The UN rushed a top envoy to Pakistan yesterday to address the urgent plight of 3.2 million people hit by the worst floods in generations as officials warned the crisis was spreading.
As the humanitarian disaster pushed into a second week, fears are growing of a food crisis among survivors who saw their villages and farmland washed away, killing more than 1,500 people in northwest and central Pakistan.
Victims have increasingly lashed out against Pakistan’s government for not providing better relief, piling pressure on a cash-strapped administration straining to contain Taliban violence and economic crisis.
PHOTO: AFP
UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon dispatched special envoy Jean-Maurice Ripert to help mobilize international support and address victims’ “urgent, immediate needs,” a spokesman said.
Facing protests from desperate survivors clamoring for help, Pakistani Prime Minister Yousuf Raza Gilani on Wednesday ordered government officials to speed up relief work and said ministers would each donate one month’s salary.
Ripert, former French ambassador to the UN, arrived in Pakistan yesterday and was to visit affected areas in the northwest and meet government officials.
The record rains triggered floods and landslides last week that devastated villages and farmland in some of the country’s poorest and most volatile regions in northwestern Khyber Pakhtunkhwa and central Punjab provinces.
“We see urgent need of food assistance to people affected by floods to prevent a starvation-like situation,” said Amjad Jamal, spokesman for the UN World Food Programme. “Eighty percent of food reserves have been destroyed by the floods, which also caused massive damage to livestock, markets, roads and overall infrastructure.”
“The flood water is increasing at different points and we are expecting more rain in next 24 hours,” Hazrat Mir, chief meteorologist for Punjab, told reporters. “This is an alarming situation.”
Survivors complain they have been abandoned by the government, organizing protests in the northwestern city of Peshawar and on Wednesday blocking the motorway to Islamabad for 1.5 hours.
Particular scorn has been reserved for Pakistani President Asif Ali Zardari, who is deeply unpopular, for pressing ahead with visits to Paris and London at the height of the disaster, saying in a five-star hotel while his people suffer.
Although Gilani has said about 100,000 people have been rescued and “relief items in sufficient quantity” provided to provinces, many people say they have received no assistance from the government, only from local families.
The UN said clean drinking water and sanitation were urgently needed to stop disease spreading among survivors.
An international relief campaign has included a promise of a US$10 million aid package from the US, while the UN will disburse up to the same amount from an emergency response fund.
The British government pledged US$8 million in aid, while Australia pledged US$4.4 million and China US$1.5 million. Other countries including Indonesia, South Korea and Canada have also promised help.
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