UN appeals for aid as floods cause havoc in Pakistan
By DPA, IANSWednesday, August 11, 2010
ISLAMABAD - The UN planned to launch an appeal Wednesday for international aid for victims of Pakistani floods that continue to spread.
The floods triggered by heavy monsoon rains have killed more than 1,600 people and devastated large areas of the country.
Maurizio Giuliano, a UN spokesman in Pakistan said 14 million people, including six million children, were affected by the crisis and that nearly half of them would need immediate help for survival.
The appeal for “few hundred million dollars” would be launched this evening at the UN headquarters in New York Wednesday, he said.
“The death toll is so far limited, less than 2,000 people have died. But if we don’t act fast enough in terms of food, shelter and health then there is a serious risk that many more people could die because of disease, because of malnutrition,” Giuliano added.
“We have to be fast if we want to prevent the second wave of death.”
Dozens more villages have been submerged over the last 24 hours in the central province of Punjab and Sindh province in the south, media reports said.
Hundreds of people were stranded in Ari and Bala Nari villages in the southwestern province of Balochistan after the Nari River burst its banks. Six people died in floods over the last 24 hours, Hassan Baloch, the head of the provincial disaster management authority, said by phone.
Thirty-two people died when lightning struck two villages in the Diamer district of northern Pakistan. Dozens of people were injured, said Mohammad Ajmal, a local police official. The lightning also disrupted communications.
Countries have pledged millions of dollars in aid, but the assistance is arriving slowly. Public anger is growing in Pakistan over the government’s slow response to the disaster.
The World Food Programme said Wednesday that it had managed to run food supplies to 375,000 people but hoped to increased the effort to feed two million refugees by Aug 20. It said the cost would be about $150 million.
Giuliano said the UN was optimistic about the international response.
“We have received promises of $140 million as by last night,” he said.
