Floods destroy 3,000 schools in Pakistan's Punjab province, says minister

Punjab Minister for School Education Rana Sikandar Hayat has said that 3,000 schools have been destroyed in the floods, severely affecting the education of thousands of students.

He was speaking during a meeting with Unicef Representative to Pakistan, Pernille Ironside, to discuss progress on various educational plans.

The meeting also decided to strengthen cooperation for better outcomes.

The minister informed the Unicef representative that the school education department was facing immense challenges due to floods in the province. He said that the department had already been facing a shortage of facilities, but the disaster had destroyed thousands of schools, many of which were still under water.

“The department is now confronted with the challenge of rehabilitating these schools,” he said, adding that three shifts were being started in functioning schools to meet the educational needs of displaced students.

Hayat said that it would take around three months to rehabilitate the damaged schools. In the meantime, the government planned to rent private buildings and establish tent schools in flood-hit areas to ensure continuity of classes.

He added that the government had waived semester fees for students belonging to flood-hit areas and that scholarships would also be provided to them.

Meanwhile, despite official claims of receding flood waters across Punjab, three breaches at the Noraja Bhutta embankment on the Sutlej River have led to catastrophic ponding, submerging several villages in the districts of Multan, Lodhran, and Bahawalpur for over a week.

The situation remains dire in the eastern areas of Jalalpur Pirwala, Lodhran and Bahawalpur, where villages, including Noraja Bhutta, Basti Lang, Kotla Chakar, Bahadurpur, Mouza Kanu, Kandeer, Jhaiyu, Deepal, Tarut Basharat, Daily Rajanpur, Belaywala, Dunyapur, Jhangra, Muradpur Soiwala and Sabra are surrounded by 8 to 10 feet of stagnant water. The relentless pressure has caused widespread destruction of homes and property.

Locals said that the water isn’t going down. About 70 per cent of houses have already collapsed, and the rest will follow if nothing is done. The standing water has changed colour, and we are now seeing the spread of waterborne diseases. This is a health crisis in the making, they said.