United States announces more than $300,000 for Chitral flood assistance
Photo and story by: Saleem Shaikh
Islamabad, October 2, 2015: In an effort to mitigate miseries of flood-hit people in Chitral district, the United States government, through the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID), has launched a support programme to provide $326,000 this year to help repair the area’s drinking water infrastructure and restore agricultural economy massively damaged by the July 2015 flash floods in the district in Pakistan’s northwest.
“We are working to restore the provision of food and drinking water, and put people’s lives back on track as soon as possible,” said USAID Mission Director John Groarke. “I want the distressed families to know that the American people care about them and stand with them during these trying times.”
This week, USAID began helping repair 10 gravity-flow water supply pipelines that provide drinking water to more than 11,000 Pakistanis in the Ayun union council. In addition, the United States government will buy 141 metric tons of wheat seed, enough to support 3,500 farming families, and help nearly 100 small businesses reopen, including 30 water mills which are essential for grinding grains.
Since 2009, the U.S. government has contributed more than $1 billion in humanitarian assistance to Pakistan.
