AKF set to launch rehab, reconstruction activities

PESHAWAR: Actively engaged in the rescue and relief operations in the flood-hit areas, the Al-Khidmat Foundation has planned to launch rehabilitation and reconstruction activities to enable the victims of the natural disaster to return to normal life.

The survey phase has begun to collect information about the damages caused by floods. Details of the damaged houses, schools, mosques, and other infrastructures would be collected and shared with donors to launch reconstruction, said provincial president of the foundation Khalid Waqas while talking to media persons here on Tuesday. He said that the foundation has so far distributed relief items worth Rs650 million in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa and the relief operation was still in progress.

Around 7,000 trained volunteers of the foundation were taking active part in the rescue and relief activities, he said, adding, the volunteers have rescued some 6,085 persons.

He informed that the floods had badly affected some 17 districts of the province, including Chitral, Lower and Upper Dir, Swat, Charsadda, Nowshera, Tank, Dera Ismail Khan, Kohistan and others. The foundation had planned for the rescues and relief operation months before the onset of the disaster in view of the threat alerts issued by the departments’ concerned.

Necessary equipment and training had been provided to the volunteers and district level management of the foundation in the districts where floods had been forecasted, he added.

Sharing details of the support given to the flood victims, Khalid Waqas said that 2,4021 ration packages, 96,720 boxes of cooked food, 983 tarpaulins, 1,098 tents, 1,514 packages of non-food items, 350 mosquito nets, 747 blankets, and 20,1375 pairs garments have been distributed so far.

He also stated that 2388 flood victims have received monetary assistance to address their needs. Similarly, safe drinking water has been distributed among 1,721,650 flood victims. He said that Al-Khidmat kitchens have been established in districts affected by the flood and prepared food is distributed among the victims from there two times a day.

About medical assistance, he informed that 94 free medical camps have been set up in the province for flood victims where free consultation and medicines have been provided to 28,200 individuals so far.

In order to provide clean drinking water to the flood victims after the water schemes in their areas were damaged by the flood water, the volunteers of the foundation launched a campaign to clean wells and restore the water schemes.

The floods have also affected domestic animals and the volunteers of the foundation have been providing fodder and other stuff to take care of the animals.

The foundation has also been engaged in making temporary arrangements for the transportation of the victims.

He said that the floods have washed away roads and link bridges in most of the areas causing serious difficulty in mobility of the people. The foundation’s volunteers have been trying to make makeshift arrangements to enable the affectees to go from one place to another, he informed.

About the reconstruction, he said that the foundation has designed a model of houses for the affected people. The cost on the houses would range from Rs0.8 million to Rs1.5 million, he added.

He said that the reconstruction was a huge process and only the government would be able to undertake it. But some donors of the foundation were interested in building houses for the affectees, he said, adding the foundation would play its role in this regard.