Billi Bierling in Swissinfo.ch: Switzerland has repeated a commitment to continue long-term support for the vulnerable and needy in northwestern Pakistan, following last summer’s devastating floods. The director of the Swiss Agency for Development and Cooperation (SDC), Martin Dahinden, has just concluded a four-day visit to the region during which he looked at development projects in the Swat Valley and Nowshera in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Province (KPK).“One of the most significant things I saw during my visit was the resilience and the hope of the people, even though they experienced so much hardship,” Dahinden told swissinfo.ch, referring to the floods that inundated Pakistan at the end of July last year.
The raging waters destroyed 1.7 million houses, washed away 2.2 million hectares of crops and affected more than 18 million people across the country. In the very first few days of the disaster, Switzerland took immediate action and provided emergency relief, delivering drinking water, food and hygiene kits for thousands of affected people.
In the Swat Valley alone, where most of the SDC’s developing projects are based, more than 14,000 homes were partially or completely damaged and 95 per cent of the bridges were washed away, cutting off dozens of villages from the rest of the country. “We were quick with our emergency response, but we will now focus on livelihood and disaster risk reduction programmes as this is important for the long-term recovery of the country,” explained Dahinden, whose visit was the first such high-level visit in five years…
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I saw during my visit was the resilience and the hope of the people, even though they experienced so much hardship,” Dahinden told swissinfo.ch, referring to the floods that inundated Pakistan at the end of July last year.
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