The reconstruction of around two million houses destroyed by the recent floods in Pakistan is expected to cost at least Rs. 1 trillion under the flood rehabilitation phase.
The phase also entails boosting economic activity as it opens up the job market in the construction and related industries.
Torrential rainfall and the subsequent 30-year record-breaking floods wreaked havoc across the country, destroying residential units and other infrastructure on a large scale.
The CEO of the Thardeep Microfinance Foundation (TMF), Sono Khangharani, spoke at a press conference arranged by the National Bank of Pakistan (NBP) in Karachi on Wednesday, and remarked, “As per data of the government and national as well as provincial disaster management authorities (NDMA and PDMA), around 2 million housing units are expected to be reconstructed in rural and urban areas with the beginning of rehabilitation phase”.
The TMF had also sponsored the construction of around 1,400 low-cost houses within the last 10-12 years.
Khangharani mentioned that the rehabilitation and reconstruction activities will possibly begin after two or three months after the standing rainwater recedes and specified that the reconstruction activities take as long as two to three years.
This reconstruction work is expected to activate construction, directly and indirectly, involving 25 allied industries, and provide several laborers and daily-wage earners opportunities for work.
Khangharani also clarified that the current economic conditions have pushed the cost of constructing a low-budget housing unit to a minimum of Rs. 500,000 and a maximum of Rs. 750,000 as compared to the low-budget housing unit that cost Rs. 60,000 after the 2010 floods. He stressed that the government should ensure that the reconstructed houses have basic amenities, including purification units for drinking water and solar panels.
