F.P. Report
HYDERABAD : Sindh Minister for Information, Transport and Mass Transit and Focal Person for Rain Emergency in Hyderabad Sharjeel Inam Memon addressing at the press conference at Rawal House, Tando Jam today said that there was a significant development regarding Manchhar Lake and the government had decided to save the two towns Sehwan and Bhan Saeedabad and the irrigation experts decided to give cut and save Sehwan which had 3,000,00 population alone.
He said that five UCs Jafarabad, Wahur, Channa, Aarazi and UC Bubak would be affected by the cut in Mancher Lake and arrangements had been made to shift people from there while Chief Minister Sindh Syed Murad Ali Shah himself had reached Sehwan. ” We had to take this difficult decision and the population of 125,000 would be affected”, He said. He informed that 563 deathes and more than 22,000 injureds had been reported while more than 6,72000 people had been staying in the relief camps.
He said that more than 100,000 cattles had also been killed in the province. He said utility stores had been given order of 115,000 ration bags but only 8,000 ration bags had been received adding that as the utility stores showed their slowness to fulfill the orders it was decided to give orders to private vendors.
He said that the most affected areas were being given more focus in relief work and added that 23 districts were surrounded by water.
He informed that dispensaries in every relief camp were being established while pregnant women in the relief camps would be shifted to hospitals where emergency had been declared. He urged upon philanthropists, federal and provincial institutions to play their vital role in relief and rescue works. He said that people of affected districts were coming to the cities while 125,000 people affected by Manchhar Lake would also be shifted to tent cities where they would be provided food and medical facilities.
He said that rescue and relief was their first priority and resources were required for them. He said that if there had been given a cut somewhere, the concerned institutions had been taken into confidence while hard decisions had been taken to save the population.
He said that as a result of the cut in the Manchar, the Sindh Chief Minister’s own village and house would also be got submerged adding that the Chief Minister of Sindh also made a sacrifice to get the water released towards his village so that more population could be saved. Sharjeel Inam Memon said it was the huge natural disaster which they did not have training to deal with. He said that the data was being collected to estimate the losses and added that devastations were going on and not over yet.
He said that once the floods were passed, dewatering work would be started in the submerged areas. He that said that for the rehabilitation of affected people short-term and long-term policies were being made under which in the first phase, the infrastructure would be restored and in the second phase, affected people would be helped to rebuild their collapsed houses.
