PESHAWAR/TANK: At least 264 people including 36 women and 106 children have been killed in rains and floods-related incidents across Khyber Pakhtunkhwa since June 15 to August 29, the Director General Provincial Disaster Management Authority (PDMA) informed on Wednesday.
According to the PDMA statistics issued here, 327 people have been injured during the period in question and shifted to local hospitals for treatment by the rescue workers. The statistics further showed that 156 schools and other educational institutions were damaged as a result of excessive rains and floods in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa including in merged districts.
The calamity also badly hit the livestock sector as 9411 animals reportedly died in the province. The most affected calamity- hit districts of the province were Dera Ismail Khan, Swat, Karak, Lakki Marwat, Tank and Kohistan where floods and rains inflicted heavy losses on human lives, houses and standing crops.
PDMA DG Sharif Hussain talking in this connection said the authority has so far released funds amounting to 850 million rupees for the affected districts since July till date. Besides, he said for the most affected districts, the authority provided tents, mattresses, edible and other needed items on emergency basis that were distributed among the affectees through the respective district administrations.
Relief Items Transported On Camels To Reach To Remote Localities
The district administration has to fall back on camels, which are also known as “ships of desert” to transport relief items and foods items to remote localities of the district, which have been severely affected by the heavy monsoon rains.
“We considered it as the most efficient way to carry relief goods and foods by camels to the flood-stricken people in remote villages of Raghaza and Manjihi which remain completely cut off after heavy monsoon rains turned into raging torrents, wreaking havoc with infrastructure,” Deputy Commissioner Hameedullah Khattak told APP on Wednesday.
He said there were a total of 612 houses with 4000 inhabitants in the two areas with ground access completely destroyed and the district administration had hired camels locally to undertake the gruelling journey by using camels to supply ration and relief items to these far off villages.
Initially, the DC said, Pak army and FC with efforts of the district administration, ration was provided to six to eight marooned villages through helicopter service.
But later upon the directions of the provincial government, it was decided to utilize camels as a means of transportation for the distant localities which remained completely cut off from the rest of the district.
Referring to rehabilitation and relief efforts in flood affected areas of the district, Hameedullah Khattak said three relief camps had been set up in the district wherein 750 flood-affected are living and they were being provided with meals three times in a day.
He said that 22 medical camps were operated and special health teams had been constituted to provide best healthcare services to the flood affected people across the district.
In such emergency situations, the DC maintained that reaching to stranded people always remained the first priority of an administration, therefore road links were being restored and in this regard, a total of 18 roads including three main and 15 branch roads had been restored and opened for traffic.
He said that district administration’s teams visited house to house and pitched tents for about 1000 houses. Similarly food items and other daily use items were being delivered to the deserving families in the district, he added.
About restoration of power supply, the DC said that out of 13 feeders in Tank district, power supply had been restored for consumers of 12 feeders while Wadpa officials had been directed to expeditiously complete work on the remaining feeder too, so that no consumer was left without electricity.
