“We all know we’re already living in a climate crisis. No one seems to doubt it after this past year. As we meet, much of Pakistan is still underwater; it needs help.” – US President Joe Biden at the UN General Assembly.
By Staff Reporter
KARACHI: Hollywood actress and humanitarian Angelina Jolie on Wednesday visited several areas of Pakistan ravaged by floods, calling for increased global financial support as she feared many affected people she had met would “not make it” if more aid did not arrive.
Jolie had visited people displaced by the floods with the international aid organization IRC in an effort to raise awareness. She saw some of the worst affected areas in southern Sindh province.
“I’ve seen those lives who were saved… but without sufficient aid, they won’t be here in the next few weeks, they won’t make it,” she said during a visit to the National Flood Response Coordination Centre (NFRCC). “I’ve never seen anything like this … I’m overwhelmed.”
Jolie warned that “too many children” are malnourished and people are in need of urgent aid. “If enough aid doesn’t come, they won’t be here in the next few weeks,” she warned during “I am absolutely with you in pushing the international community to do more.”
Earlier in the day, Jolie met flood victims in Dadu, a statement by the International Rescue Committee said. She visited the flood-ravaged areas to gain an understanding of the situation. The humanitarian activist said more needs to be done for the flood-affected people as winter is just around the corner.
Record monsoon rains and glacier melt in the country’s northern mountains have triggered flash floods and rain-induced landslides that have killed hundreds of people, sweeping away houses, roads, railway tracks, bridges, livestock, and crops.
Huge areas are inundated, and hundreds of thousands of people have been forced from their homes. The government says the lives of nearly 33 million people have been disrupted.
According to the National Disaster Management Authority’s (NDMA) latest report, the total number of deaths has risen to 1,569, with 10 reported during the last 24 hours.
United Nations (UN) Secretary-General Antonio Guterres earlier said floods are estimated to have caused about $30 billion in economic losses.
Meanwhile, UNICEF has regretted that its funding appeal for over three million children in flood-affected areas was still less than a third of the $39 million it sought.
“The rains and floods have already claimed the lives of more than 550 children. Without a significant surge in support, we fear many more children will lose their lives,” Unicef Pakistan chief field officer in Balochistan, Gerida Birukila, said.
“The world needs to come together and help the children in Pakistan. Together we can save lives by delivering life-saving health, nutrition, and education services to every child in Pakistan who needs them the most.”
The United Nations has warned that outbreaks of diarrhea, typhoid, and malaria are increasing rapidly as millions of flood victims sleep in temporary shelters or in the open near stagnating water.
More than 134,000 cases of diarrhea and 44,000 cases of malaria were reported in the hardest-hit area of Sindh this past week, a UN statement said Wednesday.
“A second disaster is looming in sight – health, nutrition and water, sanitation and hygiene” are of critical concern, it warned.
UN officials say large parts of Pakistan’s flood-affected areas are still submerged and thousands of families in the 82 affected districts are still cut off and have yet to receive any form of aid.
On Wednesday, US President Joe Biden highlighted Pakistan’s floods in his address to the UN General Assembly.
“We all know we’re already living in a climate crisis. No one seems to doubt it after this past year. As we meet, much of Pakistan is still underwater; it needs help,” Biden said.
Pakistan contributes less than 1 percent of global carbon emissions, but it is listed as one of the countries most vulnerable to the impacts of the climate crisis. Islamabad has urged rich countries to pay climate reparations.
France will host an international conference later this year on “climate-resilient reconstruction” of Pakistan’s flood-ravaged areas, the foreign ministry in Islamabad said Wednesday after a bilateral meeting between Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif and French President Emmanuel Macron on the sidelines of the UN General Assembly in New York.
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