Pakistani floods creating a new disaster every day, says UN relief chief by United Nations News & agencies 7:57am 24th Aug, 2010   15 September 2010    Pakistani floods creating a new disaster every day, says UN relief chief.    The United Nations is seeking a further half billion dollars or more for 21 million Pakistanis beset by weeks of flooding, which a top official said was spawning a new disaster every day.    “It will be substantially more than the original appeal,” Under-Secretary-General for Humanitarian Affairs and Emergency Relief Coordinator Valerie Amos told a news conference in New York today, a month after the UN and its humanitarian partners sought nearly $460 million in a first response to what she called “an immense and still unfolding crisis.”    The devastating impact of the rolling floods have exposed 21 million others to homelessness, malnutrition, risks of epidemics and loss of livelihood as the waters have steamrollered down the country from north to south.    Different parts of the country are experiencing different stages of the crisis “and each of these is a big disaster in its own right,” she said. In some areas the waters have receded and the relief effort is focusing on early recovery, while in others to the south the floods are still spreading “and a new disaster is happening literally every day.”    Ms. Amos, who visited the flood-stricken areas last week, underscored the expanding requirements. “This is a disaster which is bigger than one which the UN can deal with alone. It’s bigger than the humanitarian community can deal with on its own. It’s one of the biggest disasters we have ever faced… We can and we must continue to save lives and alleviate suffering,” she said.    It has been “over a period of time – it’s actually nearly two months now – that the water has been moving from north to south, so it’s the equivalent of a new crisis every few days. It is putting a huge strain on the capacity that we all have to manage that.”    After seven weeks of devastation and human suffering the crisis is no longer new but “we have to work very hard to change that,” she stressed. “People are still hungry and we’re all very worried about malnutrition levels. Skin diseases are on the rise because there’s a lack of soap and clean water for washing. Diarrhoea is on the rise and we need to make every effort to avert a potential health crisis.”    As of 10 September more than 700,000 cases of acute diarrhoea, at least 800,000 acute respiratory infections, nearly 1 million cases of skin disease and almost 183,000 suspected malaria cases were reported.    “An immense tragedy continues to unfold,” Ms. Amos said. “The human implications of what will happen if not enough is done are terrible. Many millions have already lost everything and have nothing to go back to… What I will be doing [on Friday] is asking our supporters to dig deeper and to do more.”    August 2010    With the situation in flood-stricken Pakistan still unfolding, United Nations agencies said today they are redoubling their efforts to provide assistance to the millions of people affected by the disaster.    Elisabeth Byrs of the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) told a news conference, “the situation is still unfolding… in some areas the flood waters are receding to reveal the utter destruction left behind, while in other areas the flood waters continue to rise, destroying homes, villages and crops.”    Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon said “this is not just Pakistan’s hour of need – Pakistan is facing weeks, months and years of need. Now is our chance to turn the tide towards hope and a better day for all of the people of Pakistan”.    The crisis, is believed to have left 15 to 20 million people in need of shelter, food and emergency care.    The head of the UN Children’s Fund (UNICEF) warned today that the humanitarian tragedy in Pakistan has reached “tragic proportions,” but that serious shortfalls in funding are limiting the agency’s ability to save lives as the crisis worsens.    “The consequences of the flooding for Pakistan’s poorest and most vulnerable people are very serious,” Executive Director Anthony Lake said in a statement, adding that the most vulnerable of all, the children, are at the greatest risk.    “Unless the world responds immediately, more and more of the 3.5 million children affected by the floods will be at risk of contracting deadly water-borne diseases like dysentery, diarrhoea and cholera,” he said.    The World Health Organization (WHO) also voiced concern about the increased risk of outbreaks of communicable diseases due to unsafe drinking water, poor sanitation and personal hygiene, food insecurity, lack of shelter, overcrowding and decreased access to health care.    The risks for many of the diseases could be reduced substantively by basic preventive measures, including access to clean water, appropriate sanitation and hygiene and ensuring food handling in a correct fashion as well as vaccinations, Daniel Lopez Acuña, WHO Acting Assistant Director-General for Health Action in Crises, told reporters in Geneva.    In the midst of the crisis, the UN High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) expressed concern about the plight of flood-affected Afghan refugees in Pakistan.    There are 1.7 million Afghan refugees in Pakistan, more than 1.5 million of whom are in the flood-affected provinces.    The floods have so far claimed 1,500 lives and destroyed homes, farmland and major infrastructure in large parts of the country.    In addition, millions of livestock have been affected by the floods and are in need of food and medicine, according to the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO). Around 200,000 cows, sheep, buffalo, goats and donkeys have already been confirmed as dead or missing, but the agency said that the final numbers will be much higher, possibly into the millions.    “If you count poultry losses, then millions of animals have already died with the entire poultry stock wiped out in some areas,” FAO stated, adding that millions of surviving animals are now facing severe feed shortages, threatening generations of livestock, which make up about half of the Pakistan’s agricultural gross domestic product (GDP).    “Livestock in this country are the poor people’s mobile ATM,” said David Doolan, who is in charge of FAO programmes in Pakistan. “In good times people build up their herds and in bad times they sell livestock to generate cash. Every animal we save is a productive asset that poor families can use to rebuild their lives when the floods finally pass.”    August 18, 2010    Pakistan Needs Our Help, Now, by Ban Ki-moon.    Standing under leaden skies in Pakistan last Sunday, I saw a sea of suffering. Flood waters have washed away thousands of towns and villages. Roads, bridges and homes in every province of the country have been destroyed.    From the sky, I saw thousands of acres of prime farmland — the bread and butter of the Pakistani economy — swallowed up by the rising tides. On the ground, I met terrified people, living in daily fear that they could not feed their children or protect them from the next wave of crisis: the spread of diarrhea, hepatitis, malaria and, most deadly, cholera.    The sheer scale of the disaster almost defies comprehension. Around the country, an estimated 15 to 20 million people have been affected. That’s more than the entire population hit by the Indian Ocean tsunami and Kashmir earthquake in 2005, the 2007 Cyclone Nargis and this year’s earthquake in Haiti — combined. An area as big as Italy and larger than more than half the countries in the world — some 160,000 square kilometers, or 62,000 square miles — is under water.    Why has the world been slow to grasp the dimensions of this calamity? Perhaps because this is no made-for-TV disaster, with sudden impact and dramatic rescues. An earthquake may claim tens of thousands of lives in an instant; in a tsunami, whole cities and their populations vanish in a flash.    By contrast, this is a slow motion catastrophe — one that builds over time. And it is far from over.    The monsoon rains could continue for weeks. Even as waters recede from some areas, new floods are affecting others, particularly in the south. And, of course, we know this is happening in one of the most challenged regions of the world — a place where stability and prosperity is profoundly in the world’s interest. For all of these reasons, the floods of August are far more than a disaster for Pakistan alone. Indeed, they represent one of the greatest tests of global solidarity in our time.    That is why the United Nations has issued an emergency appeal for $460 million. That amounts to less than $1 a day per person to keep 6 million people alive for the next three months — including 3.5 million children. International aid commitments are growing by the day. Less than a week after the appeal was launched, we are halfway there. And yet, the scale of the response is insufficient for the scale of this disaster.    The United Nations General Assembly will meet to intensify our collective efforts. If we act now, a second wave of deaths caused by waterborne diseases can still be prevented. It is not easy to mount relief operations in such difficult and sometimes perilous places. But I have seen it happen around the world, from the most remote and dangerous parts of Africa to Haiti’s shattered cities. And I saw it in Pakistan this week.    Many UN agencies, international aid groups such as the Red Cross/Red Crescent and other nongovernmental organizations have been supporting the government of Pakistan’s response to the emergency. Using trucks, helicopters and even mules to transport food around the country and reach those cut off from help, we have provided one-month food rations to nearly one million people. Roughly that many now have emergency shelter, and more are receiving clean water every day. Cholera kits, anti-snake venom doses, surgical supply kits and oral dehydration salts are saving growing numbers of lives.    This is a start, but it needs a massive boost. Six million people are short of food; 14 million need emergency health care, with a special focus on children and pregnant women. And as the waters recede, we must move quickly to help people build back their country and pick up the pieces of their lives.    The World Bank has estimated crop damage to be at least $1 billion. Farmers will need seeds, fertilizers and tools to replant, lest next year’s harvest be lost along with this one. Already, we are seeing price spikes for food in Pakistan’s major cities. In the longer term, the huge damage to infrastructure must be repaired, from schools and hospitals to irrigation canals, communications and transport links. The United Nations will be part of all this, too.    We simply cannot stand by and let this natural disaster turn into a man-made catastrophe. Let us stand with the people of Pakistan every step of the long and difficult road ahead.    * Ban Ki-moon is secretary general of the United Nations. Visit the related web page
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