PESHAWAR: Mindful of upcoming harsh winter season, the flood victims of Nowshera have started reconstruction of their houses on self-help-basis despite soaring prices of construction materials and labor charges.
Misal Khan, a retired government employee was among one of the flood victims of Nowshera district, who initiated re-construction of his house with a new hope and determination to complete it before the advent of harsh winter season.
Belonged to village Dheri Mian Ishaq of tehsil Pabbi in Nowshera district, Misal Khan (83) was being seen bringing construction materials including sands, bricks and stones with the help of a handcart to the construction site.
“I along with my family members was busy in breakfast in veranda when suddenly two rooms of my house collapsed due to flash floods and torrential rains in River Kabul that inundated my entire village on August 28, 2022 ,” he told APP.
Helped by his sons to bring construction materials from street to construction site on self-help basis, Khan was working against the time before the winter season sets in,” he said.
“We used old bricks and stones in reconstruction keeping in view the high cost of construction materials including bricks, steal and cement besides labor cost,” he said, adding 4,000 bricks were available to Rs 54,000 to Rs 56,000 in market that was beyond of purchasing power of low income groups, retired employees and salaried class.
Besides high-cost of construction materials, he said the labour-cost was also increased after the catastrophic floods and Rs 1,000 per labour and Rs1,500 per meson have added to difficulty of flood victims.
Kamal Ahmad, another flood victim whose house was completely damaged by floods in his hometown Nowshera began reconstruction of his house after removing mud brought by the gushing water of River Kabul.
“Floods had deprived me of all belongings including house built by my late father Hamayuan Khan and it was very difficult for orphans like me to reconstruct it on the same architectural designs,” Kamal Ahmad, a resident of flood Nowshera told APP.
Besides household items, he said the August 28 floods had taken away livestock being his only source of income.
“When I woke up on the fateful day of August 28 last, I rushed towards my cattle farm located on the bank or River Kabul where I look after my animals and saw no clue of them as there was eight to 10 feet water everywhere,” he said.
Like Kamal and Sajid, most of flood victims of Nowshera and Charsadda were looking towards financial support of KP government to enable them to reconstruct their structure ahead of harsh winter season.
According to National Disasters Management Authority (NDMA), the flash floods affected 20,56,805 houses including 827,003 destroyed and 1,229,802 partially damaged in the country between June 14 to September 27 .
In Khyber Pakthunkhwa, 9,1463 houses were damaged including 37524 fully destroyed.
Besides 1663 deaths including 614 children and 12,865 injured including 4,006 children, the flash floods brought havoc to 1,142,095 livestock including 21,328 in KP.
The federal government expedited disbursement of flood cash assistance among affected population under the Benazir Income Support Program and disbursed Rs 48,597,675,000 among 1,943,907 affectees till September 27, 2022.
Likewise, disbursement of Rs 68,990,025,000 among 2,759,601 beneficiaries were planned in all provinces including Gilgit Baltistan.
In Khyber Pakthunkhwa, a total of Rs 4,935,425,000 were disbursed among 197,417 flood victims while disbursement of Rs 7,894,325,000 among 315,773 were planned in KP.
Ikhtiar Wali Khan, Spokesman of Pakistan Muslim League-N and member provincial assembly told APP that disbursement of cash relief assistance among millions of flood victims by federal government would help provide the much needed relief to the affected population.
Under the National Finance Commission Award, he said the revenue and financial resources of the provinces were increased and great responsibilities rest on the provincial governments including KP government to help flood victims in their respective provinces as they have now greater financial resources than before.
He said Prime Minister Muhammad Shehbaz Sharif had effectively highlighted the problems of flood victims during his historic address at the United Nations General Assembly (UNGA) and at a meeting with the world leaders on the sidelines of the 77th session of UNGA.
Ikhtair Wali said Pakistan was most vulnerable to climate change due to its geographical placement and world should come forward by helping millions of marooned people of Pakistan.
Inspite of being one of the lowest emitters of greenhouse gases, he said Pakistan was facing the brunt of the climate change due to increase of emission of greenhouses gases mostly by the developed countries affecting our country.
He said Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif had highlighted climate change issue and global warming vulnerabilities during his UNGA’s historic address and sensitized world leaders about its negative effects on the region’s environment and people’s lives.
