The UK Government will build 27,000 flood resistant permanent homes in Pakistan that can provide some 189,000 women, men and children a permanent roof in addition to helping 28,500 families to repair their homes damaged by last year’s floods. According to George Turkington, Head of DFID-Pakistan “the UK has provided shelter and built flood resistant houses for more than half-a-million children, women, and men who have lost their homes in last year’s devastating floods.”

An exercise to evaluate the short to medium term effects of the foreign-funded Citizen Disaster Compensation Programme has been launched in parts of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa districts affected by 2010 floods, according to officials.

The evaluation is meant to examine the positive and negative impacts of the cash grants programme, which, some independent foreign organisations’ field staff believe, is not likely to achieve the desired outcomes.

The Tamil Nadu Government would construct one lakh concrete houses at a cost of Rs 1,000 crore to replace the damaged huts in the cyclone Thane affected districts of Cuddalore and Villupuram, the Governor, Mr K. Rosaiah, said today.

The State Government has also presented a memorandum spelling out the quantum of damage and has sought an assistance of Rs 5,248 crore from the Centre, he recalled.

The Government would take up construction of one lakh concrete houses immediately to provide safe shelter to the affected families, he said in his address to the Assembly.

The US government through its premier development agency, US Agency for International Development, is funding a four-year $40.5 million project to construct 100 primary school/cyclone shelters in the disaster prone areas of Bangladesh.

These shelters will provide accommodation for up to 180,000 inhabitants during an emergency and will serve as schools for approximately 18,000 students when not in use as shelters.

One hundred and forty nine farmer families in the Polonnaruwa District are being helped under a new community project of GlaxoSmithKline (GSK), to make the transition to better housing after their homes were damaged or destroyed in floods in December 2010.

The pharmaceuticals and vaccines company has provided Rs 4.5 million to Habitat for Humanity Sri Lanka to build 'transitional shelters' comprising superstructure and roof, that will enable these families to live in and complete their homes before the next monsoon.

The West Bengal Chief Minister, Ms Mamata Banerjee, on Wednesday sanctioned a grant of Rs 88 crore for the Aila-affected families in Sundarbans in South 24 Parganas.

The grant has been provided to rebuild homes that were damaged in the cyclone nearly three years ago.

According to the Ms Banerjee, many people are yet to get funds to rebuild their homes despite the former government sanctioning nearly Rs 10,000 for each family. The decision to offer the grant was taken following a meeting with the Chief Secretary, Mr Samar Ghosh, a day before.

UNHCR is working for provision of home facility to more than 45,000 vulnerable families affected by the devastating floods in the country. The UN agency has nearly completed construction on around 30,000 transitional shelters for families who plan to repair or rebuild their homes. Permanent shelters are being built to house some of the most vulnerable flood victims, those unable to restart their lives on their own.

In Avudaiyarkoil and Manamelkudi PU limits

Apoorva, Project Director, Tsunami Project Implementation Unit, directed the officials to complete projects on the construction of houses for the tsunami victims now in progress in Avudaiyarkoil and Manamelkudi panchayat union limits as per schedule.

Housing projects are under execution under the Emergency Tsunami Reconstruction Package and Rajiv Gandhi Rehabilitation Programme in these panchayat unions.

Gloria Jones climbed out of a relative