/ 20 August 2010

Pakistan floods are a ‘slow-motion tsunami’

Pakistan Floods Are A 'slow Motion Tsunami'

UN general secretary urges countries to send more money, quicker as monsoon rains worsen flooding

The United Nations Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon has appealed for swifter aid to provide immediate relief in food, shelter and clean water for millions affected by the worst monsoon rains on record.

“Make no mistake, this is a global disaster,” Ban told a hurriedly convened session of the UN general assembly. “Pakistan is facing a slow-motion tsunami. Its destructive powers will accumulate and grow with time,” he warned.

Weather forecasts have said there could be four more weeks of monsoon rain, which will add to the flood problems.

The UN has appealed for $460-million in global aid and donors have so far given about half of the money. But the secretary-general said all of the money was needed immediately to aid victims over the next three months.

The UN’s plea came as the US pledged an extra $60-million in help, bringing America’s total aid to $150-million.

In a video message, US secretary of state Hillary Clinton appealed to the American public to donate generously to a newly established “Pakistan relief fund”, pointing out that the 20-million people hit by the disaster is equivalent to the population of New York state.

“The enormity of this crisis is hard to fathom, the rain continues to fall and the extent of the devastation is still difficult to gauge,” said Clinton. “Our thoughts and prayers are with those who have lost loved ones, those who have been displaced from their homes and those left without food and water.”

The US special representative for Pakistan and Afghanistan, Richard Holbrooke, said “many billions” would be needed to respond to the flooding. Speaking at the Asia Society in New York, he called on other countries, such as China, to step up to the plate and said: “The water has affected everyone, It’s an equal opportunity disaster, and military operations have effectively faded away.”

The British government also pledged to double its emergency payments to Pakistan.

In addition to the current £31,3-million, international development secretary Andrew Mitchell announced that the UK will now give an extra £33-million.

Last weekend, one of the UK’s funds for disasters — the CERF — was included in a list of items sent by DFID’s director of policy to the minister as possibly expendable. His department insist the list was only a speculative part of due process, since the department like all others is expected to consider value for money for projects, despite DFID being ringfenced from cuts.

But on Wednesday night Mitchell, who has recently visited Pakistan to inspect the effect British aid has had so far, told the UN general assembly in New York that the international community had to do more. He told the UN it was “deeply depressing” the international community was “only now waking up to the true scale of this disaster”. Mitchell will meet other development secretaries and push them to allocate more of their own funds.

Mitchell is at pains to emphasise the funding would only be allocated to NGOs and UN agencies which could prove they were helping people get back on their feet. He highlighted a fund that would give farmers new seed to plant new crops to replace those destroyed by the floods as a project the UK would back.

Mitchell said: “I’ve come to New York directly from Pakistan, where I saw the dire need for more help.I saw the sheer and shocking magnitude of this catastrophe. It is clear that unless more aid is delivered now, many more people will die from disease and malnutrition.

“The UK is already helping more than three million people in flood-affected areas. This doubling of our aid should now provide water and sanitation to 500 000 people; shelter to 170 000 people; help meet the nutritional needs of 380 000 people and provide enough health services to cover a population of 2,4-million people.” – guardian.co.uk