Flood relief in Pakistan’s worst-hit provinces

06-09-2022

Finia Hilmes

Pakistan & Human Rights Researcher

Global Human Rights Defence

According to a press release issued on Monday, 793,701 families affected by the floods had received humanitarian financial aid under the Benazir Income Support Programme’s (BISP) Flood Relief Emergency Cash Assistance Programme (Dawn, 2022). The BISP stated that the social safety network is providing Rs 25000 to each family in flood-affected areas throughout the country and until now the BISP has distributed more than Rs 19.8 bn under the programme (Dawn, 2022).

More specifically, in the province of Balochistan 90,396 families received Rs 2.25 bn, in Sindh 466,045 families received Rs 11.6 bn, in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa 98,677 families received Rs 2.4 bn and in Punjab 138,583 families received Rs 3.4 bn (Dawn, 2022).

The BISP’s administration has directed the staff concerned at campsites to facilitate the affected people in their respective regions (Dawn, 2022). Further, the affected families have been asked to send their CNIC numbers for registration in the Flood Relief Cash Assistance Programme and upon receiving the payment message they should visit their nearby campsite to receive the payment in cash (Dawn, 2022).

Another programme providing help to flood-affected families is the nationwide Million of Meals programme introduced by PepsiCo. The programme aims to deliver emergency food assistance of five million meals to people affected by the severe flooding in the worst-hit districts in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, Sindh, Balochistan and Punjab (Dawn, 2022). The programme is part of the global food security platform Food for Good focusing on making meals more accessible to communities (Dawn, 2022).

Moreover, on Monday the United Nations International Children’s Emergency fund (Unicef) delivered 32 metric tons of life-saving medical and other emergency supplies to support children and women affected by the severe floods (Dawn, 2022). The shipment reportedly includes medicines, medical supplies, water purifying tablets, safe delivery kits and therapeutic nutritional supplements (Dawn, 2022). The supplies provided by the UN organisation were handed over to the government of Pakistan represented by Sindh’s Ministry of Health and Population Welfare (Dawn, 2022). Another shipment of 34 metric tons of humanitarian supplies including medicines to treat parasitic infections, resuscitation and sterilization kits, micronutrients for pregnant women, educational supplies and recreational kits to help children cope with the trauma is expected to arrive today (Dawn, 2022).

Lastly, the German Federal Foreign Office announced that it is providing food for the next two months for 1,000 particularly hard-hit families in Balochistan through the Consulate General in Karachi (Dawn, 2022). Further, the German government announced that it will also make food and medical supplies available for another 60,000 people with the help of the German Red Cross (Dawn, 2022)   

Sources and further reading: 

Dawn. Rs19.8bn disbursed among flood-hit people so far: BISP. (2022, September 6). DAWN.COM. Retrieved September 6, 2022, from https://www.dawn.com/news/1708674/rs198bn-disbursed-among-flood-hit-people-so-far-bisp