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International aid for Pakistan has stopped, says UN
WITH VAST areas of Pakistan still under water and no end in sight to the countrys misery, the United Nations said yesterday the flow of international aid had ground to a halt.
Charities and UN agencies issued a fresh appeal for funding and warned that thousands of people could still die from disease and hunger.
They painted a picture of a country still in desperate need more than a month after torrential rain washed away bridges, roads and homes plunging the country into crisis.
Pakistans reputation for corruption and its role as a haven for extremist groups has been blamed for hampering donations to an emergency that has killed at least 1,600 people and affected 17 million.
Yesterday the International Committee of the Red Cross also said aid deliveries were being affected by unrest among flood victims angered at delays.
Although flood waters have receded in some places, aid workers say they are still working at full stretch.
Given the number of those in need, this is a humanitarian operation of unprecedented scale, said Manuel Bessler, head of the UNs co-ordination agency OCHA. We need to reach at least eight million people, from the Karakoram mountain range in the north to the Arabian Sea in the south.
Thousands remain trapped by floodwaters in the hardest-hit southern province of Sindh, while others are complaining of going without food or water for days and some are being forced to live in the rubble of their ruined homes.
However, despite the intense need the UN said donations had stalled since the beginning of the week, rising from $274 million to only $291 million less than two-thirds of the money needed to keep people alive.
Tammy Hasselfeldt, chair of Pakistan Humanitarian Forum, an umbrella group of charities, said: The crisis is far from over. In fact, we are now entering the most difficult stages.
Unless we can act fast enough, children and other vulnerable people may succumb.
Jacques de Maio, of the ICRC, said his staff had been forced to abandon distributions as crowds turned violent.
What we are detecting is a very worrying trend of areas where. . . people are so in need, so resentful of not getting enough aid, that they turn understandably aggressive and this is bad because it doesnt help in our efforts to reach more of them, he said, adding that the trend could threaten future deliveries.
Meanwhile, a senior Pakistani diplomat has called for an inquiry into allegations that rich landowners diverted water into unprotected villages during the floods to save their own crops.
Abdullah Hussain Haroon, Pakistans ambassador to the UN, said there was evidence that landlords had allowed banks to be burst.
It is suggested in some areas, those to be protected were allowed had allowed levies to be burst on opposite sides to take the water away. If that is happening the government should be inquiring, he said in an interview with the BBC
International aid for Pakistan has stopped, says UN - The Irish Times - Fri, Sep 03, 2010
WITH VAST areas of Pakistan still under water and no end in sight to the countrys misery, the United Nations said yesterday the flow of international aid had ground to a halt.
Charities and UN agencies issued a fresh appeal for funding and warned that thousands of people could still die from disease and hunger.
They painted a picture of a country still in desperate need more than a month after torrential rain washed away bridges, roads and homes plunging the country into crisis.
Pakistans reputation for corruption and its role as a haven for extremist groups has been blamed for hampering donations to an emergency that has killed at least 1,600 people and affected 17 million.
Yesterday the International Committee of the Red Cross also said aid deliveries were being affected by unrest among flood victims angered at delays.
Although flood waters have receded in some places, aid workers say they are still working at full stretch.
Given the number of those in need, this is a humanitarian operation of unprecedented scale, said Manuel Bessler, head of the UNs co-ordination agency OCHA. We need to reach at least eight million people, from the Karakoram mountain range in the north to the Arabian Sea in the south.
Thousands remain trapped by floodwaters in the hardest-hit southern province of Sindh, while others are complaining of going without food or water for days and some are being forced to live in the rubble of their ruined homes.
However, despite the intense need the UN said donations had stalled since the beginning of the week, rising from $274 million to only $291 million less than two-thirds of the money needed to keep people alive.
Tammy Hasselfeldt, chair of Pakistan Humanitarian Forum, an umbrella group of charities, said: The crisis is far from over. In fact, we are now entering the most difficult stages.
Unless we can act fast enough, children and other vulnerable people may succumb.
Jacques de Maio, of the ICRC, said his staff had been forced to abandon distributions as crowds turned violent.
What we are detecting is a very worrying trend of areas where. . . people are so in need, so resentful of not getting enough aid, that they turn understandably aggressive and this is bad because it doesnt help in our efforts to reach more of them, he said, adding that the trend could threaten future deliveries.
Meanwhile, a senior Pakistani diplomat has called for an inquiry into allegations that rich landowners diverted water into unprotected villages during the floods to save their own crops.
Abdullah Hussain Haroon, Pakistans ambassador to the UN, said there was evidence that landlords had allowed banks to be burst.
It is suggested in some areas, those to be protected were allowed had allowed levies to be burst on opposite sides to take the water away. If that is happening the government should be inquiring, he said in an interview with the BBC
International aid for Pakistan has stopped, says UN - The Irish Times - Fri, Sep 03, 2010
