Pakistan battled yesterday to save areas threatened by more devastating flood waters as the UN warned that 800,000 people in desperate need of aid had been cut off by the floods.
The UN launched an urgent appeal on Tuesday for more helicopters to deliver aid to those people reachable only by air after floods triggered by a torrent of monsoon rains washed away bridges and vital access roads.
Pakistan’s worst humanitarian catastrophe has affected more than 17 million people, with 5 million people still homeless, according to the UN, while officials warn that millions are at risk from disease and food shortages. About 1,500 people have been confirmed dead by Pakistani authorities.
Global pledges have topped US$700 million, but Pakistani and international relief officials have raised concerns about the slow pace of aid and Islamabad has warned that total losses could reach US$43 billion dollars.
Tens of thousands of people have been evacuated from flood-threatened areas close to Hyderabad, a city of 2.5 million people on the lower reaches of the Indus River, where more than 40 nearby villages have been swept away.
Marcus Prior of the World Food Programme said at least 40 extra heavy-lift helicopters were needed “to reach the huge numbers of increasingly desperate people with life-saving relief,” the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs statement said.
He said the floods had now affected an estimated 17.2 million people, of whom at least 8 million are believed to need life-saving humanitarian assistance, and over 1.2 million homes have been damaged or destroyed.
Meanwhile, Pakistan’s rich and famous are leading a groundswell of private aid for the 20 million victims of the country’s worst ever floods amid rising distrust of the government’s own efforts.
Circumventing an administration maligned as corrupt and bogged down in bureaucracy and infighting, Pakistan’s private donors are turning to cricketers, pop stars and business leaders to help the desperate and displaced.
An official prime minister’s relief fund had collected US$17.5 million by Saturday. In contrast, Pakistan’s best-known charity, the “Edhi Foundation,” will spend more than US$35.5 million of private donations, said its founder, Abdul Sattar Edhi.
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