“Hundreds of thousands of people have been displaced and forced to spend days and nights … under a merciless sky and the lack of access to food, water and shelter are making life harder with each passing day.”
By Staff Reporter
ISLAMABAD: The United Nations and Pakistan launched a flash appeal on Tuesday seeking to raise $160 million in emergency aid for over 33 million people affected by record-breaking floods that have killed more than 1,100 people since June.
“Pakistan is awash in suffering,” Antonio Guterres, UN Secretary-General said in a video message to launch the major appeal in Islamabad and Geneva. “The Pakistani people are facing a monsoon on steroids – the relentless impact of epochal levels of rain and flooding.”
Planning Minister Ahsan Iqbal said the government estimated that the disaster may cost the cash-strapped nation over $10 billion. “It is a preliminary estimate likely to be far greater,” Iqbal said before the launch of the appeal in Islamabad.
“It might take five years to rebuild and rehabilitate the nation, while in the near term Pakistan will be confronted with acute food shortages.”
Unprecedented flash floods caused by historic monsoon rains have washed away roads, crops, infrastructure and bridges across Pakistan affecting over 15 percent of the country’s 220 million population.
Foreign Minister Bilawal Bhutto-Zardari, during the launch of a United Nations, said the devastation witnessed in Pakistan showed that the country had become “ground zero” of global warming. “It is an entirely new level of climate-led catastrophe.”
“Hundreds of thousands of people have been displaced and forced to spend days and nights … under a merciless sky and [the] lack of access to food, water and shelter are making life harder with each passing day.”
The FM said the situation was likely to deteriorate further as more rains continued to pummel already flooded areas. “For us, this is no less than a national emergency. This is a life-defining experience.”
The aid, covering the initial six months of the crisis response, will help to avoid outbreaks of diseases such as cholera, and to provide nutrition aid to young children and their mothers.
It will also provide assistance to internally displaced people and facilitate schemes to reunite families separated by the disaster.
The people of Pakistan urgently need international solidarity and support,” Jens Laerke, spokesman for the UN humanitarian agency OCHA said in Geneva.
He said some 500,000 people displaced by the floods were sheltering in relief camps, with many more temporarily staying with host families.
Around 150 bridges have been washed away, he said, and 3,500 kilometres (2,175 miles) of roads damaged in flooding and landslides, hampering access.
“The heavy rains are forecast to continue and with many dams and rivers already at flood levels, the flooding is likely to get worse before it gets better,” Laerke said.
The country started receiving international aid this week, and more planes carrying aid from Turkey and the United Arab Emirates landed at an airport near Islamabad on Tuesday, according to a statement released by the military. It said Chinese planes carrying aid would also arrive in Pakistan later that day.
The United States, through the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID), pledged $30 million in life-saving humanitarian assistance to support people and communities affected by severe flooding in Pakistan.
Pakistan’s government has declared the floods a national emergency, with 66 districts declared to be “calamity hit”, said a statement issued by the US Embassy in Pakistan.
The United States is deeply saddened by the devastating loss of life, livelihoods, and homes throughout Pakistan.
UNHCR, the UN Refugee Agency, said over 30 million people in Pakistan have been affected by torrential rains and flash floods across the country, leaving 6.4 million people in need of immediate support.
Since June, hundreds of thousands have been displaced by the floods, and are now living in camps, or with host families.
“Rain and floods have been catastrophic for millions of people. We urgently need global support and solidarity for Pakistan in these dire times,” said Filippo Grandi, UN High Commissioner for Refugees.
“The international community must step up its support and help Pakistan’s response to this catastrophe.”
Climate change minister, Sherry Rehman, said more monsoons were expected in September. The rains have hit earlier and more heavily than usual since the start of summer, officials say – most recently huge downpours last week that affected almost the entire country.
Met officials said this year Pakistan has received the highest rainfall in at least three decades. So far this year the rain is running at more than 780 percent above average levels.
Copyright © 2021 Independent Pakistan | All rights reserved
