Rehabilitating flood victims a daunting task Friday, 03 September 2010 04:41

DOHA: Pakistan’s visiting foreign minister said here yesterday that rehabilitation of flood victims back home could take between three and five years since the devastation was huge.

The extent of the damage caused by the floods—worst in Pakistan’s history—would be known only when water has receded from the villages.

“Many villages are still submerged in water so it is impossible to assess the losses at this juncture. It is only after flood waters have receded that we can have a clear idea about the extent of destruction,” Shah Mehmood Qureshi told reporters.

Replying to questions, he said the rehabilitation of victims could take anywhere between three and five years.

Qureshi said he was on a tour of the region to mobilise financial support for relief and reconstruction work in flood-hit areas of Pakistan. He said he visited Oman, Saudi Arabia and Kuwait before coming to Qatar.

He lauded the GCC states and said they had expressed solidarity with Pakistan and their willingness to provide financial support as well.

About Qatar, Qureshi said, both the government and charitable organisations were dispatching aid—in cash as well as in kind. Several consignments of relief materials from Qatar had already reached Pakistan. Qureshi lauded the role of the US in flood relief effort back home and said they have even approached the European Union with a request to help Islamabad in these times of crisis.

A donors’ conference is, therefore, being held in Brussels on September 11, said the visiting dignitary. Asked if Pakistan’s ongoing war on terror within its territories was adversely impacted due to the floods, he replied in the negative and said more troops had been dispatched to the tribal areas bordering Afghanistan. “We are determined to fight terror,” he reiterated. The Peninsula

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