Miseries of flood victims persist as relief work go on in KP

PESHAWAR: Flood affectees in different parts of the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa are still faced with miseries as relief and rescue activities continued on Sunday after

water level started coming down in rivers.

Along with camps established by volunteers of different political parties including Al-Khidmat Foundation of the Jamaat-e-Islami (JI), the Awami National Party (ANP)’s Khudai Khidmatgar organisation, Jamiat Ulema-e-Islam (JUI-F)’s Al-Khair Trust and Ansarul Islam, the Pakistan Muslim League Nawaz and Pakistan People’s Party, the Provincial Disaster Management Authority (PDMA), the district administration has set up 55 relief camps in Nowshera.

In Nowshera, a total of 230,000 people were shifted to safer places. About 25,000 people are in camps including 6,500 in Pabbi and 2,500 in Jehangira and 16,000 in other camps in the district.

Similarly in Charsadda, 17 relief camps have been established wherein 2,230 people were being provided food and other needs. In Charsadda, about 180,000 people have been shifted to safer places. Flood victims from Charsadda took shelter on Motorway M-1 and spent two nights on the road to save their lives.

Meanwhile, a Pakistan Army helicopter airlifted tourists from Kumrat and a rescue operation was going on in which the provincial government helicopters also dropped food stuff and airlifted the stranded people in various areas.

However, the affectees complained of shortage of food, medicines, drinking water and other necessities. During the devastating flood and rain, the role of welfare organisations and volunteers remained commendable, especially of the Al-Khidmat Foundation, Al-Khair Trust and ANP’s Khudai Khidmatgars.

Al-Khidmat Foundation volunteers timely reached to the help of people stranded in floods and rescued them. They also provided food and other necessary non-food items to the affectees. The Al-Khair Trust and Khudai Khidmatgars also reached the needy people where administration was not visible.

PMLN provincial president Amir Muqam also remained active and visited different flood-hit areas as compared to other political parties. The ruling Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) ministers and MPAs’ absence was felt with anger as the affectees complained that aid from the government was equal to nil. Though the district administration in some districts like Nowshera was appreciated on social media for the relief work.

Life in severely-hit Malakand, Hazara and DI Khan divisions is yet to return to normalcy as floods have destroyed roads and bridges besides other infrastructures though the government relief operation has been launched but a bit late. In many areas people have lost their homes and are compelled to live in temporary shelters.