PESHAWAR: The Khyber Pakhtunkhwa government has approved a plan to rebuild flooddamaged schools and hospitals with the assistance of World Bank.

`The World Bank has already pledged $25 million to restore flood-hit education and health facilities in the province. It has asked the government to carry out assessment to be able to start work on the project,` officials said.

They said that the steering committee of the project approved theplan while PC-I would be prepared after getting go-ahead from the provincial working development party within a fortnight.

They said that other donor organisations had also assured government of financial assistance to repair road, livestock, agriculture and other sectors. The planning and development department has been in touch with them to ensure start of the rebuilding process.

`Consultants are being recruited for cost estimation to complete the project of reconstruction of hospitals and schools by December next within one year,` said officials said. They said that as per the health department`s data, the floods in June destroyed a total of 256 hospitals in the province. These facilities, according to department`s data, include 56 fully and 200 partially damaged hospitals.Officials said that the completely destroyed health facilities included 19 civil dispensaries (CDs), 33 basic health units (BHUs) and four rural health centres (RHCs).

They said that 70 per cent of the damaged health facilities were located in 13 most-affected districts that required urgent rehabilitation.

`Most of these facilities are located in Tanl(, Dera Ismail Khan, Karak, Kohistan Lower, Swat, Dir and North and South Waziristan. World Bank has already been assisting the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa government in four districts through its Human Capital Investment project but owing to the devastating floods it has agreed to extend financial assistance to the government in 16 more districts, said officials. They said that health department had alsoinstalled some tented hospitals with the assistance of United Nations in the worst-hit districts of the province.

They said that health department held medical camps during the floods to provide treatment facilities to people against water and food-borne diseases.

`A total of $25 million will be given to the government as grant by World Bank including $10 million for restoration of health facilities and $15 million for rebuilding of schools,` said officials. Citing the statistics of elementary and secondary education department, they said that a total of 1,100 educational institutions were damaged by the noods that needed reconstruction to enable them to operate.

The affected educational institutions include 246 fully damaged and 838 partially damaged schools. Majority of the damagedschools requiring reconstruction are situated in Dera Ismail Khan, Lower Dir, Lower Kohistan, Swat, Tank, Upper Chitral, Upper Kohistan, Mansehra, Nowshera and Haripur. Among the damaged institutions, 235 are primary schools.

`A consolidated report regarding the overall damage caused by floods was finalised by the government in September and shared with different donor agencies to obtain assistance,` said officials.

Other organisations such as USAID, KfW, Unicef, WHO would also announce their financial and technical support for provision of other stuff required to restore services in other sectors.

`Rehabilitation of water channels, roads and installations of other departments affected by Hoods is also part of the programme,` said officials.schools requiring reconstruction are situated in Dera Ismail Khan, Lower Dir, Lower Kohistan, Swat, Tank, Upper Chitral, Upper Kohistan, Mansehra, Nowshera and Haripur. Among the damaged institutions, 235 are primary schools.

`A consolidated report regarding the overall damage caused by floods was finalised by the government in September and shared with different donor agencies to obtain assistance,` said officials.

Other organisations such as USAID, KfW, Unicef, WHO would also announce their financial and technical support for provision of other stuff required to restore services in other sectors.

`Rehabilitation of water channels, roads and installations of other departments affected by Hoods is also part of the programme,` said officials.