By Staff Reporter
ISLAMABAD: Pakistan’s climate change minister on Monday said the fate of the country’s 20 million flood-affected people was still dependent on humanitarian aid but the wealthy nations who bear most responsibility for causing climate change have yet to deliver all the funds they have promised, let alone enough funds to cover the damage done.
The UN funding appeal for the summer killer floods so far received only a third of its $816 million target.
Rehman said the human tragedy wrought by Pakistan’s catastrophic flooding has been forgotten by many.
“With 20 million people still currently dependent on humanitarian aid, while flash appeals just for the humanitarian gap by the United Nations have received only 30 percent of the $816 million,” the minister said in a statement. “These floods caused Loss and Damage worth $30 billion, so just the rehabilitation and disaster-reconstruction needs are at least $16.3 billion. This amount does not include investments required to support Pakistan’s adaptation to climate change and overall resilience of the country to future climate shocks.”
In the monster downpour, last summer that inundated one-third of Pakistan, approximately 1,700 people lost their lives, and close to 13,000 were injured. Around 7.9 million are still displaced. Women and children make up nearly 70 percent of the 33 million affected and one-third of all recorded deaths and injuries are children.
The summer’s flooding wiped out huge swaths of crops, leaving already impoverished families struggling to obtain food. Farmers and officials warn that Pakistan could now face serious food shortages at a time when the government is strapped for cash and world food prices are high. The waters also wiped out the personal grain stores that many farming families rely on for food yearlong.
The UN World Food Organization last week said it will run out of funds to feed 2.7 million people by January 15 after its funding appeal received only a third of the target. The UN has also warned that 8.4 to 9.1 million people will be pushed below the poverty line.
Minister Rehman said the numbers are too huge; 33 million impacted meant the country is reinventing the lives of populations covering the size of three medium-sized European countries at the same time.
“Today, after months of humanitarian operations, 14.6 million is the number of people still need emergency food assistance from December 2022 to March 2023. We should not forget that almost 3.9 million people in Sindh and 1.6 million in Balochistan are facing severe food insecurity, with 5.5 million people no longer having access to safe and clean drinking water.”
The minister said funds are being taken from every sector of the Pakistan government to meet survival needs, but the size of the need is huge.
“We have to keep in mind that in Sindh, over 240,000 people remain displaced with at least 10 districts continuing to report standing water, while the same situation persists in two districts of Balochistan. People have started returning to their homes, but they now face compounding issues of food insecurity and health-related challenges,” she said.
The minister warned that children are at the frontline of the flood aftermath, with 9.6 million children in urgent need of humanitarian assistance out of the total 20 million affected.
“With the onset of winter and temperatures dropping to single digits, the survival of children in camps is at stake. We urge all local philanthropists and international agencies to assist provincial governments in sharing this unprecedented burden with Pakistan. Along with our development partners, we estimate that 1.6 million children are suffering from severe acute malnutrition, and 7 million are in desperate need of nutrition services.”
She said the future of these children is also in peril as more than 2 million have been forced to stay of school due to damages caused to more than 34,000 schools, with education for girls among the most impacted
Providing an update on the funds received, the minister said Pakistan has received around $4 billion in financial foreign assistance to support flood relief activities in the country, out of which $3.64 billion is in the form of loans and $435.03 million in the form of grants.
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