(MENAFN- Tribal News Network) January 7, 2023facebook twitter whatsapp linkedin email
Nabi Jan Orakzai
Many a welfare and charity organizations rushed to the help of people soon after the August floods caused havoc in different parts of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa; however, many of the affectees believe that they did not receive the deserved help due to absence of proper strategy and policy.
Hayat Khan, a resident of Charsadda district said that the flood affectees received some help; however, in the absence of a proper strategy on the part of relief organizations and district administrations, many of the affectees were denied assistance in the form of food, health and rehabilitation.
He said that in many cases they were getting plenty of things they did not require but very short of basic needs.“We have seen too much medical camps and medicines but not getting warm clothing and blankets in the winter,” he said. Besides, he said that they also needed reconstruction of their damaged houses to be able to sustain the winter.
Al-Khidmat Foundation was at the forefront of relief operations during the floods and the charity's provincial president Khalid Waqas Chamkani criticized the KP government on the grounds of proper planning. Waqas said that welfare organizations should have been informed about where their services were required.“It was government responsibility to assign sectors and duties to the NGOs as failure to do so lead to duplications,” he said.
Besides he said that division of work was missing in relief efforts.“Usually division of work is decided in cluster meeting. He said that these things were also decided in different organizations internally keeping demand in view. Besides, he said that they have also made the same demand in their interactions with the chief secretary and district administration officials.“If government agencies assign duties to national and international organizations in cluster meetings then it will make their job easy,” he said.
Additional Deputy Commissioner Charsadda Usman Jilani said that government has devised a policy for supporting the flood affectees under which more than 150 organizations were allowed to carry out relief activities in various sectors.
He said that over 450,000 flood affectees have been assisted by the authorities and this assistance was also being provided currently.
Besides, he said that the government had issued clear cut directions to ensure transparency and avoid duplication in distribution of food and non-food items among the affectees.”Government had also used a digital tool to ensure this,” he said.
He said that district administration officials were also updating information to a digital dashboard and details of those getting tokens and other items were also being logged into this system. ADC Usman said that this entire process meant to ensure transparency and avoid duplication.
On the other hand, experts point out that relief organizations devise a policy on the occasions of the natural disasters to ensure provision of food, health, water, shelter and other facilities to affected population.
However, they also said that there existed no such policy in Pakistan which could be utilized to help the affectees of a natural disaster.
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