World News | Pakistan's 20 Million Flood Victims Need Urgent Humanitarian Assistance: Minister

Islamabad, Dec 19 (PTI) Pakistan's climate change minister on Monday warned about the fate of the country's flood-affected people, saying 20 million people were still dependent on humanitarian aid while the UN funding appeal so far received only a third of its USD 816 million target.

More than 33 million were affected by the worst floods in decades this summer after rivers swelled due to unusual monsoon rains.

Also Read | Pakistan: Ex-PM Imran Khan Says He Tried To Improve Strained Ties With India During His Tenure.

Minister Sherry Rehman said in a statement that disaster amnesia was not uncommon in a world driven by competing goals, and the tragedy of Pakistan's catastrophic flooding had been forgotten by many.

“But the climate-induced crisis in Pakistan has long-term implications for recovery and resilience in a context defined by systemic deficits in climate financing with 20 million people still currently dependent on humanitarian aid, while flash appeals just for the humanitarian gap by the United Nations have received only 30 per cent of the USD 816 million,” she said.

Also Read | Window Shopping for Sex in Amsterdam to End? Municipal Council To Vote on Closing Brothels Permanently, Clients May Be Asked to Book Online.

The minister said the floods caused damage worth USD 30 billion and that the rehabilitation and disaster-reconstruction needs had been estimated at USD 16.3 billion.

She said that the UN warned that 8.4 to 9.1 million people would be pushed below the poverty line as 14.6 million flood-affected people still needed emergency food assistance from December 2022 to March 2023.

"We should not forget that almost 3.9 million people in Sindh and 1.6 million in Balochistan are facing severe food insecurity, with 5.5 million people no longer having access to safe and clean drinking water,” she said.

The UN's ongoing assistance is facing a looming risk of ending prematurely as they are running out of funds to continue the needed support, she warned.

The minister also said the World Food Programme had forewarned about running out of funds by mid-January for Pakistan, putting an additional 1.1 million people at an extreme risk of food insecurity.

“We have to keep in mind that in Sindh, over 240,000 people remain displaced with at least 10 districts continuing to report standing water, while the same situation persists in two districts of Balochistan,” she said.

The minister warned that children are at the frontline of the flood aftermath with 9.6 million children in urgent need of humanitarian assistance out of the total 20 million affected.

Along with our development partners, we estimate that 1.6 million children are suffering from severe acute malnutrition, and 7 million are in desperate need of nutrition services,” she said.

She said that the UN so far received only USD 262 million or just 30 per cent from international donors out of the USD 816 million under the Floods Response Plan.

The minister said Pakistan has received around USD 4 billion in financial foreign assistance to support flood relief activities in the country, out of which USD 3.64 billion is in the form of loans and USD 435.03 million in the form of grants.

(The above story is verified and authored by Press Trust of India (PTI) staff. PTI, India’s premier news agency, employs more than 400 journalists and 500 stringers to cover almost every district and small town in India.. The views appearing in the above post do not reflect the opinions of LatestLY)