Chinese group ready to provide low-cost pre-fabricated houses to Pakistani flood victims

Lahore: A Chinese group has offered to facilitate the Pakistani flood affectees in Punjab by producing low-cost pre-fabricated houses at their existing plant at the Faisalabad Free-Zone M3IC.

China’s Hanan DR Group’s country-head in Pakistan Zhang Shilu told journalists here that a few years ago, they had invested US $ 150 million in Faisalabad Industrial Estate, M3IC, and now on an emergency basis, they were focused on help and support to the flood victims by building low-cost houses at approximately Pakistani Rs 1.8 million per unit.

“The actual value of a single unit is Rs 2.6 to 2.8 million, however, the company’s management decided not to make any profit from the rehabilitation of flood victims,” he mentioned.

Since mid-June 2022, Pakistan has been drenched by extreme monsoon rains that have led to the country’s worst flooding in a decade. According to Pakistan’s National Disaster Management Authority (NDMA), the floods have affected more than 33 million people and destroyed or damaged more than 1 million houses. More than 1,100 people have been killed by floodwaters that inundated tens of thousands of square kilometers of the country.

The worst flooding occurred along the Indus River in the provinces of Punjab, Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, Balochistan, and Sindh. The provinces of Balochistan and Sindh have so far this year received five to six times their 30-year average rainfall. Most of that arrived in summer monsoon rains.

Across the country, about 150 bridges and 3,500 kilometers (2,200 miles) of roads have been destroyed. More than 700,000 livestock and 2 million acres of crops and orchards have also been lost.

Zhang urged the Pakistan government to exempt all types of taxes and duties on the import of raw materials from China for this project. He added: “We can prepare 200 houses per month and more than 2000 houses in a year.”

Zhang observed that the flood had played havoc in Pakistan and left millions of people homeless, and on this occasion, the immediate rehabilitation of flood victims was very important, for which the Hanan DR Group of China had come forward to help the brotherly country, Pakistan.

China has also been sending relief goods for the last few days to help Pakistan in its efforts to facilitate the flood victims.