By Asad Cheema
ISLAMABAD: Ambassador of France to Pakistan Nicolas Galey on Tuesday said that the French government had allocated €2 million for humanitarian relief operations for flood-hit communities in Pakistan. He said out of €2 million, the French government had allocated €1 million to the World Food Programme (WFP) for an integrated “Nutrition – Safety Net Programme” for pregnant and lactating women in the districts of Qambar Shahdadkot and Khairpur in Sindh. The Ambassador informed that the programme would provide “emergency food assistance, life-saving nutrition preventive packages, and cash grants to 5.400 direct beneficiaries and 32.400 household members”.
Moreover, €1 million was allocated to three international non-governmental organisations for flood relief operations. “These relief activities have provided critical assistance to vulnerable households, and contribute to reducing loss of lives and improving living conditions in flood-affected communities,” the ambassador said while addressing the press conference held at the embassy.
In consultation with the Pakistani authorities, he added that France quickly dispatched emergency equipment and military experts from the French civil security service to the field to assist in relief operations and respond to urgent humanitarian needs.
Answering a query on the number of flights carrying aid for Pakistan, Ambassador Nicolas said that on September 3, a special chartered flight arrived in Karachi, carrying emergency equipment (including 83 high-capacity water pumps and more than 200 tents, and a military medical team consisting of four doctors and four nurses, as well as a military team of four technicians to operate the water pumps.
The French medical team remained on the ground for two weeks in the Badin district in Sindh to provide hundreds of medical consultations daily.
Moreover, from October 7 to November 5, 40 French civil security experts were deployed in the Dadu district in Sindh to operate “water purification equipment brought directly from France”.
The military team provided 600,000 litres of drinking water to the local communities, the ambassador concluded.
