UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon praised the global community as emergency donations for Pakistan neared US$500 million, but warned the flood-stricken nation faces “years of need.”
Donations have outstripped the US$460 million sought by the UN emergency appeal as the global relief effort kicked into gear amid impassioned pleas for help by Pakistan.
The Financial Tracking Service, a UN database that aims to track all donations, showed late on Friday that US$490.7 million in funding has been collected, with another US$325 million pledged.
PHOTO: AFP
The US leads the way followed by Saudi Arabia and Britain.
The UN on Thursday led a meeting to raise support for Pakistan — a disaster that Ban called a “slow-motion tsunami.”
On Friday, Ban welcomed the donations, saying: “The generosity of countries and individuals will make a real difference in the daily lives of millions of people ... We must keep it up. Pakistan is facing weeks, months and years of need.”
The floods have left almost 1,500 people dead in the nuclear-armed country of 167 million — a top US foreign policy priority on the frontline of the US-led war on al-Qaeda and locked in battles with homegrown Taliban.
Its weak, democratically elected government has faced an outpouring of public fury over sluggish relief efforts and there are growing fears that losses of up to US$43 billion could bring economic oblivion.
Pakistani Foreign Minister Shah Mehmood Qureshi, who has been appealing for help in the US, said that it was important to look not only at emergency funding but also at long-term needs.
“I would say the initial response was slow because the world was not aware of the magnitude of the challenge. But now I think it is filtering in,” Qureshi told PBS NewsHour on US public television on Friday.
“But that’s only the beginning. We have to look at the recovery and the rehabilitation and reconstruction costs as well,” he said.
Eight million flood survivors in desperate need of food, shelter and clean drinking water require humanitarian assistance to survive, as concerns grow over potential cholera, typhoid and hepatitis outbreaks.
Elisabeth Byrs, a spokeswoman for the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs said UN agencies were ramping up their aid effort but the full picture was only beginning to emerge.
“It’s a disaster that came very slowly, it’s not an earthquake that hits suddenly that we can immediately see the victims. But we are now seeing the magnitude of this catastrophe.”
The UN World Food Programme said it urgently needs helicopters to get food to millions of flood victims who remain cut off by the high waters, although weather forecasters say the monsoon systems are easing off.
The agency warned that the floods have killed or are threatening millions of livestock and launched an urgent appeal for animal feed.
As aid from around the world has poured in, Pakistan thanked the world for opening its wallets and said more than 20 million flood victims now know that nations and people around the globe are standing with them during the worst disaster the country has ever faced.
Wrapping up a hurriedly called two-day meeting of the UN General Assembly to spotlight the immediate need for aid, Pakistan’s UN Ambassador Abdullah Haroon said the initial outpouring from some 70 countries was “indeed heartening” and “a good beginning,” though he stressed that the country will need much more help in the months and years to come.
Pakistan announced earlier Friday that it would accept US$5 million in aid from neighbor and rival India, which Haroon welcomed saying the disaster transcended any differences and the country was grateful for the offer.
India’s UN Ambassador Hardeep Singh Puri said the US$5 million in relief supplies was an initial offer and the government is ready to do more to assist the relief effort. He said India would also “be privileged” to assist in Pakistan’s medium and long-term recovery.
Iran also announced that day that it was doubling its contribution to US$10 million.
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