Pakistan Warns of More Floods in `Heart-Wrenching' Disaster
United Nations Secretary-General Ban Ki-Moon
Chris Ratcliffe/Bloomberg
Ban Ki-moon said the devastation was the worst he had ever seen and promised more emergency funding for relief operations.
Ban Ki-moon said the devastation was the worst he had ever seen and promised more emergency funding for relief operations. Photographer: Chris Ratcliffe/Bloomberg
Pakistan warned today of a new flood wave making its way south along the Indus River and more heavy monsoon rains, threatening to add to the 20 million people who have lost homes, farms and livelihoods.
The forecast for further inundations in Sindh province came after United Nations Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon said the devastation was the worst he had ever seen and promised more emergency funding for relief operations. The UN said on Aug. 13 it had received only 20 percent of the $460 million it needs to aid the homeless and hungry. U.K. Deputy Prime Minister Nick Clegg today called the global response “lamentable, absolutely pitiful.”
Almost one million people living in and around the city of Jacobabad have been evacuated, local excise official Ziaul Islam said by phone today. “The floodwaters have destroyed 90 percent of the agricultural land, but not entered Jacobabad city,” Islam said. Army helicopters were searching for 14 villagers swept away after a police boat capsized, he said.
The government’s Flood Forecasting Division said in its latest forecast that “exceptionally high” levels in the Indus River of up to 1.1 million cubic feet per second were expected at two dams in Sindh over the next 48 hours. New flood waters may also swamp low-lying parts of Sukkur, Larkana and Hyderabad, they said. Rains are likely to the north in Punjab, where river levels had fallen.
Disease Concern
Underscoring the need for urgent relief, the United Nations said today up to 3.5 million children are at risk from water- borne diseases, including dysentery. Cholera, typhoid, hepatitis A and E are also concerns, said UN spokesman Maurizio Giuliano in a text message.
“This is due to lack of clean water, and lack of medication. Food shortages complement this picture, as people become more vulnerable if they don’t eat properly,” Giuliano said. “We are badly funded -- this is the problem now.”
Ban said yesterday the UN will allocate a further $10 million from its Central Emergency Response Fund, bringing its contribution to $27 million since the crisis began more than two weeks ago. The organization aims to provide help for 14 million people affected by the floods and deliver clean water to 6 million people, he said.
‘Heart Wrenching’
“This has been a heart-wrenching day for me,” Ban said at a press conference with Pakistani President Asif Ali Zardari after touring some of the worst-affected areas. “I will never forget the destruction and suffering I have witnessed today. In the past, I have witnessed many natural disasters around the world, but nothing like this.”
The floods have killed at least 1,600 people, destroyed homes, cut communications and inundated sugar, cotton and rice crops. The disaster -- which the UN says has affected up to one- fifth of the country’s land or 160,000 square kilometers (100,000 square miles) -- may cut Pakistan’s economic growth in half, Finance Secretary Salman Siddique said Aug. 13, with expansion falling as much as 2.5 percentage points short of a 4.5 percent target for the year ending June 30.
The government canceled the Aug. 14 Independence Day celebrations to show solidarity with flood victims, state-run Associated Press of Pakistan said. Prime Minister Syed Yousuf Raza Gilani hosted a meeting of political leaders in the capital, Islamabad, that agreed to set up a national fund to rehabilitate people affected by the disaster. As many as 20 million of the country’s 170 million people may have been displaced, Gilani said.
‘Not Over’
“This disaster is far from over,” Ban told reporters yesterday. “The rains are still falling and could continue for weeks. The United Nations and international community and international humanitarian community are moving as fast as we can to help the government deliver desperately needed humanitarian assistance.”
Waters inundated the main farming provinces of Punjab and Sindh, damaging 1.1 million acres of cotton and rice crops, and causing agricultural losses of $3.3 billion, Farm Minister Nazar Muhammed Gondal said in a telephone interview from Islamabad today, citing initial estimates.
“The calamity demands of us that all political parties rise above their differences to jointly cope with the disaster,” APP cited Gilani as saying after the meeting of political leaders forming the Council of Common Interests.
Zardari, whose government is central to the U.S.-led campaign to defeat Taliban insurgents in neighboring Afghanistan, was criticized by the opposition for proceeding with a trip to Europe earlier this month as the floods spread. He responded by calling on his opponents not to drag politics into the relief response.
To contact the reporter on this story: Khurrum Anis in Karachi at Kkhan14@bloomberg.net
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