking up to it in these desperate times.”

A number of dangerous diseases have broken out in several districts of the province, compounding the challenge the Balochistan government has on its hands, Mir Langove observed.

Chief secretary in Nasirabad

Balochistan Chief Secretary Abdul Aziz Uqaili visited the flood-affected districts of Nasirabad division on Tuesday. Local Government Secretary Dostain Khan Jamaldini and Agriculture Secretary Umid Ali accompanied him.

Deputy commissioners of the division briefed the chief secretary about relief operations in their districts.

The meeting was told the floods had destroyed all standing crops in the province’s green belt and rendered hundreds of thousands of people homeless.

The chief secretary said the provincial government had decided to set up tent cities in the affected areas so that homeless people could stay there pending their rehabilitation. “Provision of essential items to people living in camps must be ensured,” Mr Uqaili said.

The health department has set up medical camps near camp sites and the livestock department has pitched in by providing facilities for treatment of sick animals, the chief secretary added.

Published in Dawn, September 7th, 2022