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France sends 300,000 euros for flood relief
PARIS: France will give 300,000 euros (395,000 dollars) to three organisations working to provide relief for the victims of Pakistan's devastating monsoon floods, the foreign ministry said Friday.
In a statement, it said the donation, made after Foreign Minister Bernard Kouchner met Pakistan's President Asif Ali Zardari earlier this week, would be shared by the French Red Cross, Handicap International and Secours Islamique.
This year's monsoon floods in northern Pakistan have endangered around 4.5 million people, UN officials said Friday, as relief workers warned the amount of aid needed is absolutely daunting. AFP
Coca Cola has donated more than France, let alone smaller economies. What scrooges.
Before counting who has given how much we should look at our own government. There is no plan in place to meet any natural disasters. The 2005 earthquake lessons were not learned and there are no helicopters for relief and rescue. Due to climate change there would be more natural disasters and we have to have plans in place. We cannot wait for charity to help our own people.
The NDMA cannot have several dozen helicopters just sitting around waiting for a disaster to happen - that would be impractical. It would have to arrange for pilots, maintenance, storage etc.
Pakistan Army should have dual use helicopters that can also be used for relief operations. CH-47 Chinook and UH-60 Black Hawk helicopters have been deployed in Pakistan by US to help in relief work. We can buy these for Pakistan Army and have them available for rescue work during emergencies.
We already have workhorses available with the Pakistan Army Aviation. MI-17, SA-330 PUMA, AB-205, Bell-412 are all capable of performing rescue and relief operations with ease. The problem isn't with our helicopters, problem's with the number of helicopters in our fleet.