Sindh Resilience Project encounters delays
A total of 31 schemes were to be completed under the said project however, only 13 schemes were completed by 2024, while work on 15 others has not even started. Reportedly, the reason behind the delay in the project is a lack of proper planning and negligence in the implementation of the project. The institutions established to deal with natural disasters, the Rehabilitation Department, Sindh, and the Pakistan Disaster Management Authority, Sindh, focus more on relief activities after natural disasters, instead of disaster prevention.
District Disaster Management Authorities are working in the districts of the province under the leadership of the respective Deputy Commissioner, but no separate setup of these District Disaster Management Authorities (DDMAs) has been established yet. This is the reason why separate accounts of DDMAs have not been opened in the respective districts, due to which the huge amount spent on the Sindh Resilience Project has not served its true purpose as most of it was used on rehabilitation works after natural disasters.
According to the report of the Auditor General of Pakistan, the Pakistan Disaster Management Authority Sindh spent a large part of this money providing flour, sugar and other food items to the flood and drought affected people alongside helping in their relocation.
This is in spite of the fact that this money was given by the World Bank to reduce the risks and impacts associated with natural disasters. This is one reason why natural disasters continue to risk lives in the province.
According to Naseer Memon, an environmentalist and social worker, the risk of floods looms over Sindh. "The uncertainty of hydro-meteorological disasters is increasing due to changing weather patterns. There has been 50 per cent less rainfall than usual during the last five months. Therefore, the province is at risk of drought in the early days of summer, while Sindh will also face a shortage of agricultural water during the kharif crop season. If there is snowfall in the northern hilly areas during the coming two months, there are chances of improvement in the water level in the Indus River after June.
Although the exact flood situation in the Indus River will be known by April, emergency arrangements will have to be made in Sindh in light of past experience," said Memon.
According to Member of Sindh Assembly and Parliamentary Secretary for Relief and Rehabilitation Muhammad Ismail Rahu, work has been done to reduce the risks and effects of floods and droughts in Sindh. "The risk of natural disasters has increased due to climate change globally. It will take time to reduce the effects of floods and droughts in our country," said Rahu.
Hashtags
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
Business Recorder
6 hours ago
- Business Recorder
Trump imposes additional 25% tariff on goods from India
US President Donald Trump issued an executive order on Wednesday imposing an additional 25% tariff on goods from India, saying the country directly or indirectly imported Russian oil, adding to 25% tariffs already announced. The development comes a day after Trump said he would increase the tariff charged on imports from India over the next 24 hours, given India's continued purchases of Russian oil. The tariff is set to take effect in three weeks and would be added on top of a separate 25% tariff entering into force on Thursday. It maintains exemptions for items targeted by separate sector-specific duties such as steel and aluminum, and categories that could be hit like pharmaceuticals. The move threatens to further complicate US-Indian relations and comes shortly after a Indian government source said Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi would visit China for the first time in over seven years later this month. US-India ties are facing their most serious crisis in years after talks with India failed to produce a trade agreement. The White House move, first signaled by Trump on Monday, follows meetings by Trump's top diplomatic envoy Steve Witkoff in Moscow aimed at pushing Russia to agree to peace in Ukraine. Trump has threatened higher tariffs on Russia and secondary sanctions on its allies, if Russian President Vladimir Putin does not move to end the war in Ukraine.
Business Recorder
7 hours ago
- Business Recorder
Trump hikes tariff on India to 50% over ‘oil purchases from Russia'
US President Donald Trump issued an executive order on Wednesday imposing an additional 25% tariff on goods from India, saying the country directly or indirectly imported Russian oil, adding to 25% tariffs already announced. The development comes a day after Trump said he would increase the tariff charged on imports from India over the next 24 hours, given India's continued purchases of Russian oil. The tariff is set to take effect in three weeks and would be added on top of a separate 25% tariff entering into force on Thursday. It maintains exemptions for items targeted by separate sector-specific duties such as steel and aluminum, and categories that could be hit like pharmaceuticals. The move threatens to further complicate US-Indian relations and comes shortly after a Indian government source said Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi would visit China for the first time in over seven years later this month. US-India ties are facing their most serious crisis in years after talks with India failed to produce a trade agreement. The White House move, first signaled by Trump on Monday, follows meetings by Trump's top diplomatic envoy Steve Witkoff in Moscow aimed at pushing Russia to agree to peace in Ukraine. Trump has threatened higher tariffs on Russia and secondary sanctions on its allies, if Russian President Vladimir Putin does not move to end the war in Ukraine.
Business Recorder
a day ago
- Business Recorder
Beyond the equity cliff
In 2025, interest in venture capital (VC) in Pakistan reached a new high — at least online. Google Trends recorded a fresh peak in search activity. But investor capital did not follow. While global VC funding grew by 6 percent last year, Pakistan moved in the opposite direction. Total VC inflows fell by 70 percent to just USD 22.5 million. This followed an already weak 2023, when funding had barely crossed USD 76 million. By contrast, regional peers raised significantly more: India attracted USD 13.7 billion (up 43 percent year-on-year), while even Bangladesh, despite a pullback, secured USD 41 million. Most of the global VC rebound remained concentrated in the United States. According to Dealroom, US-based startups accounted for nearly 57 percent of total VC funding in 2024. That shift matters. With most of that capital retained within American borders, the US-backed wellspring of VC funding for Pakistani startups has run dry. Amid this capital drought, only a handful of funds appear to have the bandwidth to support promising ventures. Several investors have quietly withdrawn from deals — suggesting not just selective hesitation, but a deeper structural malaise. This is often overlooked by critics eager to dismiss 'startup culture' as a fleeting trend. Are investors reacting to persistent inflation and regional instability? Or have they simply found better risk-adjusted returns elsewhere? Since the pandemic, broader country risk has receded across much of South Asia. India has seen rating upgrades. Bangladesh has stabilized under an IMF programme. Even Sri Lanka has begun to rebuild investor trust following its exit from sovereign default. Pakistan remains the outlier. Despite a modest compression in its risk premium, investor confidence has yet to recover. Policy inconsistency, weak reform momentum, and macroeconomic fragility continue to weigh heavily on sentiment. Meanwhile, as local interest rates trend toward single digits, startups in other markets are increasingly opting for debt rather than equity. The challenge: Pakistan lacks dedicated venture debt or private credit funds. That absence stifles innovation—particularly in sectors such as agribusiness, where volatility and asset-light models deter conventional lending. With banks largely unwilling to lend without hard collateral, early-stage firms often resort to alternative structures such as revenue-based or royalty financing—models that tie repayments to topline revenue, allowing working capital support without equity dilution. Other regions are adapting. In the MENA region, alternative financing is becoming mainstream. According to Clear World's MENA Early-Stage Data Handbook, valuations, and deal sizes continue to rise, even as equity dilution in Series A rounds appears to be declining. A growing share of deals now includes credit facilities alongside equity. Pakistan has yet to make that leap. The result is a widening mismatch. While the broader private sector sits on idle capital, that liquidity is not flowing to high-risk, early-stage businesses. The startup economy finds itself squeezed between shrinking global VC and a domestic financial system that has not evolved to underwrite innovation. Founders cannot rely on traditional banks. Institutional investors capable of backing new ventures operate with limited capacity — and often, even more limited appetite — for risk. Pakistan's startup ecosystem cannot remain tethered to US-driven venture flows. If early-stage businesses are to endure economic turbulence and eventually scale, the domestic financial architecture must evolve. That means regulatory clarity, credit instruments suited to early-stage risk, and a funding environment that enables ambition without demanding immediate ownership. Absent these reforms, Pakistan risks losing the embedded value of its emerging sectors—either through attrition or through relocation to jurisdictions where non-dilutive capital is more accessible and less punitive. Copyright Business Recorder, 2025
