KARACHI: There are more than 62,000 flood victims in 47 camps in the city and more sites have been identified for accommodating the displaced people, said City Administrator Fazlur Rehman in an interview with Daily Times on Friday.

He said that despite the ongoing financial crunch and the responsibility to look after the city's projects, the City District Government Karachi (CDGK) had been striving to fulfill its moral obligations regarding the needs of the IDPs in camps. In reply to a question, the City Administrator said the provincial government was making funds available to the city government for taking care of IDPs.

Rehman said that the provision of food and medicines was not the only task, but there were a lot more things to be done for the IDPs. The city's philanthropists and non-government organisations had been assisting the CDGK as regards provision of food to the IDPs, but the CDGK wanted to take a number of other steps for the IDPs.

He said CDGK had started focusing on measures for education of children of flood affectees in these camps, arrangements for sports and recreational facilities, provision of lavatories and arrangements for special dietary supplements for the nursing and expecting mothers.

So far, all the helping hands had been concentrating on basic necessities such as food and medicines, but the time had come to aggressively launch other projects including those of education, sports, vocational training, the city Administrator said and added that help of philanthropists and NGOs of the city would be sought for these things.

"The situation in rural Sindh will take a lot of time to get normal, so the IDPs could not be left as just the IDPs but through vocational training programmes, the adult IDPs would be provided opportunities to contribute their skills to the nation," claimed the City Administrator.

He said he had already issued directives to the CDGK health group of offices to carry out a detailed survey on iodine deficiency and malnutrition cases among IDPs within two weeks. He further said that he was keen to find ways to help the IDPs, particularly women who were facing problems with regard to health and sanitation owing to their social traditions.Daily times