New York: The United Nations issued a flash appeal on Tuesday for $160 million to help Pakistan cope with catastrophic floods that have killed more than 1,100 people, destroyed infrastructure and crops, and affected 33 million people.
Early estimates put the damage from the floods at more than $10 billion, the government has said, adding that the world had an obligation to help the country cope with the effects of man-made climate change.
“Pakistan is awash in suffering,” UN Secretary General Antonio Guterres said in a video message for the launch of the appeal in Islamabad and Geneva. “The Pakistani people are facing a monsoon on steroids — the relentless impact of epochal levels of rain and flooding.”
Foreign Minister Bilawal Bhutto-Zardari also spoke on the occasion, urging nations to extend their support to Pakistan in these challenging times.
The FM said the devastation witnessed in Pakistan following the recent spell of unprecedented rains and floods showed that the country had become “ground zero” of global warming, the “biggest existential threat” of this century.
“The current cycle of super flooding we see today is part of extreme weather patterns. Unprecedented levels of cloud bursts and torrential rains have triggered widespread devastation, urban flooding, river floods and landslides, resulting in the loss of human life, livelihoods and livestock,” Bilawal said.
He described this year’s “super floods” as a “climate calamity”, adding that “what we are facing today has been no above average monsoon.
“It is an entirely new level of climate-led catastrophe.”
The FM said rainfall in Pakistan since mid-June had been equivalent to three times the 30-year national average and the southern, central and northern regions of the country were worst affected.
He said it was feared the scale of destruction caused by this year’s floods would exceed the impact of 2010’s “mega or super floods”.
Sharing details about the extent of damage, he said 72 districts were declared calamity-hit, over 33 million people were affected — which is the size of a small country — over 1,000 people had lost their lives and several others were grappling with the loss of livelihoods and displacement.
“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,” he lamented.
Moreover, he said the damage to infrastructure and railway networks was impeding efforts to deliver aid and to shift people from flood-hit areas to safer locations.
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 floods, the FM said, had taken a toll on the economy and stretched the country’s resources.
He said the government was cognisant of its responsibility and had earmarked $173 million to help flood-hit people through direct cash transfers.
Pakistan needs ‘$10 billion’ for repair and rehabilitation
Earlier, Planning Minister Ahsan Iqbal said Pakistan needs more than $10 billion to repair and rebuild infrastructure damaged by monsoon rains.
“Massive damage has been caused to infrastructure — especially in the areas of telecommunications, roads, agriculture and livelihoods,” he told AFP.
Iqbal’s statements are a reiteration of an assessment he shared with Reuters a day earlier, where he said he believed that the cost of the damage caused by floods would be “huge”.
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“So far, [a] very early, preliminary estimate is that it is big, it is higher than $10 billion,” Iqbal said, adding that there was damage to almost nearly one million houses“.
“People have actually lost their complete livelihoods,” he continued, rating the recent floods worst than those that hit Pakistan in 2010.
The minister said it might take five years to rebuild and rehabilitate the nation, while in the near term it will be confronted with acute food shortages.
Separately, Finance Minister Miftah Ismail has also estimated that the economic impact of floods would be at least $10bn, which roughly translates to three per cent of the country’s gross domestic product.
The estimates have come as Pakistan reels from the impact of torrential rains and unprecedented floods, which have claimed over 1,000 lives, affected more than 33 million — almost 15pc of the country’s 220m population — people and submerged most of the country.
Moreover, the country faces an imminent food security crisis, with crops damaged on a large scale and livestock swept away. AFP
