UN makes fresh aid appeal for flood-hit Pak

While OCHA launched the USD 2 billion appeal last Friday,it received only USD 434 million amounting to 21.7 percent of fund.

Clearly,this inadequate to address the health,food,and shelter-related problems faced by the hapless flood victims in Pakistan,the UN agency said.

UNICEF says it would need millions of dollars to assist around 10 million children hit by floods. The humanitarian crisis in Pakistan is so massive that the actual scale continues to elude the imagination of the public across the world,” a UNICEF official said.

All indicators suggest that the floods in Pakistan have caused the worst humanitarian disaster as compared any other recent calamity in the world.

“The Pakistan emergency exceeds the combined number of people affected by the 2004 Indian Ocean Tsunami,the 2005 Kashmir earthquake on Pakistan’s border,and the 2010 Haiti earthquake,” according to UNICEF.

There are about 16 international agencies and 156 non-governmental organisations are working round the clock in Pakistan to address the poor victims suffering acute diarrhea (13 per cent of total consultations),acute respiratory infections (15 per cent) and skin diseases (18 per cent).

“Pakistan’s development prospects may be disrupted for many years,” OCHA said,adding that the damage to the economic infrastructure and livelihoods is immense.

While irrigation,drainage and storage facilities are badly damaged,farmers lost their crops and not able to plant their fields by November.

The farmers would,therefore,need aid until well into 2012,said OCHA.

Besides,shelter for victims is proving to be a difficult problem,said UNHCR,arguing that it has airlifted shelter supplies to the remote and high altitude area of Utror in northwest Pakistan or Swat region. The remote region has been virtually cut off since flash floods destroyed homes,roads and bridges in late July.

The reluctance of the global community to respond to the UN’s initial appeal has been attributed to concerns that the foreign governments have about corruption that may lead to misuse of the aid in Pakistan.

In New York,Pakistan’s Foreign Minister Shah Mahmood Qureshi assured donor nations that the money sent for its flood victims will not be wasted,saying the aid would be “well spent” in a “transparent manner”.

“I want to assure the international community that every dollar being contributed will be well spent in a transparent manner and we have today in place an oversight mechanism,which is comprising of people with a lot of eminence and integrity,” Qureshi said on Monday.

India has made an immediate USD 25 million contribution to its rival neighbour as soon as the appeal was made on Friday.