World pledges 700 million dollars for Pakistan floods: US

World pledges 700 million dollars for Pakistan floods: US

(AFP) – 11 hours ago

WASHINGTON — The United States and other countries worldwide have now pledged a total of more than 700 million dollars towards flood relief in Pakistan, a senior US official said Monday.

The United Nations General Assembly meeting last Thursday was "a real galvanizing moment in terms of contributions from other countries," said Dan Feldman, the deputy special representative for Afghanistan and Pakistan.

"By our count, we?ve seen over 700 million dollars pledged, including our own 150 million dollar commitment, from over 30 countries," Feldman told reporters without giving a country-by-country breakdown.

He also said there are an "additional 300 million dollars in as yet undefined commitments" from a variety of countries.

He said there would be more multi-lateral meetings to coordinate the international aid response in the coming weeks, including a possible gathering on the sidelines of the UN General Assembly in late September.

The Financial Tracking Service (FTS), a UN database that aims to track all donations, showed late Friday that 490.7 million dollars has come in for Pakistan's floods, with another 325 million dollars promised.

Just over half came via the UN's emergency appeal fund while the rest came via bilateral aid, chiefly from Saudi Arabia, charities or private organizations and companies.

The United Nations launched a 460-million-dollar appeal for donations on August 11, saying this was the amount it estimated was needed by Pakistan to recover from the disaster.

Sportpersons to go on streets to raise funds for flood victims

Karachi, Aug 24 (PTI) Top cricketers and hockey Olympians of Pakistan will go out on the streets of major cities to raise funds for the millions of flood affected people of the country. Former Test captain Moin Khan told a press conference yesterday that many former and present players have given their consent for the fund collection and raising drive that would start next week. "All the players want to play their role in collecting funds for the flood victims and we will go out on the streets and implore with the people to donate funds and anything else they can to make life easier for the millions affected in the devastation," Moin said. Many former and present cricketers and hockey stars of Pakistan have been working under the umbrella of the Islamic Relief Fund, which has offices in many parts of the world to raise funds for noble causes. Younis Khan, Shahid Afridi, Rashid Latif and Moin have also attended the Islamic Relief Fund charity events in Dubai, the UK and US in recent past to gather funds for different causes. "When the earthquake struck our country five years back we launched a similar fund raising drive by going on to the streets and the response was overwhelming for us," Moin said. Former Test player Jalaluddin said the sporting fraternity wanted to play its part in raising funds for the flood victims as they commanded lot of respect, love and credibility among the Pakistani people. Former player and a leading official of the Islamic Relief Fund, Haris Khan said that sportspersons would go on the streets in walkathons and set up camps to collect funds and goods. "We will then ourselves travel to the flood affected areas and distribute these among the deserving victims of the devastating floods," he said. The Pakistan Cricket Board has already announced its intentions to organise some charity matches to raise funds for the flood victims. The national team players have also announced that they would give part of their match fees for the flood victims. PTI Cor SSC

China "lost no time" in delivering aid to flood-hit Pakistan

• Source: Xinhua
• [08:32 August 24 2010]
• Comments

China "lost no time" in delivering badly needed relief items to flood-hit Pakistan, Pakistani ambassador to China Masood Khan said Monday.

"China was one the first countries to respond to the relief needs of Pakistan when it was hit by the worst floods in 81 years. China moved with speed," said Khan in an exclusive interview with Xinhua.

China increased its aid from 1.5 million US dollars to 10 million US dollars, including tents, sludge cleaning and water purifying equipment, generators, blankets, food, bottled water, and medicines to the neighboring south Asian state.

The Pakistani embassy to China has received messages of solidarity and sympathy from Chinese from all walks of life -- students, doctors, engineers, corporate executives, media persons, academics, artists, and farmers, Khan said.

One company in Chengdu donated 1,000 tons of rice. A dean of the prestigious Tsinghua University donated a month's salary for relief. Professionals of a company who had worked in Pakistan collected funds for the victims.

The embassy had opened an account with the Bank of China for the "Pakistan Prime Minister's Relief Fund" and the smallest donation was 10 yuan, while the largest was 800,000 yuan (117,666 US dollars).

"This, I would say, is the China spirit - the spirit of Pakistan-China friendship," said Khan.

"It is not fair for any country or any person to make oblique references to China's relief assistance to Pakistan or to urge China to do more," he said.

"China and Pakistan have the strongest of relations and we can get in touch with each other in an instant. No intercession is needed," he said.

"Besides, it is like pushing at an open door." Khan said Pakistan was briefing the Chinese government on the floods situation at all levels, and "China keeps responding."

He said his country had requested provision of equipment (prefabricated) bridges and China was preparing a fresh consignment for northern part of Pakistan.

China had helped the Pakistanis navigate some of the most daunting strategic challenges, he said, naming the 2005 earthquake.

The ambassador labelled post-floods phase in Pakistan "most important for China's involvement," as floods had swept away roads, bridges, crops, houses, livestock, and communication systems.

"China knows Pakistan's economic, agricultural and infrastructure landscape. We would need China's industrial, agricultural and corporate expertise in the next phases of early recovery and rehabilitation, and especially during reconstruction," said the ambassador.

Pakistan needed China's agricultural support to recover and re-till land. It needed most Chinese corporations in the reconstruction of roads, bridges and power plants, he said.

Pakistan floods: 'Desperate for doctors'‎

Omar Ahsan, an interior designer living in Karachi, has visited 17 remote mountain villages in the Shangla district, NWFP.

"I have a comfortable life in Karachi and when this calamity hit, me and some of my friends felt we had to help some of the affected people. First we took food relief to Peshawar and some other urban areas of the NWFP.

Then I got a phone call from a driver, who used to work for me. He said he's been seeing bodies in the river where he lives, about 150km from Islamabad. He said there were many, many bodies, hundreds of them, and that they all came from Shangla district.

At that moment I decided I should go to that place. I came over here alone. I managed to get one truck of relief. It's a big district, hundreds of kilometres. The whole network had collapsed, the telecommunication network has come down.

When I reached the end of the roads, I had to start walking.

I spent the last four days travelling on the outskirts of Shangla district, walking in a mountainous terrain. I covered about 55km and visited 17 villages.

People there are hungry and thirsty. There's no electricity, no water, no gas, no food supplies. The nearest place where food is being distributed is Karora and the queues are 3-4km long.

Thousands of people come down from the mountains and stand in the sun for a whole day in order to get a bag of flour. The queues are long, these are simple people, their patience is compromised, queues are broken and some go away with bruises and injuries.

In each village I went I was supported by the elders and I was joined by volunteers. Elders would tell me how many houses were destroyed, I would gather the data and issue them with a token to come to Karora where we had our own food supplies waiting for them.

Yesterday we set up a camp in Karora. From early morning till late afternoon we distributed food to 300 families, which is probably more than 3,000 people. It was a tough day.

But work is far from over. People desperately need more food and most importantly they need lady doctors. There are hundreds of thousands of women and children without a doctor. Kids were crying of pain and mothers were begging me to bring them female doctors.

If someone is ill, they put him on a stretcher which four men carry down the mountain until they reach the nearest hospital. That could take a couple of days of walking. And there are hundreds of thousands of people stuck there without any help."

Nasrullah Jamali, from a village in Baluchistan

Nasrullah Jamali fled to Karachi after his village in Baluchistan was hit by the floods a week ago. He describes the devastation for him and his villagers.

"Our homes are gone, everything is gone. The water level is now 6 to 8ft. People can't live there. There's nothing left.

We knew the water was coming, we knew it was expected, we were seeing that it was coming.

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There's nothing we can do. We are still in the state of shock”

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Me and my family left and we are now staying in the house of my uncle in Karachi. But many people couldn't afford to leave.

I speak to my villagers all the time.

They are now staying in shelters made by themselves using plastic sheets. They don't have water and food. Yesterday there was one helicopter to get food to them, but it's not enough.

There's a nearby place - about 3km away from my village - I am told there are six people trapped there, surrounded by water.

I try to organise aid for them. I am contacting the army to send relief helicopters to them.

There are sick people and they don't have any medicine. I can't describe it in words - it's a very serious situation.

I don't know when we'll be able to return to our home. It will probably take six months. There's nothing we can do. We are still in the state of shock."

Ghulam Nabi Magsi, who visited flood-hit Sindh Province

Ghulam Nabi Magsi was visiting relatives in the province of Sindh in the middle of August, when the floods swept through the village. Now back in Lahore, he describes that moment - and the current situation in the village.

"I was on holiday visiting my relatives in their small village in Ghotki district, Singh province, when the floods came. It was a horrible situation. The floodwaters were everywhere.

Our area was the first to be affected after the flood in Punjab. We thought it was not going to be that big, but it turned out to be a mega flood. The houses were completely flooded.

People fled leaving everything behind. Me and my immediate family returned to Lahore and other relatives went to Karachi.

Sindh is now being described as the worst-hit province

The waters have moved south and a few of my relatives, all men, have returned to the village. They say the water level is down, but there are many problems.

The houses are damaged by the water, but they'll repair them. The problem they now face is lack of water. The water is not suitable for drinking and there's the danger of water-borne diseases.

They get help from the government and from people living in nearby areas that haven't been affected.

They expect their wives and children to join them by the end of the month."

Pakistan Floods 'Outrunning Relief Efforts'

Flood waters are set to rise further in Pakistan as officials negotiate with the International Monetary Fund on how to shore-up the battered economy to maintain stability.

Emergency teams are working to shore up a system of levees protecting two southern cities as the crisis continues to grow.

The worst floods in decades, which began nearly a month ago with hammering rains in the country's northwest, have affected more than 17 million people, a UN official said.

Now, the waters are spreading through the rice-growing belt in southern Sindh province district by district, breaking through or flowing over embankments one by one.

"The floods are outrunning our relief efforts. We move faster and faster, but the finish line keeps moving further ahead," United Nations spokesman Maurizio Giuliano said.

Flooding In Sindh Province

View Pakistan Floods in a larger map

In Shadad Kot, in Sindh province, authorities are increasingly worried that even the 10 miles of new levees soldiers have built may not hold back the waters from the city as well as Qambar city further south.

Workers have piled stones and sandbags to plug leaks in the levees, trying to keep on top of any damage to the defences.

Around 90% of Shadad Kot's 350,000 residents have already fled the city and many have also left Qambar and other nearby towns.

On the eastern side of the city, levees were under pressure from nine-foot high floodwaters, said Yaseen Shar, a top administrative official.

Flood survivors flee Shadad Kot as emergency workers battle to reinforce the levees

Meanwhile, Pakistan's president Asif Ali Zardari has defended the government's much-criticised response to the country's record-breaking flood crisis.

Authorities have been accused of moving too slowly, and Islamist charities, some with suspected links to militant groups, have rapidly provided relief to Pakistanis already frustrated with their leaders' track record on security, poverty and chronic power shortages.

Mr Zardari said anger at the government in the coming months is inevitable given the scale of the disaster, comparing it to the anti-government sentiment generated by the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina in the US.

"There will be discontent, there is no way any nation, even a superpower.... can bring the same level of satisfaction that will be close to the expectations of the people," he said.

"Surely we will try and meet them as much as we can."

But he insisted the government "had functioned to its fullest capacity".

The IMF has said it will review Pakistan's budget and economic prospects due to the magnitude of the disaster.

Agriculture, the mainstay of the economy, has been hit hard. The floods have destroyed or extensively damaged crops over 4.25 million acres of land, food minister Nazar Muhammad Gondal said.

The IMF help may come in the form of lowering some of the fiscal targets of the loan program or allowing the government to abandon it and take IMF emergency funding for countries hit by natural disasters.

Flood-hit Pakistan seeks IMF's help

As Pakistanis brace for more flooding in the south of their country, officials are holding talks with the International Monetary Fund (IMF) about the country's battered economy and how to maintain stability.

The floods have so far killed 1,500 people and affected up to 20 million others, with survivors facing the threat of disease.

It is estimated the country's economic losses could spiral to more than $40 billion and there are renewed concerns that Islamic militants may exploit the chaos.

Aid workers now say the scale of Pakistan's humanitarian disaster is gargantuan and growing.

Millions are living in temporary camps in the flood-hit areas.

But the cramped and unhygienic conditions, combined with food shortages and intense heat, raise the spectre of potentially fatal disease outbreaks, such as cholera.

The United Nations says there are already more than 120,000 case of suspected dengue and malaria, while skin infections and diarrhoea have affected hundreds of thousands more.

Relief workers and the military are trying to get aid to the desperate but there is too little to hand out and too many in need.

Abdul Hamid Bulloh, who is organising one of the relief camps, says a heavy security presence is essential.

"People rush over, people don't listen. There is a problem if it is at a road or a highway, there is a problem," he said.

"People don't see there is a distribution of food, they come and they drive."

But Assistant Inspector-General, Javed Odho, says he understands why.

"The loss that people have gone through in terms of the human loss as well as, especially the loss of their crops, food and their households," he said.

"I don't blame them, they just don't want to take any chances because they are not sure what they will be feeding their children the next day, tomorrow."

The UN says more than 6 million people still need basic shelter and the humanitarian situation is critical.