NEW DELHI (AlertNet) Â? A shortfall in funding from international donors is jeopardising "essential life-saving" humanitarian operations in Pakistan, where more than three million people have been impacted by fighting between the army and militants, a coalition of aid agencies has warned.
The Pakistan Humanitarian Forum (PHF) - an association of 35 of the largest international non-governmental organisations (NGOs) operating in the country - says dwindling funds are forcing aid groups to shut down or scale back vital water, sanitation and healthcare programmes, potentially affecting one million people.
"The crisis is far from over and hundreds of thousands of people are still in desperate need," said Caitlin Brady, PHF chairperson and acting country director for the International Rescue Committee (IRC).
"Already many people are not getting the help they need, and we're now faced with having to close more programmes for lack of money."
The United Nations, together with scores of aid groups, is struggling to assist over 1.3 million people who have been displaced as the Pakistani army moves to root out al Qaeda-linked militants from their strongholds along the Afghan border.
Aid workers are also responding to the needs of a further two million people in the northwest who are trying to rebuild their lives after returning home to find their villages destroyed by fighting.
The humanitarian crisis in Pakistan began in 2008, when the military launched counter-insurgency operations against Taliban militants, forcing hundreds of thousands to flee their homes and seek refuge in displacement camps or with host communities.
At the peak of the emergency last year, aid workers were overwhelmed by the speed and scale of one of the largest internal displacements in recent years, in which 2.3 million people fled violence in the scenic former tourist area of Swat, northwest of Islamabad.
While many have returned home, the military has extended its operations to other areas including South Waziristan, Orakzai, Khyber and Kurram, uprooting hundreds of thousands more.
PROGRAMMES UNDER THREAT
Funds from international donors trickled in slowly last year but picked up in later months, covering almost $525 million of the $543 million required.
This year, however, aid workers say the situation looks much worse.
Only $170 million - 20 percent - of the $537 million appealed for by the humanitarian community and the Pakistani government in February has been received.
Of that, the United States - a key ally of Islamabad in supporting military operations against the militants - has given almost $100 million, while other donors have provided just over $60 million between them, and the U.N. Central Emergency Response Fund has allocated $10 million.
The lack of funding means aid agencies working in Pakistan are being forced to take tough decisions.
A health and nutrition project run by medical aid group Merlin for more than one million displaced people and host families in Pakistan's Dera Ismail Khan region is due to close at the end of May.
An emergency hygiene and sanitation project for 4,000 displaced people in Kohat district being implemented by Oxfam, which has been drawing on its own emergency funds, is also likely to close by the middle of May.
A livelihoods support programme run by Save the Children, which is assisting 24,000 families who have returned to their homes in Swat and Bunir districts after months of displacement, is also in danger.
FORGOTTEN CRISIS
The PHF group of agencies is calling on the international community to respond "more quickly and substantially" to the Pakistan crisis.
"Life-saving interventions in areas of displacement remain the highest priority," it said in a report.
"But donors must also ensure adequate funding for critical, but not necessarily life-saving activities such as projects targeting the specific protection needs of women and children, and early recovery projects in areas of return."
Aid agencies say Pakistan has become a "forgotten crisis" and is also being overshadowed by newer, "more dramatic" emergencies such as the earthquakes in Haiti and Chile earlier this year.
"The crisis has been going on for some time and it is no longer in the public eye," said Rebecca Barber, an advisor for Oxfam GB, which is a member of the PHF.
"It is also not as dramatic as the earthquakes in Haiti and Chile which are much easier to get funds for."
The complex nature of the emergency - which involves uprooted people, returnees and also fresh displacements in various parts of the country - has also made it a difficult sell to donor countries, she added.
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