08-12-2010, 11:52 AM
The World Bank said it will draft a reconstruction plan for Pakistan as the lender leads efforts to assess the impact of the nation's most destructive flood. The Washington-based lender said it has made available a $1.3 million grant to Pakistan for rescue, relief and recovery operations. The flood is Pakistan's "worst natural disaster" since the country's creation in 1947 and has set back the nation's development by many years, according to Prime Minister Yousuf Raza Gilani. "The World Bank is working closely with the government of Pakistan and other development partners to respond to the flooding," Sharjeel was quoted as saying by Bloomberg. "The bank's support is focused on medium- to long-term reconstruction, but we are working closely with those providing humanitarian disaster relief."The floods first struck the western province of Baluchistan on July 22 before inundating the worst-hit Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province. Punjab and Sindh, the country's most populous provinces and its biggest agricultural zone, were the next hit