NEW DELHI (AlertNet) - The United Nations plans to ask donors for "several hundred million dollars" to help bring relief to millions of Pakistanis hit by the country's worst flooding in 80 years, a U.N. spokesman said.
The floods, triggered by heavy monsoon rains which caused the mighty Indus river to burst its banks, have inundated villages and large swatches of farmland from the north to the south of the country - forcing millions of people from their homes with no food, clean water, shelter or medicines.
Aid workers say almost 14 million people have been affected since the unusually heavy rainfall began 11 days ago, with at least 6 million people urgently in need of aid.
"The U.N. - in close cooperation with the government - is planning to launch an Emergency Response Plan in the next few days," said Maurizio Giuliano, spokesman for the U.N. Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) in Pakistan.
"We don't have an exact figure but it will certainly be for several hundred million dollars given the scale of the disaster."
The United Nations says in terms of the number of people affected and who will need short- or long-term help, the floods are worse than the 2004 tsunami, which killed 236,000 people around the Indian Ocean.
PRIORITY AID
Aid workers say shelter is a priority for at least 4 million people who have either been evacuated or have seen their homes washed away by the fast-flowing waters in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, Punjab, Baluchistan and Gilgit-Baltistan provinces.
Millions of people have been living in the open in cramped makeshift camps or have sought refuge in overcrowded schools, hospitals and other public buildings.
Aid workers warn that the number affected could increase with water surging south into Sindh province. There are reports that 2,500 villages have already been flooded in the region.
"People are living in really poor conditions. We need to bring shelter to them as soon as possible so they can live in a way which is more dignified," said Giuliano. "But we just don't have enough tents for 4 million people."
Flood-affected populations also need food, clean water and medicines to prevent and treat water-borne and insect-borne diseases such as diarrhoea, malaria and cholera which are common during and after floods.
Aid workers say over the longer term, people will need help to build infrastructure and restore their livelihoods as many farming communities have had their crops destroyed by the floods and their livestock drowned.
International donors have so far provided $38 million and another $91 million has been promised, Giuliano said. He was optimistic more funds would come through once the Emergency Response Plan was launched.
"The response of around $130 million in just over one week is very encouraging and the donors have been generous ... we have to be optimistic that they will continue to be," he said.
COUNTRY DROWNING, FUNDING SLOW
But aid agency Oxfam says donor response in the first 10 days has been slow compared with international responses to other major disasters over the same period.
The $91 million provided for Pakistan pales in comparison to the $247 million committed in the first 10 days of the 2005 Pakistan earthquake or the $110 million provided after Cyclone Nargis hit Myanmar's coast in 2008, said an Oxfam statement.
"The world must not leave these people stranded. This is a mega disaster and it needs a mega response," said Neva Khan, Oxfam's country director in Pakistan.
"We have all been shocked by the ferocity and magnitude of this disaster. Everyone - donors, the U.N., aid agencies, the government - all of us need to shift gear on this crisis. This is the biggest disaster in the world right now and we all need to get behind it."
Our Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.
