International organisations announce USD 500 million flood relief aid to Pakistan

Islamabad: In the wake of the devastating flood situation across Pakistan, International organizations and financial institutions have announced to provide a flood relief aid of over USD 500 million for the flood victims in the country, at the request of Pakistan Prime minister Shehbaz Sharif.

World Bank's country coordinator informed the PM about a USD 350 million aid for flood relief operations, and UD 50 million aid would be transferred until the end of the week. While World Food Program has announced the provision of USD 110 million for rescue and relief operations, ARY News reported. The Asian Development Bank (ADB) has announced an aid of USD 20 million while UK Aid would donate USD 1.7 million. The UK Aid has announced an additional 38 million pounds for short and long-term projects in the country.

The announcement comes after an emergency meeting chaired by Pakistan PM Shehbaz Sharif, to reassess the damage caused by floods and to apprise donors of the magnitude of the crisis.
During the meeting, Pak PM urged international organizations and other nations of the world to extend help to the flood-stricken people as the government needs additional funds to rehabilitate the flood victims, reported Dawn.
He said that the country faced an emergency situation because of the historic rains and floods and a large number of people including women and children lost their lives.

He also told that houses, infrastructure, crops, and orchards were destroyed, roads and bridges were washed away and land routes were cut off which made it difficult to carry out rescue and relief activities.
Shehbaz said the federal government undertook relief activities in coordination with the provinces and the federal and provincial departments were working together. However, the prime minister added that the extent of the destruction was so huge that the federal and provincial governments could not complete the rehabilitation of the flood affectees on their own.

He said the government had released Rs 5 billion for relief and the family of every deceased was given financial assistance of Rs 1 million. Each flood victim family was immediately given Rs 25,000 and Rs 80 billion was allocated for this purpose, he added.
Earlier, on Tuesday, the European Union announced to provide PKR 76 million to Pakistan to provide crucial humanitarian assistance to families affected by severe flooding.

"The EU funding will help get vital assistance to the most vulnerable people to support them during this hard time," said Taheeni Thammannagoda, who oversees EU humanitarian programs in Pakistan.
"This includes the provision of cash transfers to help flood-stricken families to meet their immediate needs, primary healthcare services, with a focus on water-borne and communicable diseases, which are common after a flood, as well as nutrition support," the release said, adding, "the program will also provide psychological support to vulnerable groups such as women, adolescent girls, and children," she added.

Since early July, above-normal monsoon rains have caused major flash floods in over 100 districts of Pakistan. The coalition government on Thursday officially declared a "national emergency".
As per the latest data by the National Disaster Management Authority (NDMA), the rains and floods had so far killed 937 people, including 343 children, and left at least 30 million without shelter, reported Dawn.

Pakistani Minister for Climate Change Sherry Rehman on Wednesday revealed that over 900 people were killed during monsoon rains across Pakistan since June this year, while 1,293 were left injured, media reports said.
"Since June, 903 people, including 326 children and 191 women, have died in various incidents of monsoon rains and floods," she wrote reported Dawn.
According to the data shared by the minister, the highest number of deaths and injuries during the time period was recorded in Sindh and Balochistan.

Sindh province recorded the highest number of death as 306 people have lost their lives due to floods and rain-related incidents from June 14 to date. Balochistan reported 234 deaths whereas Khyber Pakhtunkhwa and Punjab recorded 185 and 165 deaths, respectively.
Nine deaths were reported in the Gilgit-Baltistan region during the current monsoon rains. In the same period Islamabad reported one death, Dawn reported citing NDMA.
The abnormal increase in rainfall has generated flash floods across the country, particularly in the southern part of Pakistan, which remains inundated at the moment with 23 districts of Sindh being declared "calamity-hit".

This unprecedented emergency situation comes amid the rising political tension in the country over a terrorism case filed against former Prime Minister Imran Khan. Writing for the Dawn, Pakistani columnist Zahid Hussain said nothing could be more surreal than watching political leaders engaged in a sordid game of thrones while a large part of the country is devastated by torrential rains.

In an article titled "Politics in times of calamity", Hussain said villages have been wiped out by flash floods. "There are horrific scenes; the destruction across the country has left thousands of people homeless and without sustenance," he added. (ANI)