1,000 trucks to distribute Saudi flood relief
Saudi Ambassador to Pakistan Abdul Aziz Alghadeer along with Saudi military officers receives medical equipment for the Saudi field hospital after it was airlifted to Islamabad on Saturday. (SPA)
Published: Aug 28, 2010 23:49 Updated: Aug 29, 2010 04:09
JEDDAH: Saudi Arabia will distribute 1,000 truckloads of relief supplies to Pakistan flood victims beginning Monday, an official statement said.
The relief is being arranged on the directives of Custodian of the Two Holy Mosques King Abdullah, it said, adding that Second Deputy Premier and Minister of Interior Prince Naif would supervise the program.
During the two-month-long relief program, trucks will carry foodstuffs such as rice, flour, cooking oil and milk, beans and lentils, the statement added.
In the first phase, 80 trucks will go to the flood-affected areas of Punjab and Kashmir. About 8,000 families in Punjab will receive 160 tons of flour, 40 tons of rice, 40 tons of lentils, 16 tons of milk and 40,000 liters of cooking oil.
Around 12,000 families in Kashmir will get 240 tons of flour, 60 tons of rice, 24 tons of lentils, 24 tons of beans, 25 tons of milk and 60,000 liters of cooking oil.
King Abdullah had earlier ordered a nationwide fundraising campaign to support Pakistan's flood victims, which raised more than SR400 million.
On Saturday, eight Saudi planes arrived in Islamabad carrying medical equipment for a field hospital.
The floods are Pakistan's worst-ever natural disaster in terms of the amount of damage and the number of people affected, with more than six million people forced from their homes, about a million of them in the last few days as the water flows south.
The disaster has killed about 1,600 people, inflicted billions of dollars in damage to homes, infrastructure and the vital agriculture sector.

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Aug 29, 2010 21:09
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