Pakistan aid starts flowing
2010-08-18 15:36
Islamabad - Foreign aid began flowing on Wednesday to the 20 million victims of Pakistan's catastrophic floods, but many remained without food or shelter as Islamabad responded slowly to their needs.
Weather forecasts signalled some respite was due with monsoon systems weakening after three weeks of torrential rains brought devastating floods that left at least 1 400 people dead in the country's worst natural disaster.
The floods have wiped out villages, farmland and infrastructure and OCHA, the UN's aid co-ordination body, said on Wednesday that more than 650 000 homeless families remained without basic shelter.
The United Nations last week launched an immediate appeal for $460m, and said on Wednesday that funding had reached 54.5% of this target, though that included pledges that were yet to turn into cash.
Zamir Akram, Pakistan's ambassador to the UN in Geneva, said the country had received more immediate multilateral relief aid through the UN and direct bilateral aid totalling about $301m.
The World Bank has also agreed to lend Islamabad $900m, warning that the disaster's impact on the economy was expected to be "huge" and take years to put right.
Nations ranging from Afghanistan and Turkey to the United States and Saudi Arabia have pledged millions in cash and relief as the UN warned more money was needed to stave off a "second wave of death" from disease and food shortages.
Insurgents
Britain, which is emerging from a diplomatic row with Pakistan, branded the aid effort "lamentable" and charities said Pakistan was suffering from an "image deficit" partly because of perceived links to terror.
The European Union announced on Wednesday that it would provide an additional $39m in emergency relief assistance to Pakistan, bringing its total aid to $90m.
The nuclear-armed country is on the frontline of the US-led fight against al-Qaeda, where the military is locked in battle with Taliban in the northwest on the border with Afghanistan.
Pakistan Foreign Minister Shah Mehmood Qureshi has also warned that the disaster could play into the hands of insurgents.
Embattled President Asif Ali Zardari visited Russia on Wednesday for a regional security summit with Afghan leader Hamid Karzai and Russian President Dmitry Medvedev.
He was expected to stay in the Black Sea resort of Sochi for only a few hours, after facing heavy criticism at home for failing to cut short a visit to Europe to tackle the crisis.
Second wave of death
"We don't know what impact it's having on the insurgents... the idea that this flood would essentially come on top of a very corrosive insurgency is extremely worrisome," said US ambassador to Islamabad, Anne Patterson.
OCHA said it feared that Pakistan was on the brink of a "second wave of death" unless more funds materialised, with up to 3.5 million children at risk from water-borne diseases.
In the hard-hit Punjab, army officials said on Wednesday that rescue efforts would take another two weeks before recovery and reconstruction phases of relief could begin.
Islamabad has confirmed around 1 400 deaths, but WHO representative Guido Sabatinelli said he suspected the toll was much higher.
"In any case it will be much higher but it's difficult to predict. We're talking about 20 million people affected today and there is no infrastructure and no health centres that can register the deaths," he said.
About six million people are deemed to be at risk of deadly water-borne diseases, with typhoid, hepatitis and cholera major concerns.
$2.5bn for reconstruction
"Two million dollars are needed every day to provide water, this is not sustainable. We don't have $2m a day," said Daniel Toole, the regional director for the UN Children's Fund (Unicef).
"I would ask urgently the international community to change pledges into cheques. We need an urgent effort," he said.
Akram said reconstruction in northern areas alone could cost $2.5bn and said the floods had ravaged an area "the size of England".
Experts have urged the government to move quickly, warning that the massive economic losses could fan unemployment and social unrest.
Agriculture accounts for 20% of Pakistan's gross domestic product.
"The peasants are our lifeline, so by not helping them we are in fact committing suicide," Ibrahim Mughal, who heads the independent Agri Forum organisation, said.
- SAPA
