China to provide Rs7b grant for reconstruction of damaged schools in Sindh

China will provide a grant assistance of Rs7 billion for the rehabilitation/re­construction of 100 ful­ly damaged schools by floods in Sindh province, it is learnt reliably here.

The grant assis­tance will be provided through Chinese Inter­national Development Cooperation Agency (CIDA) for the rehabili­tation of fully damaged schools in four districts of Sindh, official sources told The Nation.

The revised concept clearance of the pro­ject, rehabilitation and reconstruction of ful­ly flood damaged pri­mary schools under Chi­nese grant assistance, has been approved by the Central Development Working Party (CDWP), said the source.

On average 49% of schools in Sindh were damaged by the mon­soon floods of 2022. The share of schools dam­aged (including both fully and partially dam­aged) ranges from 80% in Kashmore to 5% in Tharparkar. For those districts with high rates, there are less space to accommodate stu­dents from flood-affect­ed schools and the needs for establishing TLCs and distributing TLMs would need to be prioritised.

As per the assessment of damages and loss­es schools in 30 district of Sindh were affected by the monsoon 2022 floods. The number of fully and partially dam­aged primary schools is 7,503, while 12,305 are higher secondary schools, said the source.

Now with the Chinese assistance of Rs7 billion 100 schools with the en­rolment of 13619 stu­dents will be rehabili­tated and reconstructed in the urban area of four districts of Sindh. The district where the project will be executed includes Hyderabad, Sukkur, Lar­kana and Khairpur.

The highest number of 32 fully damaged schools is located in Khairpur, followed by 26 in Larka­na, 23 in Hyderabad and 19 in Sukkur.

However, the high­est number of students 4,191 affected in Larka­na, followed by 3,976 in Sukkur, 2858 in Hydera­bad and 2,594 in Khair­pur.

Of the Rs7000 million Chinese grant assistance major share of Rs2240 million will be spent on the rehabilitation/re­construction of schools in Khairpur, followed by Rs1820 million in Larka­na, Rs1610 million in Hy­derabad and Rs1330 mil­lion in Sukkur.