Massive floods across Pakistan | Thousands Killed

[SandsofTime]

Feds to match Pakistan relief donations
Stranded Pakistanis walk after being rescued by a U.S. helicopter from Kalam area, Tuesday, Aug. 17, 2010 upon their arrival in Khawaza Khela in Pakistan's Swat Valley. The U.S. had committed at least $87 million in aid and expected to give more in the coming days. (AP / Anjum Naveed)

Stranded Pakistanis walk after being rescued by a U.S. helicopter from Kalam area, Tuesday, Aug. 17, 2010. (AP / Anjum Naveed)

Updated: Sun Aug. 22 2010 18:43:52

Jessica Earle, ctvedmonton.ca

The Canadian government stepped up its efforts to help a flood-ravaged country on Sunday, announcing it will match private donations dollar for dollar.

Officials say the initiative, which runs from August 2nd to September 12th, will go toward continuing humanitarian assistance as well as recovery and reconstruction efforts for the 20 million people affected by the disaster, including six million who were left homeless.

"For every eligible donation by individual Canadians to Canadian-registered charities and earmarked for efforts to assist Pakistan relief efforts, Canada will contribute an equivalent amount to the Pakistan Floods Relief Fund," said Government House leader John Baird at a Sunday press conference in Ottawa.

While members of Edmonton's Pakistani community are applauding the announcement, some worry it doesn't go far enough.

"This is a long-term problem with a lot of rehabilitation required, and we would urge the government of Canada to extend this deadline to several months from now," said Salim Sabir with the Edmonton Pakistan Flood Relief Committee.

"We can only do so much and if we can help a few families, a few cities, a few towns, I think it is worth it."

Canada has already pledged $33 million to the cause, making it the fifth largest donator to relief efforts. In total, the International community has contributed $800 million.

The Harper government says there is no ceiling on how much it is willing to contribute before the mid-September cutoff.

With files from The Associated Press, The Canadian Press & Sonia Sunger

CTV Edmonton - Feds to match Pakistan relief donations - CTV News

 

[GUNNER]

Pakistan aid target 'reaches 70%'

The UN says it has now raised about 70% of the money it needs to provide emergency relief to people affected by the floods in Pakistan.

Nearly 17 million people have been affected by the floods.

The International Monetary Fund is to start talks with Pakistan later to discuss what it can do to help deal with the crisis.

Aid agency Oxfam says the disaster is on the scale of the Asian tsunami plus the devastation of Haiti's earthquake.

The UN says it has now raised close to 70% of the $460m (£295m) it called for in its emergency appeal.

Some $54m are in uncommitted pledges, and $263m are resources available now.

In the UK, relief agencies have said public donors have given £29m ($45m) to the relief effort.

They also said the international response had been slow to build up, but that they had received more donations in the second week than the first week, which was rarely seen in such appeals.

The talks with Pakistan on Monday will allow the IMF to assess how best to help. It says the floods that have struck Pakistan pose a "massive economic challenge" and it will review the country's budget and financial prospects.

 

[Solomon2]

An aerial view of flood damage from a U.S. Navy MH-53E Sea Dragon helicopter shows extensive flooding in Pakistan's Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa province, Aug. 21, 2010. The helicopter is assigned to Helicopter Mine Countermeasures Squadron 15, which is involved in humanitarian flood relief efforts. U.S. Marine Corps photo by Capt. Paul Duncan

 

[GentlemanObserver]

UK public 'shaming world politicians' over Pakistan aid

Brendan Gormley of the DEC "UK public are shaming politicians across the world"

The generosity of the British public in helping Pakistan's flood victims is "shaming politicians around the world", the head of the Disasters Emergency Committee (DEC) has said.

Brendan Gormley, chief executive of the DEC, said the UK public was leading the way in donations, but that further funds were urgently needed.

The DEC's Pakistan Floods Appeal has now raised more than £30m.

Critics say the world community has been too slow to respond to the crisis.

Mr Gormley said that while the response of the UK government was to be respected, other nations had been slow to react to the situation in Pakistan that was continuing to affect more than 20 million people.

He told a press conference in central London that for the first time in DEC's history, more money was donated in the second week of an appeal campaign than the first.

Mr Gormley said this fact was "hugely moving" and a response to the situation on the ground in Pakistan continuing to develop.

He added that £5m had been donated over the past weekend alone.

'Catastrophe'
Jane Cocking, humanitarian director at Oxfam, said the Pakistan appeal was not just for one disaster.

"It is an appeal for a catastrophe made up of multiple single disasters," she said.

"But if we put all of this together, what we have is a single, long event that has the scale of the [Asian] tsunami, the devastation of Haiti, and the complexity of the Middle East."

Ms Cocking, who recently returned from Pakistan, said the scenes were the worst she had seen in more than two decades of humanitarian work.

About 25% of affected people had yet to receive any "significant" aid, she added, and echoed Mr Gormley's appeal to the British people to continue donating.

"I know that times are hard for a lot of people in the UK, but honestly, if people can give a little bit more, it really will go to the people who desperately need it," she said.

Mr Gormley's criticism of the international community's response comes after a senior United Nations official called the lack of global support "quite extraordinary".

"Right now, our level of needs in terms of funding is huge compared to what we've been receiving, even though this is the largest, by far, humanitarian crisis we've seen in decades," said Louis-George Arsenault, director of emergency operations for Unicef.

The DEC is an umbrella organisation of 13 UK humanitarian aid agencies - ActionAid, Age UK, British Red Cross, Care International, Cafod, Christian Aid, Concern, Islamic Relief, Merlin, Oxfam, Save the Children, Tearfund and World Vision.

If you would like to make a donation to help people affected by the floods in Pakistan, you can do so through the UK's Disasters Emergency Committee at DEC or by telephone on 0370 60 60 900.

BBC News - UK public 'shaming world politicians' over Pakistan aid

 

[Solomon2]

WASHINGTON: Nations helping Pakistan cope with major floods are arranging new talks in New York in September and in Brussels the month afterward to assess the response, a senior official said.

"The world is realizing that this is not just a flood, this is a mega-flood, this is a flood of the century,” Pakistani Foreign Minister Shah Mehmood Qureshi told “The Charlie Rose Show” on US public television.

Donors and international relief workers repeatedly claimed weeks ago that the floods were terrible, only to be told by Pakistani officials that they were over-reacting. Now the PFM is claiming, "Oh, finally the world realizes how bad it is." He's throwing dirt in the face of the international aid workers and donors by PRETENDING to care, accusing them of shirking.

Do you think Pakistan makes and keeps friends this way?

 

[fawwaxs]

Zardari warns flood recovery could take years

KARACHI: President Asif Ali Zardari warned the country could take three years or more to recover from near-month long floods as authorities battled to protect cities from rising waters.

The floods have killed 1,500 people and affected up to 20 million nationwide in the country's worst natural disaster, with the threat of disease ever present in the camps sheltering survivors.

“Your guess is as good as mine, but three years is a minimum,” Zardari told reporters when asked how long it would take Pakistan to go through relief, reconstruction and rehabilitation after the floods.

“I don't think Pakistan will ever fully recover but we will move on,” the president added, saying the government was working to protect people from future flooding.

Zardari was denounced for failing to cut short a visit to Europe at the start of the disaster, and while he defended that decision, he acknowledged that some criticism of the government's response was justified.

“There will always be a 'could have been better, would have been better, should have been better'... (but) you have to understand how enormous the issue (the scale of the disaster) is,” he said.

 

[fawwaxs]

HYDERABAD: The Kotri barrage is successfully withstanding a flow of 891,450 cusecs of water which has surpassed its designed capacity of 875,000 cusecs, and the flow increasing.

A flow of 869,665 cusecs was recorded downstream on Tuesday, inundating kutcha areas and villages in Latifabad taluka and Thatta district. But the flow of the Indus flow is decreasing at Guddu and Sukkur.

The Kotri barrage withstood a flow of 981,000 cusecs in 1956 and 824,000 cusecs in 1994.

Seepages and erosions of embankments are taking place at several locations in Matiari and Thatta districts where local people are maintaining round the clock vigil along with irrigations officials to prevent flooding of their areas.

A drop of one decimal point has been reported at the Dadu-Moro bridge — the centre point between Sukkur and Kotri barrages — after a steady flow of floodwaters at a gauge of 132.3RL (reduced level) for a couple of days.

Irrigation officials said a sustained drop in the level at the point would reduce upstream pressure at Kotri.

A temporary embankment near the combined channel upstream Kotri has been demolished, resulting in inundation of hundreds of acres of land belonging to the Shoro community. “The dyke was demolished twice during the past days, but local people rebuilt it. However, it appears that now they won’t be able to raise it because of strong currents of the Indus,” an official said.

The surging river continues its journey towards the Arabian Sea which may not absorb floodwaters because of the lunar dates of 12 and 13 when there is high tide in the sea.

The floodwaters have crossed the Khobar creek and are now falling into the sea.

“A high tide will put pressure on the river’s embankments,” Pakistan Fisherfolk Forum’s chairman Mohammad Ali Shah said.

All the kutcha area villages in Latifabad taluka and the Kohsar-Gulistan-i-Sarmast road have been inundated.

Floodwaters have entered a relief camp at the Mono-Technical Institute and about 350 displaced families have been shifted to the Government Degree College in Latifabad’s Unit-11.

Matiari District Coordination Officer Saqib Soomro has asked the Sindh government to shift displaced people sheltering in the area to Karachi or Hyderabad because it is becoming difficult for the administration to take care of them.

A couple of incidents of attacks by flood-affected people on vehicles distributing relief goods have been reported from Matiari.

“I had to run away from there because they were literally trying to overpower me in a bid to snatch goods which were meant for them,” a minister said, calling for steps to deal with such incidents.

The DCO said the chief minister and home minister had agreed to shift them to Karachi or Hyderabad and four trucks had been provided for transporting them from Bhitshah. Over 100,000 people in three talukas of Dadu district are under threat because floodwaters from the Tori embankment breach are moving towards the area after submerging parts of Qambar-Shahdadkot.

An official said the residents of 14 union councils had been asked to leave their homes.

Water is flowing into the Hamal lake from Qambar-Shahdadkot and its five gates have been opened again.

In Thatta, the Indus has overflown its right bank and inundated several towns and dozens of villages in the kutcha area. The water is now gushing towards the Indus Highway and Keenjhar lake after breaching the Right Bank Outfall Drain.

 

[mshoaib61]

 

[fawwaxs]

HYDERABAD: Flood has maintained enormous pressure in River Indus particularly against Kotri Barrage for third consecutive day and in parts of Thatta District, Geo News reported.

After the river surged enough to be in high floods at Jamshoro, Kotri and Thatta distrcits, tens of thousands of people, stranded in dozens of villages abutting three districts, are impatiently waiting for relief goods as their localities have been rendered completely submerged under floodwaters.

8,91,000 cusecs of water is flowing through Kotri Barrage at this point of time while 80 percent of Jamshoro District is presenting look of a lake following floodwater inundated villages there.

Most parts of tehsils Manjhand and Sehwan Sharif are covered with floodwater, officials said.

Meanwhile in Hyderabad District, after wreaking havoc in Unit No 5, 10 and 11 of Latifabad tehsil, floodwater has roared up to roads of Sarmast Housing Scheme.

Flood threat, posed on Larkana District, has been minimized after more than 70 percent breach appeared in Aaqil Aagani Loop Bund was filled.

According to sources, after intervention from government officials for filling the breach created at Aaqil Aagani Loop Bund by diverting stones-laden trucks meant for other areas towards Larkana for this purpose, the threat of flooding has been minimized.

 

[S_O_C_O_M]

Saudi to 'spare no effort' in aid to Pakistan​

Saudi Arabia among leading suppliers of relief funds to Pakistan following fatal floods.​

The kingdom had pledged 106 million dollars in aid

First Published 2010-08-24


RIYADH - Saudi Arabia's council of ministers resolved to continue sending aid to flood-stricken Pakistan, the official SPA news agency said Tuesday.

"The kingdom will spare no effort in supporting the Islamic Republic of Pakistan to cope with the damage from flooding," Information Minister Abdul Aziz Khoja said following the council's late night meeting Monday, SPA said.

As of August 19 the country had pledged 106 million dollars (84 million euros) in aid to Pakistan, making it one of the leading suppliers of relief funds after the floods, which have killed 1,500 people and affected up to 20 million nationwide in the country's worst ever natural disaster.

On Monday, three large Saudi military transport planes delivered a team of Saudi rescue workers from the national and border guards, and relief equipment that included boats and generators to Karachi to help with rescue operations.

Another team was scheduled to travel Tuesday.

Also Monday, a senior US official said countries worldwide have now pledged a total of more than 700 million dollars (554 million euros) towards flood relief in Pakistan.


Middle East Online

 

[S_O_C_O_M]

Iran to expand aid relief for Pakistan​

Pakistani Interior Minister Rehman Malik (L) met with Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad on Monday, August 23, 2010.

Tue Aug 24, 2010 5:31AM

Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad has sympathized with 20 million flood-hit Pakistanis, expressing Iran's readiness to send more relief aid to the country.


President Ahmadinejad in a meeting with Pakistani Interior Minister Rehman Malik on Monday offered his condolences to the Pakistani government and nation over the recent massive floods. He said that Iran was ready to send more aid to the country.

“Sending aid to the victims of the flood is a religious and humanitarian duty and the Iranian nation is fully ready to help our brothers in Pakistan,” President Ahmadinejad said.

The Pakistani minister, for his part, thanked Iran for sending aid to the country and provided the Iranian chief executive with a report on the extent of damage caused by heavy floods.

The Islamic Republic has so far dispatched nearly 200 tons of relief aid to the flood-ravaged Pakistan.

The death toll from floods in Pakistan has risen to more than 1,600 with up to 20 million people having been affected by the floods so far.

The situation caused by the floods is getting more unwieldy for the Pakistani government as hunger, lack of hygiene and the outbreak of diseases threaten lives of many Pakistanis.

Pakistani President Asif Ali Zardari said on Monday that the country needed at least three years to recover.

PressTV - Iran to expand aid relief for Pakistan

 

[Aeon]

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[Aeon]

 

[Aeon]

 

[ghazi52]

Thanks Saudi Arab for help to flood victims.
True Muslim brothers.