Daily Times

The World Bank Mission, reviewing progress on the activities of Sindh Flood Emergency Rehabilitation Project (SFERP) and its component P&DD, acknowledges the overall progress made so far is quite impressive both from the timeline and the quality of work, point of view.

This was stated by Shoaib Siddiqui, Senior Advisor to the Bank, during a review meeting held here on Thursday.

The meeting was chaired by Senior Disaster Risk Management Specialist, Ahsen Tehsin and also attended by Rehan Hyder and Nihan Rafique from the World Bank while Ghulam Asghar Kanasro and Aslam Leghari represented the Project side, a press release said. DG Rescue Service Dr Abid, during the review session informed that 16 satellite stations on Indus highway (N-55), N-5 and M-9 are complete and in the process of being fine-tuned. All these stations will become operational by August as the staff selected for handing these stations is being trained in Rescue 1122 Academy, Lahore.

Ten district headquarters are 68% complete and would be handed over to Rescue Service for operations by December of the current year.

Moreover, Ten hospital emergencies after refurbishment had been handed over to the concerned authorities, he added.

He disclosed that at present six thousand calls dealing with emergencies were being attended by rescue on daily basis.

During the meeting, it was informed that under livelihood program (Cash for Work program), almost two billion rupees had been disbursed so far and Rs 672 million were in the process of being disbursed for the rehabilitation of almost two thousand schemes to 140,000 community workers who worked to develop community infrastructure of their own villages.

Out of these community workers 40% were female workers. All these workers were paid through mobile wallets making them bankable persons.

Rehabilitation work on 114 water supply and 23 drainage schemes in districts of Sanghar, Umerkot, Badin, Mirpur Khas and Shaheed Benazirabad is currently underway and physical progress made on these schemes is 63% so far.

These schemes would also be completed by November this year against the timeline of January, 2025. Tenders for 261 new water supply and 134 drainage schemes in districts of Jamshoro, Dadu, Khairpur, Jacobabad, Naushero Feroz and

Qambar- Shahdadkot have been initiated for their rehabilitation.

The total length of road network will be rehabilitated in 19 districts is 821 kilometers and the physical progress made on these roads till now is 65%.

The work on roads is expected to be completed by November, 2024 ahead of timeline set for their completion which is May, 2025, the World Bank Mission was informed.