The World Bank and the Sindh government have agreed to launch a COVID-19 response programme and a locust control project in the province worth $145 million.
This decision was taken during a meeting through video link between Sindh Chief Minister Murad Ali Shah and World Bank Country Director for Pakistan Patchamuthu Illangovan who joined in from Islamabad.
The chief minister said his government wants to launch a COVID-19 impact programme with the technical and financial assistance of the World Bank. He said the global financial institution’s portfolio will be required for resource mobilisation through diversion of funds, restructuring, repurposing and realigning.
CM Sindh that the World Bank team has also been working on the high frequency of COVID impact monitoring system to support government decision-making. He said a Karachi-specific monitoring system is being developed but suggested to the World Bank to have a COVID-19 monitoring system developed for the entire province.
The chief minister said that after Covid-19 another threat of locust attacks on the standing crops had emerged. “Locust swarms have already damaged one-third of the cropping area of the province,” he said.
He said that his government wanted the WB to extend its technical and financial support to the provincial government so that crops and desert areas could be sprayed at the earliest, otherwise locust swarm attacks would destroy the crops and thereby food security issues would develop in the province.
The WB approved $10m for the Locus Control Programme and advised Sindh to divert the funds from Sindh Agriculture Growth Project and start locust control programme. The WB would arrange more funds for the agriculture growth project
