PESHAWAR: After Nowshera and Tank, the district administration of Charsadda have also evacuated people from government-run temporary shelters in the area in preparation for the rehabilitation of flood affectees.

Additional District Commissioner Saniya Safi told Aaj News that water has been drained from houses in the area that were flooded. “Almost 80 per cent of the water has been drained from the district. There is some water on a few roads and in people’s fields, which will also be drained soon,” she said.

She said that the evacuation and relief phase was over and the district administration was moving towards rehabilitation. Calls for evacuation were made in Nowshera and Charsadda last week after the Swat and Kabul rivers experienced “very high floods” reaching over 315,000 cusecs on Friday.

Around 180,000 people were affected by the floods, which is almost a tenth of the area’s population. These affectees were being housed at government schools and the Abdul Wali Khan Sports Complex.

Safi said that the administration had set up around 17 camps on August 26 - catering to at least 7,000 people although the number believed is to be much higher.

Earier, people at the camps had accused the authorities of mismanagement, with one woman telling Aaj Digital that the camps didn’t have electricity which was making the heat unberable.

The camp area was also littered with garbage.

There have been reports of people forcibly evicted from the camps, but ADC Safi told Aaj Digital that locals willingly went home to salvage their belongings.

“Most of them had placed their belongings on roofs and on vantage points. Now that the water is out of their homes, they have returned to make it habitable.”

She said the authorities faced resistance from those who were not residents of the area and had arrived at the camp to get the relief supplies. “The overwhelming majority of those refusing to go home are involved in illegal pilferage.”

She added that the government was still operating one camp with about 30 families. “Their is no water in their houses but the families need to clean it to make it habitable.”

She said that the Tehsil Municipal Administration (TMA) had been spending around Rs1.3 million daily to cater to people living in camps. It also was tying up manpower.

“We need to free up these resources for de-silting and getting excavators,” she continued.

She added that it was imperative that people return to their homes so that door-to-door assessment could be effective.

We won’t be forming queues to distribute relief supplies, she said, instead delivering it at people’s doorsteps. “This will ensure that no household is missed or is able to get more than their share.”

Aaj TV Peshawar Bureau Chief Farzana Ali, while speaking during the special transmission to raise funds for flood relief, pointed out that assessments from the 2005 earthquake were also pending. “As long as the assessment and disbursement is done in a timely manner, it is acceptable.”

ADC Safi said that the Rs25,000 that people would receive as per PM Shehbaz Sharif’s announcement would be done using the Benazir Income Support Progamme database. “Our assessment would provide details of those whose houses have been affected, and the federal government would disburse it.”