Bilawal asks Sindh govt to build weather-resilient houses.

KARACHI -- Foreign Minister and Pakistan Peoples Party chairman Bilawal Bhutto-Zardari on Monday asked the Sindh government to construct weather-resilient houses for the flood-affected people so that they could survive even if another natural calamity like floods or heavy rains hit the province.

Chairing a meeting to review the losses and damages of the heavy rains in the province and the measures taken by the provincial government, he said that in view of the impact of climate change there was a dire need to construct weather-resilient houses.

'We need houses that can withstand droughts, downpours, storms, floods, and such other disasters,' he added.

The meeting was attended by Chief Minister Syed Murad Ali Shah, provincial ministers Sharjeel Inam Memon, Saeed Ghani, Syed Nasir Hussain Shah and Mukesh Kumar Chawla, CM's advisers Manzoor Wassan and Murtaza Wahab, Chief Secretary Sohail Rajput and others.

PPP chief orders disbursement of cash among growers for seed procurement

Briefing the PPP chief, the chief minister said that the floods had partially and completely damaged 1.7 million houses and there was an urgent need for shelter for homeless people.

'The provincial government intends to immediately initiate rehabilitation efforts for the affected families. Therefore, we are finalising a standard for housing reconstruction for the affected people,' he added.

Mr Bhutto-Zardari suggested that the houses should be weather-resilient so that they could withstand future calamities. 'But this may take more time to select the technology. So the package for construction of damaged houses must be finalised at the earliest,' he said.

The CM said that his government had so far arranged Rs220 billion, including Rs110bn pledged by the World Bank, Rs110bn by the federal government and provincial governments.

He said that the estimated funding for fully damaged houses was Rs300bn.

He said that the PC-1 of the housing project was lying with the Planning Commission. Mr Bhutto-Zardari said he would get it approved by the federal government and assured the CM that more donors would be approached to meet the total funding requirement.

Seed compensation

Mr Bhutto-Zardari directed the provincial government to start disbursement of cash to growers for purchase of seeds for the Rabi crop within the next 20 days.

'The floods have already caused huge losses to growers and now they prepared their lands for Rabi crops. They must be supported to meet the requirement...