Diarrhoea cases increased due to lack of potable water, PA told

The Provincial Assembly of Sindh was informed on Wednesday that the number of diarrhoea patients had been higher among people in the flood-hit areas due to the unavailability of clean drinking water.

Health Minister Dr Azra Fazal Pechuho said this as she participated in the ongoing discussion in the House on the recent natural disaster in the province. The PA has been holding a debate on the flood situation since Monday.

Dr Azra briefed the legislature that some 695,000 patients in the calamity-stricken parts of the province had been examined by special medical teams during the flood emergency. She said that over 11,000 stationary and 17,000 mobile medical camps had provided emergency healthcare services in the disaster-hit parts of Sindh.

She told the assembly that some 500,000 children in the flood-hit areas had been vaccinated against different contagious diseases. She said that emergency healthcare services had also been provided to pregnant women in the calamity-stricken areas.

She also said that lady health workers had actively and selflessly taken part in the operation to provide emergency treatment services to the affected communities despite the fact that their own homes had been inundated due to floods.

The health minister said that boats had been used to provide emergency medical aid to the people marooned in their houses due to floods. She said mosquito nets and potable water had been provided to the disaster-hit people to protect their health during the flood emergency.

Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf MPA Rabia Azfar Nizami said the floods had affected the buildings of some 29,000 public schools in the province. She said the floods had completely destroyed the buildings of some 13,000 government schools.

The opposition lawmaker expressed fear that up to 50 per cent of the children in the flood-hit parts of Sindh would be out of school because of the massive damage caused to the educational infrastructure.

She said it seemed that the provision of education would only be a viable option through private schools in the aftermath of the floods in the province. She also said the education minister should brief the House about the plan he had prepared to revive schooling in the calamity-stricken areas of the province, given that the chief minister had stated that up to three years were required to restore the damaged school infrastructure.

Rabia said that apart from the school buildings, the floods had also damaged houses, adding that the provincial government should not require a decade to rebuild the homes of the displaced people.

Grand Democratic Alliance MPA Arif Mustafa Jatoi said the provincial government had claimed that it had distributed 600,000 tents among the flood victims, but in reality, “these tents were seen nowhere in the province after the calamity”.

He claimed that the provincial government had distributed flood relief goods on political grounds. He said the armed forces had been seen actively working to provide relief to the flood victims, but the Sindh government had not been seen anywhere providing emergency relief.