SLIDESHOW: Pakistan's floods - 100 days on
12 Nov 2010 14:39:00 GMT
Written by: OCHA
Reuters and AlertNet are not responsible for the content of this article or for any external internet sites. The views expressed are the author's alone.
Just beyond a hundred days into the flooding crisis in Pakistan, 14 million people still remain in urgent need of support, after heavy monsoon rains caused landslides and flood waters swept away entire communities.
The situation for those impacted by the floods is desperate. Many have lost what little they owned. Belongings and animals were either submerged by flood waters or survivors had to sell them in order to see their families through the disaster. Many face serious challenges on a daily basis, relying on the government and humanitarian community for safe drinking water, food, health care and shelter.
The following images taken in the hard-hit southern Sindh province show the harsh reality of this emergency where families still cannot return home as water levels have not receded.
Through the work of the United Nations and its implementing partners, 6 million people in the country have received food in the last month; emergency shelter has been provided for 3.9 million people; 4.3 million received safe drinking water; and 6.7 million people have benefitted from essential health care.
For more information, please visit www.pakresponse.info and www.ochaonline.un.org.
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The World Meteorological Organization (WMO) says the weather-related cataclysms of July and August fit patterns predicted by climate scientists, although those scientists always shy from tying individual disasters directly to global warming.
SERMON 142
Praying for rain
Beware; the earth which bears you and the sky which overshadows you are obedient to their Sustainer (Allah). They have not been bestowing their blessings on you for any feeling of pity on you or inclination towards you, nor for any good which they expect from you, but they were commanded to bestow benefits on you and they are obeying, and were asked to maintain your good and so they are maintaining it.
Certainly, Allah tries his creatures in respect of their evil deeds by decreasing fruits, holding back blessings and closing the treasures of good, so that he who wishes to repent may repent, he who wishes to turn away (from evils) may turn away, he who wishes to recall (forgotten good) may recall, and he who wishes to abstain (from evil) may abstain. Allah, the Glorified, has made the seeking of (His) forgiveness a means for the pouring down of livelihood and mercy on the people as Allah has said:
... Seek ye the forgiveness of your Lord! Verily, He is the Most-forgiving, He will send (down) upon you the cloud raining in torrents, and help you with wealth and sons (children) . . . (Qur'an, 17:10-12)
Allah may shower mercy on him who took up repentance, gave up sins and hastened (in performing good acts before) his death.
O' my Allah! we have come out to Thee from under the curtains and coverings (of houses) when the beasts and children are crying, seeking Thy Mercy, hoping for the generosity of Thy bounty an fearing Thy chastisement and retribution. O' my Allah! give us to drink from Thy rain and do not disappoint us, nor kill us by years (of drought) nor punish us for what the foolish among us have committed, O' the Most Merciful of all.
O' my Allah! we have come out to Thee to complain to Thee who is (already) not hidden from Thee, when the seven troubles have forced us, droughty famines have driven us, distressing wants have made us helpless and troublesome mischiefs have incessantly befallen us. O' my Allah! we beseech Thee not to send us back disappointed nor to return us with down-cast eyes, nor to address us (harshly) for our sins, nor deal with us according to our deeds.
O' my Allah! do pour on us Thy mercy, Thy blessing, Thy sustenance and Thy pity, and make us enjoy a drink which benefits us, quenches our thirst, produces green herbage with which all that was lost gets a growing and all that had withered comes to life again. It should bring about the benefit of freshness and plentifulness of ripe fruits. With it plains may be watered, rivers may begin flowing, plants may pick up foliage and prices may come down. Surely, Thou art powerful over whatever Thou willest.
اور تم ہمارے حکم کے مطابق ہمارے سامنے ایک کشتی بناؤ اور ظالموں کے بارے میں مجھ سے (کوئی) بات نہ کرنا، وہ ضرور غرق کئے جائیں گے ﴿۳۷﴾ اور نوح (علیہ السلام) کشتی بناتے رہے اور جب بھی ان کی قوم کے سردار اُن کے پاس سے گزرتے ان کا مذاق اڑاتے۔ نوح (علیہ السلام انہیں جوابًا) کہتے: اگر (آج) تم ہم سے تمسخر کرتے ہو تو (کل) ہم بھی تم سے تمسخر کریں گے جیسے تم تمسخر کر رہے ہو ﴿۳۸﴾ سو تم عنقریب جان لوگے کہ کس پر (دنیا میں ہی) عذاب آتا ہے جو اسے ذلیل و رسوا کر دے گا اور (پھر آخرت میں بھی کس پر) ہمیشہ قائم رہنے والا عذاب اترتا ہے ﴿۳۹﴾ یہاں تک کہ جب ہمارا حکمِ (عذاب) آپہنچا اور تنور (پانی کے چشموں کی طرح) جوش سے ابلنے لگا (تو) ہم نے فرمایا: (اے نوح!) اس کشتی میں ہر جنس میں سے (نر اور مادہ) دو عدد پر مشتمل جوڑا سوار کر لو اور اپنے گھر والوں کو بھی (لے لو) سوائے ان کے جن پر (ہلاکت کا) فرمان پہلے صادر ہو چکا ہے اور جو کوئی ایمان لے آیا ہے (اسے بھی ساتھ لے لو)، اور چند (لوگوں) کے سوا ان کے ساتھ کوئی ایمان نہیں لایا تھا ﴿۴۰﴾ اور نوح (علیہ السلام) نے کہا: تم لوگ اس میں سوار ہو جاؤ اﷲ ہی کے نام سے اس کا چلنا اور اس کا ٹھہرنا ہے۔ بیشک میرا رب بڑا ہی بخشنے والا نہایت مہربان ہے ﴿۴۱﴾ اور وہ کشتی پہاڑوں جیسی (طوفانی) لہروں میں انہیں لئے چلتی جا رہی تھی کہ نوح (علیہ السلام) نے اپنے بیٹے کو پکارا اور وہ ان سے الگ (کافروں کے ساتھ کھڑا) تھا: اے میرے بیٹے! ہمارے ساتھ سوار ہوجا اور کافروں کے ساتھ نہ رہ ﴿۴۲﴾ وہ بولا: میں (کشتی میں سوار ہونے کے بجائے) ابھی کسی پہاڑ کی پناہ لے لیتا ہوں وہ مجھے پانی سے بچا لے گا۔ نوح (علیہ السلام) نے کہا: آج اﷲ کے عذاب سے کوئی بچانے والا نہیں ہے مگر اس شخص کو جس پر وہی (اﷲ) رحم فرما دے، اسی اثنا میں دونوں (یعنی باپ بیٹے) کے درمیان (طوفانی) موج حائل ہوگئی سو وہ ڈوبنے والوں میں ہوگیا ﴿۴۳﴾ اور (جب سفینۂ نوح کے سوا سب ڈوب کر ہلاک ہو چکے تو) حکم دیا گیا: اے زمین! اپنا پانی نگل جا اور اے آسمان! تو تھم جا، اور پانی خشک کر دیا گیا اور کام تمام کر دیا گیا اور کشتی جودی پہاڑ پر جا ٹھہری، اور فرما دیا گیا کہ ظالموں کے لئے (رحمت سے) دوری ہے ﴿۴۴﴾ اور نوح (علیہ السلام) نے اپنے رب کو پکارا اور عرض کیا: اے میرے رب! بیشک میرا لڑکا (بھی) تو میرے گھر والوں میں داخل تھا اور یقینًا تیرا وعدہ سچا ہے اور تو سب سے بڑا حاکم ہے ﴿۴۵﴾ ارشاد ہو: اے نوح! بیشک وہ تیرے گھر والوں میں شامل نہیں کیونکہ اس کے عمل اچھے نہ تھے، پس مجھ سے وہ سوال نہ کیا کرو جس کا تمہیں علم نہ ہو، میں تمہیں نصیحت کئے دیتا ہوں کہ کہیں تم نادانوں میں سے (نہ) ہو جانا ﴿۴۶﴾ (نوح علیہ السلام نے) عرض کیا: اے میرے رب! میں اس بات سے تیری پناہ چاہتا ہوں کہ تجھ سے وہ سوال کروں جس کا مجھے کچھ علم نہ ہو، اور اگر تو مجھے نہ بخشے گا اور مجھ پر رحم (نہ) فرمائے گا (تو) میں نقصان اٹھانے والوں میں سے ہو جاؤں گا ﴿۴۷﴾ فرمایا گیا: اے نوح! ہماری طرف سے سلامتی اور برکتوں کے ساتھ (کشتی سے) اتر جاؤ جو تم پر ہیں اور ان طبقات پر ہیں جو تمہارے ساتھ ہیں، اور (آئندہ پھر) کچھ طبقے ایسے ہوں گے جنہیں ہم (دنیوی نعمتوں سے) بہرہ یاب فرمائیں گے پھر انہیں ہماری طرف سے دردناک عذاب آپہنچے گا ﴿۴۸﴾
04 Aug 2010 18:21:37 GMT
Source: Reuters
* Crisis throws spotlight on leadership of President Zardari
* Flood survivors scramble for food
* Suicide bombing kills senior police officer
* Tensions in Karachi after violence
(Adds Karachi handgrenade attack, U.S. pledge)
By Asim Tanveer
DAIRA DIN PANAH, Pakistan, Aug 4 (Reuters) - After wrecking Pakistan's northwest, the worst floods in 80 years swept through the economically vital Punjab in a catastrophe that has raised doubts about President Asif Ali Zardari's fragile leadership.
Zardari went ahead with state visits to Europe this week, drawing criticism for his absence during the worst of the destruction.
Ethnic violence in Pakistan's biggest city Karachi, and a suicide bombing claimed by Taliban militants in Peshawar also piled pressure on his government, widely criticised for its handling of the floods, which have killed over 1,500 people and devastated the lives of more than three million.
It's too early to gauge the economic costs of the floods but they are likely to be staggering. Pakistan depends heavily on foreign aid and its civilian governments have a poor history of managing crises, leaving the powerful military to step in.
After $10 million in initial aid, the United States on Wednesday pledged a major effort to help millions hit by the epic floods in Pakistan, while also hoping to improve Washington's image there. [N04236846].
Anti-American sentiment runs high in Pakistan, a regional power Washington says is critical to easing a Taliban insurgency in Afghanistan, before a U.S. troop pullout starts next summer.
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For a graphic on Pakistan's floods, see
http://graphics.thomsonreuters.com/RNGS/2010/AUG/PAK2.jpg
For more Pakistan stories click [ID:nAFPAK]
or see http://link.reuters.com/kac58m
Pakistan blog: http://blogs.reuters.com/pakistan/
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PUNJAB BADLY HIT
Floods struck several of Punjab's districts and were moving downstream on Wednesday, rescue and relief officials said.
"This is an unprecedented flood to hit the area, and we have so far evacuated 132,000 people and shifted them to safe areas," Major General Nadir Zeb, overseeing relief efforts in the southern Punjab, told Reuters.
The Punjab Relief and Crisis Management Department (RCMD) said 1,343 villages were affected and more than 25,000 houses destroyed. At least 16 people have been killed in the province.
"Announcements were made in mosques and army people were telling us about the upcoming flood, but we thought they were just scaring us," said a tearful Nazir Sahoo from the rooftop of his almost submerged single-storey house in Deira Din Panah.
At least 1.3 million acres of crops have been destroyed in the Punjab agricultural heartland alone, the RCMD said.
Pakistan's chief meteorologist, Ghulam Rasul, told Reuters south Punjab and Sindh province have recorded an unusually high level of 100 milimetres of rain in the last two days.
Authorities in Sindh, south of Punjab, said they were making preparations for more floodwaters, hoping to limit losses.
"We are expecting very strong floods in Sindh in the next one or two days," said information official Sumsam Bokhari.
FOOD SHORTAGES IN NORTHWEST
The World Food Programme warned of shortages and said it would airdrop supplies from six helicopters to areas cut off by flooding.
In Nowshera in the northwest, former army officer Mohammad Yaseen and other villagers picked through rubble hoping to find food and a few of their belongings.
"After two days, a helicopter came and dropped some bottles of water and packets of biscuits but nobody tried to evacuate us," he said. "After four days, boats came but the water level had receded and there was no point in leaving the house."
His village of Pashtun Gari was home to about 2,500 families who made their living from dairy farming and growing wheat.
Now the village and his house are steeped in mud and the stench of burst sewage lines and dead cattle permeates the air.
In another area in the northwest, a Reuters photographer saw a village flatted by floods which was once home to Afghans who fled war and turmoil in their own country decades ago.
People walked through knee-deep mud to lay their carpets along about 3 km (2 miles) of rail track, hoping to dry them.
KARACHI BLOODSHED
In the commercial hub Karachi, authorities are trying to contain violence, a constant problem in Pakistan, where the United States needs stability to help overcome a Taliban insurgency in Afghanistan.
On Wednesday, unknown attackers hurled a grenade at a mosque during evening prayers, wounding six people, police said.
More than a dozen people were killed overnight, deepening fears of more bloodshed after the assassination of a member of the dominant political party in the city on Monday. Seventy people have been killed since then. [nSGE67307I]
In the Peshawar blast, Sifwat Ghuyur, a police commander who was active in anti-Taliban operations, was killed along with his driver. At least nine people were wounded, police said.
Adding to pressure at home, Islamist charities, some tied to militant groups allied with the Taliban and al Qaeda, are vying with the government to provide aid and boost their image.
Civilians who resettled after being forced to flee fighting in the northwest now face fresh uncertainty. Some had just gone home, hoping to start a new life. Now they must move once again.
"First it was the Taliban, now it's mother nature," said Nawab Ali, 45, who is from Swat Valley. (Additional reporting by Chris Allbritton, Augustine Anthony and Kamran Haider in Islamabad, Faris Ali and Adrees Latif in Nowshera and Junaid Khan in Swat and Sue Pleming in Washington; Reporting and writing by Michael Georgy; Editing by Peter Graff)
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By Michael Georgy
ISLAMABAD | Tue Aug 3, 2010 3:58pm EDT
ISLAMABAD (Reuters) - The worst floods in memory in Pakistan have devastated the lives of more than 3 million people, a U.N. spokesman said on Tuesday, while outrage over the unpopular government's response to its people's plight spreads.
The catastrophe, which started almost a week ago and has killed more than 1,400 people, is likely to deepen as more rains are expected. A breakout of water-borne diseases such as cholera could create a health crisis.
The disaster has also, once again, called into question the leadership of President Asif Ali Zardari, already hampered by problems ranging from a stubborn Taliban insurgency, widespread poverty to chronic power cuts in the nuclear-armed U.S. ally.
Pakistan's civilian governments have long been perceived as riddled by corruption and largely ineffective, leaving the powerful military to step in during troubled times.
Poorly resourced Pakistani authorities are struggling to help flood victims, many of whom have lost everything and say they received no warnings that raging waters were heading their way.
United Nations World Food Program spokesman Amjad Jamaal said an estimated 1.8 million are in dire need of water, food and shelter. He said some people are being bitten by water snakes.
Anger was palpable in towns such as Charssada. A Reuters reporter saw people attacking trucks distributing relief items. Police then charged at them with batons.
Bistma Bibi, 65, who lost two grandsons in the floods, accused state relief workers of only helping friends or relatives. "I came here at 5 o'clock in the morning. I begged and fought but got nothing. They're giving them (supplies) to their people," she said.
AID IN DIRE NEED
Zardari's administration has faced a cascade of crises over the last few weeks, from the worst ever domestic plane crash on the edge of the capital to leaked reports on Islamabad's alleged support for militants battling U.S. troops in Afghanistan, to diplomatic rows with Britain.
Stability here is vital to American interests in the region. Washington wants Islamabad to join efforts to tackle a Taliban insurgency raging in Afghanistan by cracking down on Afghan militants who cross over the border to attack U.S. troops.
Zardari is in Europe on a state visit, which has angered both ordinary Pakistanis and political parties who wonder why he is abroad during a difficult period.
During a meeting with French President Nicolas Sarkozy in Paris on Monday, Zardari asked for immediate international aid.
Presidential spokesman Farhatullah Babar quoted Zardari as saying: "We need to rebuild the damaged infrastructure that has been destroyed first by the war against militancy and now further by the torrential rains."
The U.S. embassy has announced $10 million in immediate humanitarian aid, with more to be earmarked as necessary. The European Union will donate 30 million euros ($39.5 million) while China will donate 10 million yuan ($1.5 million).
Amir Khan Hoti, chief minister of Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa province, the epicenter of the crisis, said the aid "should be bigger because the losses and damages are so huge".
Authorities forecast more of the heavy monsoon rains that have been lashing the area for the past week.
UNICEF spokesman Abdul Sami Malik told Reuters of the more than 3 million affected, 1.3 million people were severely impacted by the floods, losing homes and livelihoods.
"The main problem there is outbreak of diseases, especially in Nowshera district where hundreds of dead animals are lying on the ground," said Adnan Khan, spokesman for the Crisis Management Authority in Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa.
"Most roads linking flood-hit areas have been blocked and 91 bridges have been either washed away or damaged, so access to affected areas is still a challenge."
Islamist charities, some with suspected ties to militants, have stepped in to provide aid, piling pressure on the government to show it can take control. Islamist groups played a key role in the relief effort following a huge earthquake in Kashmir in 2005.
The government faces highly determined militants, who often try to capitalize on a lack of civil services to recruit disillusioned Pakistanis to take up arms against the state.
"Since the flood hit our area, I did not see any food or relief packets from the government. Their offices have been washed away or damaged," said school teacher Yar Mohammad, waiting to cross a makeshift bridge over a river in Swat Valley.
To add to the people's misery inflicted by the floods, food prices are also rising sharply as agriculture has been wiped out.
(Additional reporting by Kamran Haider in ISLAMABAD, Faris Ali in CHARSSADA, Hammad Farooqi in CHAKDARA and Asim Tanveer in MULTAN, and PARIS bureau; Editing by Chris Allbritton and Miral Fahmy)
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Waters continue to rise in Pakistan
06 Aug 2010 14:03:20 GMT
Source: UNHCR
Reuters and AlertNet are not responsible for the content of this article or for any external internet sites. The views expressed are the author's alone.
Islamabad, Pakistan (UNHCR) – Monsoon rains continue to sweep across parts of Pakistan. According to UNHCR's local partners on the ground, rain is falling again in northern areas of the Swat Valley in flood-affected Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Province.
The bloated Swat river has burst its banks, inundating the rich agricultural region around Barikot. Of some 25 bridges in Swat, we have reports that 22 have been washed out as flood waters wash downstream towards the Kabul and Indus rivers.
In Sindh Province, Pakistan government officials have reportedly ordered the evacuation of villages along the Indus valley. Authorities said they have set up 400 relief camps for those evacuated and are using 30 boats to help evacuations. Authorities in Sindh Province have warned that major floods are expected on Saturday and Sunday.
UNHCR contacts on the ground in Barikot report that there are shortages of food and medicine. Power and gas supplies have been cut. In many areas, mud in the wells has spoiled the drinking water supply as well.
Monsoon-affected people have told UNHCR teams how they fled their homes as they were hit by walls of water. Tens of thousands of homes have been destroyed or badly damaged. Even those that survived the deluge are filled with mud, their furnishings destroyed. Families have lost their food stocks, livestock and personal possessions.
According to the Pakistan government's Federal Flood Commission, more than 248,000 homes have been destroyed or damaged and 1.38 million acres (558,000 hectares) of crop land flooded across Pakistan.
At least 10,000 cows have drowned over the past eight days.
Akbar Ali, 50, is a carpenter in the village of Utmanzai. His home as well his all his carpentry tools vanished in the flood water. " I do not have money to buy (them) again and restart my work".
Tenant farmers who have lost their homes fear that their landlords will never rebuild them, or that they will put off construction until their own homes have been rebuilt, forcing the farmers to live under UNHCR's tents and plastic sheeting for the foreseeable future
"We have no place to stay," one woman now living in a school near Peshawar explained to a visiting UNHCR field team. "We are in this school but once it opens after the summer break what will happen to us? Where will we go?"
The UN Refugee Agency is initially aiming to support more than 350,000 of the most vulnerable among the flood-affected population in Pakistan and is appealing to donor countries and the general public for $21 million US to do so.
With many hundreds of thousands of people having no adequate shelter, food or water, and key roads and bridges cut off, government departments and aid agencies are in a race against time to reach affected communities.
Across Pakistan's Khyber Pakhtunkhwa and Balochistan provinces, more than 12,000 UNHCR tents have so far been distributed along with thousands of other relief items such as plastic tarpaulins, blankets, jerry cans and kitchen sets as part of a coordinated response effort involving the government, UN and NGOs.
On Saturday, August 7, UNHCR will receive supplies donated by the Saudi Fund for Development including 25,000 tents, 380,000 blankets, 126,000 plastic tarpaulins, 100,000 mattresses and 25,000 kitchen sets as well as 20,000 food parcels for Ramadan.
UNHCR's relief items are being distributed by carefully selected partner charities including the Community Motivation and Development Organisation (CMDO), Sarhad Rural Support Program (SRSP) and the Centre for Excellence in Rural Development (CERD) as well as central government and provincial partners.
In addition to tents and plastic tarpaulins, the UN Refugee Agency is distributing cooking sets, blankets, sleeping mats, jerrycans and buckets. Some displaced families have set up makeshift tented camps using donated aid supplies on the median strip along the Islamabad-Peshawar highway adjacent to the swirling Kabul River.
UNHCR's main mandate is protecting refugees, but the organisation has always positively responded to the call for humanitarian assistance for the local population of Khyber Pakthunkhwa and Balochistan. Living in Pakistan's monsoon-affected communities are some 1.5 million Afghan refugees who have taken shelter in Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa and Balochistan over the past three decades and an estimated 700,000-plus people dispaced by fighting in the Swat Valley and other areas last year.
Some 5,000 Afghan families are affected in one camp known as Azakahel. The camp is still under water with very little possibility of distribution of household assistance. In coordination with Afghan refugees, UNHCR is negotiating with Afghan refugee elders for possible relocation to another camp within the area. So far, 1,000 families have agreed to relocate, while the remaining expressed concerns about their security. 4,000 tents and 4,000 plastic sheets are to be distributed to affected population.
By Peter Kessler in Islamabad
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ANALYSIS-U.S. assesses own plans after Pakistan floods
08 Aug 2010 13:36:14 GMT
Source: Reuters
* Washington considering adjustments to aid projects
* US concerned over Pakistan govt's weak flood response
* Worry extremists raising public standing with aid effort
By Sue Pleming
WASHINGTON, Aug 8 (Reuters) - As flood waters rise in Pakistan, so does U.S. concern over the impact of the disaster on an already fragile economy and how Washington's robust development plan may be slowed down to deal with the crisis.
Another source of unease, say officials and experts, is fallout from the weak response of the civilian government and to what extent the Pakistani military's attention is being diverted from its fight against militants in the border areas with Afghanistan where U.S. troops are fighting the Taliban.
"The financial and other implications of this will be huge and it will slow down our development efforts which are already facing gargantuan uphill battles," said Pakistan expert Brian Katulis of the Center for American Progress, a liberal think tank in Washington.
Crops and livestock have been destroyed by the raging waters that have killed at least 1,600 people and disrupted the lives of 12 million -- and more rain is forecast.
"This will add to budgetary strains as so much infrastructure has been destroyed," said a senior U.S. official, who asked not to be named. "But we really don't know the full impact of this or the ramifications yet."
Pakistan, which joined the U.S.-led fight against militancy in 2001, says the campaign has cost $35 billion over the last eight years and almost paralyzed its economy. Its problems are aggravated by power shortages, inflation and low investment.
Pakistan turned to the International Monetary Fund in November 2008 to avert a balance of payments crisis and has been struggling to meet the conditions of that $10.66 billion emergency loan plan.
For its part, the Obama administration has its own ambitious non-military aid program in Pakistan, with plans to spend $7.5 billion over the next five years.
The State Department has been negotiating for months with the Pakistanis over which projects should be done first, with a major focus on water and boosting electricity as well as agriculture, the backbone of the economy.
Some money could be reprogrammed to deal with the current emergency although Washington will be coordinating with other major aid donors when Pakistan's government has drawn up a full tally of its rebuilding needs.
"We can be flexible in being responsive to the needs as articulated by Pakistan," said Rajiv Shah, who heads the U.S. Agency for International Development.
"It makes it harder to have large-scale progress when you have these kinds of natural disasters," he told Reuters in an interview on Friday.
POLITICAL DAMAGE
U.S. officials, while refusing to discuss this publicly, are also assessing damage caused by the weak response from Pakistan's civilian government to the floods and mounting hostility toward President Asif Ali Zardari, who stuck to a European trip while waters raged back home.
"Where we have seen a challenge, is in the civilian political leadership and getting it to step up to the plate," said a U.S. official, who declined to be named as his comments were critical of Zardari.
U.S. officials repeatedly implored Zardari to return home, telling him this was his "Katrina," a reference to the devastating 2005 hurricane in New Orleans which affected the political fortunes of former U.S. President George W. Bush.
Charities with links to militants have taken advantage of the vacuum left in Pakistan and delivered aid to thousands stranded by the floods, possibly boosting their own standing among those communities.
"A big problem is that while the Zardari government and the international community struggle to get their act together the Islamist militants are already on the ground providing relief," said Pakistan expert Bruce Riedel of the Brookings Institution, a Washington think tank.
The biggest supplier of relief among those groups, he said, was Jamaat-ud-Dawa, a group with links to militant group Lashkar-e-Taiba which it blamed for the 2008 attacks against Mumbai. It has had "thousands" of relief workers going into villages and towns with cash and assistance, said Riedel.
USAID's Shah sought to play down the impact of militants filling the gap left by government in tackling the floods, saying a suicide attack in northern Peshawar last week showed the "true colors" of those groups.
"That contrast could not be more stark between legitimate government mobilizing the international community to respond to people's needs," said Shah.
Coinciding with the floods has been a spike of violence in Karachi, the commercial hub of Pakistan to where some Taliban have fled in recent months following army offensives against their strongholds in the northwest.
While the immediate focus is on saving lives in Pakistan, the United States hopes one result of its rapid and generous response to the floods will be to help improve America's dismal approval ratings in the country.
But Riedel was doubtful of this.
"There is no silver lining just misery for many and an increasingly weaker civilian government," he said. (Editing by Eric Beech)
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Pakistani woman brings double joy amid flood misery
09 Aug 2010 15:03:31 GMT
Source: Reuters
SANAWAN, Pakistan, Aug 9 (Reuters Life!) - A Pakistani woman stranded by the country's worst floods in 80 years gave birth to twin boys on Monday, bringing joy to soldiers and villagers struggling amidst death and destruction.
The floods have killed 1,600 people and affected more than 13 million.
Amry helicopter pilot Captain Abdul Munim Khan thought he was picking up another dead victim of the deluge when he landed in a flooded village and men bearing a body on a rope bed, covered by a sheet, moved towards him through chest-deep water.
"But when they came close, I realised that she was alive. To my pleasant surprise, there were also the twin boys," Khan told Reuters after the rescue.
The young mother, Zahida Perveen, who gave birth in the open, was taken to hospital with her boys.
"I was so happy, I was weeping when I saw they were boys," Perveen said from her hospital bed.
Mother and children were doing fine, hospital officials said. (Reporting by Adrees Latif; Editing by Robert Birsel and Sanjeev Miglani) (E-mail: augustine.anthony@thomsonreuters.com; Reuters Messaging: augustine.anthony.reuters.com@reuters.net; Islamabad newsroom: +92 51 281 0017))
(If you have a query or comment about this story, send an e-mail to news.feedback.asia@thomsonreuters.com)
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Pakistan floods seen setting back recovery of conflict-displaced by years
06 Aug 2010 13:26:00 GMT
Written by: Katie Nguyen
Children sit among the rubble of their house in Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa Province. REUTERS/Fayaz Aziz
Children sit among the rubble of their house in Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa Province. REUTERS/Fayaz Aziz
LONDON (AlertNet) - First they fled the Taliban, then the military and now the worst flooding in nearly a century.
More than two-thirds of the 2.7 million people forced from their homes last year by fighting between the army and Taliban insurgents in northwest Pakistan had recently gone back, according to U.N. estimates. But aid workers said the latest disaster meant it would take years for many families that had only just started rebuilding their lives to get back on their feet.
At least 1,600 people have been killed in floods that have devastated large parts of Pakistan, sweeping north to south through four provinces. More than 4 million people are thought to have been affected with homes washed away or damaged and their means of earning a living lost.
"This is a disaster of major proportions with immediate but also medium and long-term implications," said Martin Mogwanja, United Nations Humanitarian Coordinator for Pakistan.
Aid workers say the intensity of the monsoon rains caught many by surprise especially in worst-hit Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa. The mountainous area, formerly known as North-West Frontier Province, was the scene of last year's military offensive against the Taliban which at its peak created one of the largest internal displacements in recent times.
The latest figures from Pakistan's National Disaster Management Authority show more than 156,000 houses were damaged by the flooding in Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa.
Aid workers say many communities in the province's Swat valley and nearby districts are likely to find themselves in a worse state after the floods than when they fled the conflict.
"The challenges are even more, I would suggest, for those who've lost their houses than during the displacement for the fighting," said Michael O'Brien, International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) spokesman.
"It's a different set of circumstances (now). It's a whole new dimension," he said. "The recovery phase is going to be long and painful for people and we'll need the support of the international community."
O'Brien said many families forced out by violence last year had left behind one relative to guard the house, and so were at least able to retain their homes, some of their animals and other possessions.
This time round not only have they lost the little they had, but floodwaters have contaminated water sources, ruined crops and spoiled arable land.
BACK TO SQUARE ONE
The disaster will leave communities already exhausted by repeated displacement even more vulnerable, aid workers say.
"The economy was restarting ... people were getting back to work, people were starting to live some semblance of normality. Of course the flooding's just turned that completely around again and put people back to square one," said Simon Worrall, Norwegian Refugee Council's Pakistan country director.
"Going back to the Peshawar valley where the majority of the flooding is and where more of the people are affected ... it's going to put them back 5, 10 years at least," he told AlertNet.
Some aid workers worry that families sheltering the conflict-displaced were also hit by the flooding and now need help themselves.
There was also some concern about how overstretched relief officials would be able to assist victims of the flooding, and at the same time, meet the ongoing needs of those displaced by fighting in the Federally Administered Tribal Areas (FATA), where the flooding has had less impact.
"It will be very difficult for humanitarian organisations to make a distinction between the IDPs (internally displaced) from the conflict-affected areas and the flood-affected areas," said one aid worker, who declined to be named.
"If you just give to the flood-affected IDPs, the conflict IDPs will say 'we need assistance too'. There will be definitely tensions between the two groups. It will need careful management to convince them that other communities are in need."
Bordering Afghanistan, both FATA and Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa, are a focus of Pakistan's efforts to battle al Qaeda and Taliban militants in support of the U.S.-led war in Afghanistan.
Reuters AlertNet is not responsible for the content of external websites.
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United Nations: Pakistan flood misery exceeds tsunami, Haiti
Today at 07:11 | Associated Press
The number of people suffering from the massive floods in Pakistan exceeds 13 million — more than the combined total of the 2004 Indian Ocean tsunami, the 2005 Kashmir earthquake and the 2010 Haiti earthquake, the United Nations said Monday.
The death toll in each of those three disasters was much higher than the 1,500 people killed so far in the floods that first hit Pakistan two weeks ago. But the U.N. estimates that 13.8 million people have been affected — over 2 million more than the other disasters combined.
The comparison helps frame the scale of the crisis, which the prime minister said Monday was the worst in Pakistan's history. It has overwhelmed the government, generating widespread anger from flood victims who have complained that aid is not reaching them quickly enough or at all.
"The number of people affected by the floods is greater than the other three disasters combined," Maurizio Giuliano, spokesman for the U.N. Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs, told The Associated Press.
A person is considered affected by the floods if he or she will need some form of assistance to recover, either short-term humanitarian aid or longer-term reconstruction help, said Giuliano.
The total number of people affected in the three other disasters was about 11 million — 5 million in the tsunami and 3 million in each of the earthquakes — said Giuliano.
Pakistani Prime Minister Yousuf Raza Gilani said Monday that the floods were a bigger crisis than the 2005 Kashmir earthquake that killed nearly 80,000 people and the army's operation against the Taliban in the Swat Valley last spring that drove more than 2 million people from their homes.
"The magnitude of the tragedy is so immense that it is hard to assess," said Gilani during a visit to the central Pakistani city of Multan.
Many of the people affected by the floods, which were caused by extremely heavy monsoon rains, were in Pakistan's northwestern province of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa.
Rescue workers have been unable to reach up to 600,000 people marooned in the province's Swat Valley, where many residents were still trying to recover from last year's fight with the Taliban, said Giuliano. Bad weather has prevented helicopters from flying to the area, which is inaccessible by ground, he said.
"All these people are in very serious need of assistance, and we are highly concerned about their situation," said Giuliano.
Hundreds of thousands of people have also had to flee rising floodwaters in recent days in the central and southern provinces of Punjab and Sindh as heavy rains have continued to pound parts of the country.
One affected resident, Manzoor Ahmed, said Monday that although he managed to escape floods that submerged villages and destroyed homes in Sindh, the total lack of government help meant dying may have been a better alternative.
"It would have been better if we had died in the floods as our current miserable life is much more painful," said Ahmed, who fled with his family from the town of Shikarpur and spent the night shivering in the rain that has continued to lash the country.
"It is very painful to see our people living without food and shelter," he said.
Thousands of people in the neighboring districts of Shikarpur and Sukkur camped out on roads, bridges and railway tracks — any dry ground they could find — often with nothing more than the clothes on their backs and perhaps a plastic sheet to keep off the rain.
"We were able to escape the floodwaters, but hunger may kill us," said Hora Mai, 40, sitting on a rain-soaked road in Sukkur along with hundreds of other people.
A senior government official in Sukkur, Inamullah Dhareejo, said authorities were working to set up relief camps in the district and deliver food to flood victims.
But an Associated Press reporter who traveled widely through the worst-hit areas in Sindh over the past three days saw no sign of relief camps or government assistance.
The floods hit the country at a time when the government is already struggling with a faltering economy and a brutal war against Taliban militants that has killed thousands of people.
The U.S. and other international partners have donated tens of millions of dollars and provided relief supplies and assistance.
In a statement, Obama's national security adviser, James Jones, said that the U.S. is sending a wide range of assistance to Pakistan. That includes $35 million in financial aid, added on to the $7.5 million already designated to help people in affected areas, as well as food, shelter, medical supplies and other items.
In addition, the U.S. has delivered 436,000 meals, 12 prefabricated bridges, 14 rescue boats, six large-scale water filtration units and a generator. U.S. helicopters are supporting rescue efforts and, along with other U.S. military aircraft, will continue to evacuate stranded citizens and transport supplies.
"The United States stands with the Pakistani authorities as they face the difficult challenges this natural disaster poses and will continue to work with the international community to increase assistance," Jones said.
A faltering relief effort could open the door to hard-line Islamist groups, which have already been delivering aid in the northwest.
Read more: http://www.kyivpost.com/news/world/detail/77630/#ixzz0wCFvOsNL
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What are the political costs of Pakistani floods?
Today at 13:54 | Reuters
Pakistan's President Asif Ali Zardari returned home on Tuesday from official foreign visits to a chorus of criticism over his government's response to the worst flooding in the country's history.
The floods were triggered by exceptionally heavy monsoon rains over the upper Indus river basin over nearly two weeks and have ploughed a swathe of destruction more than 1,000 km (600 miles) long across the country.
Two million people are homeless and the lives of about 13 million people, or about 8 percent of the population of the nuclear-armed U.S. ally, have been disrupted.
Here are some questions and answers on implications of the disaster for Zardari and his government.
WILL THE CRISIS BRING DOWN THE GOVERNMENT
No, that is very unlikely. A widespread perception that the government has been slow to respond has brought sharp criticism. Zardari, already unpopular in many quarters, enraged his critics when he departed for official visits to London and Paris as the catastrophe was unfolding. But the ruling coalition, led by Zardari's party, has a comfortable majority in parliament and there has been no sign of the coalition falling apart over the floods. While the opposition, led by the party of former prime minister Nawaz Sharif, has been critical, there has been no move to launch street protests which could trigger a political crisis and bring down the government. Analysts say the opposition is content to see the government struggle while it bides its time in the run-up to the next general election, due by 2013.
MIGHT THE MILITARY STEP IN?
No. Analysts see no chance of a move by the military, which has ruled the country for more than half of its 63-year history, to seize power. The military responded quickly to the floods, rescuing many people from the raging waters, and it will emerge from the crisis with its reputation enhanced. The military saw its image dented over the course of nearly a decade of army-led rule, which ended in 2008, and analysts say it is in no rush to step back in to politics and stage a coup over a natural disaster. Army commander General Ashfaq Kayani, whose term in office was extended for three years by the government last month, has vowed to keep the army out of politics. It also has its hands full battling militants in the northwest.
HOW IS THE GOVERNMENT DOING ON OTHER PROBLEMS?
The civilian government inherited an economy in crisis and was forced to turn to the International Monetary Fund (IMF) months after taking power in 2008 for emergency financing of $11.3 billion. While the economy has remained fragile, it has begun to stabilise despite some problems meeting IMF targets. Pakistani stocks, though they have lost 4.26 percent since July 28 when the floods began, have still gained 6.4 percent this year after a surge of 63 percent last year. But a Finance Ministry official said on Tuesday the floods would dent gross domestic product (GDP) growth and a target of 4.5 percent for this financial year would have to be lowered.
Pakistan's other main problem is the fight against Islamist militants. The army has made significant gains in forcing Pakistani Taliban fighters out of northwestern strongholds over the past couple of years although they remain a potent danger. The government has succeeded to a great extent in persuading a sceptical public that the militants pose a deadly threat to Pakistan, not just to the unpopular United States. The government has overseen an improvement in often fraught relations with the United States and ties with India are back on track although no breakthroughs are expected between the nuclear-armed rivals. Relations with Afghanistan have improved significantly since this government came to power.
Read more: http://www.kyivpost.com/news/world/detail/77688/#ixzz0wCcA7O00
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Seven hundred and fifty thousand souls on the move
By Malik Tehseen Raza
Tuesday, 10 Aug, 2010
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A soldier signals towards flood victims from an Army helicopter as they prepare to be evacuated from the Muzaffargarh district of Punjab province on August 9, 2010. - Photo by Reuters.
Pakistan
Zardari returns home to flood crisis
Zardari returns home to flood crisis
MUZAFFARGARH: Over 750,000 people found themselves at the mercy of nature when the administration ordered evacuation of Muzaffargarh town hours before daybreak on Monday as waters from the swollen Indus and Chenab rivers threatened to overwhelm the region.
Scenes reminiscent of 1947 started playing themselves out after the announcement threw the populace into an unknown fear.
The announcement from mosques at 4am left speechless 400,000 residents of Muzaffargarh city, and the nearly 350,000 people who had taken refuge here after furious rivers had ripped homes from their foundations in small towns and villages nearby.
Soon the people started leaving for Multan, the only link intact after the closures of roads leading to Layyah and Dera Ghazi Khan.
There were not enough vehicles for such a massive exodus. The Multan-Muzaffargarh road soon clogged with all sorts of conveyances ranging from buses and trucks to horse- and donkey-driven contraptions.
And predictably enough, transporters felt no qualms about cashing in on the helplessness of the multitude.
Long queues of vehicles were seen at CNG stations because the closure of Parco had caused a severe shortage of petrol and diesel.
Saleem Qureshi, who was in charge of a relief camp at Workers Welfare School, said over 8,000 people had taken shelter in the camp over the past two days after waters surged into Kot Addu, Sanwan, Gurmani and Qasba Gujrat.
Around 3,500 people had refused to leave the camp as most of them were penniless by now. Some of them said they would prefer to shelter on roofs, and even trees, rather than risk another displacement.
One distressed person, Ghulam Abbas from Kot Addu, said “we would prefer to die because we simply cannot afford another displacement”.
“When floods hit Kot Addu on Aug 2, we moved to Sanawan. After 24 hours we had to leave that town. Later we moved to Mahmood Kot to our relatives. But on Aug 4, we had to leave Mahmood Kot when a breach in Muzaffargarh canal made us homeless. “We will not move any further.”
Since there were not enough vehicles to carry those willing to leave, some people mustered the courage to get in touch with the Minister of state for Economic Affairs, Hina Rabbani Khar. They suggested to her to arrange a shuttle train between Multan and Muzaffargarh.
Ms Khar obliged them. A shuttle started running between the two points after every two hours. Much to the disappointment of the people who reached Multan, there were no relief camps for them. After some time, however, the army, the district government, PAF and other agencies swung into action and set up shelters.
FLOODS: Irrigation officials said that water level in Chenab river swelled on Monday and floods were likely to hit the city any time.
Because of a flood wave from the Chenab river and breaches in Tulahiry Canal water was heading towards the city after inundating Muradabad, Langar Sari and Basti Bhutta.
Thousands of people had to leave their homes in union councils of Budh, Baseera, Wan Pittafi and Gul Wala aftera breach in the Muzaffargarh canal, near Nusrat Wala, flooded thousands of acres and demolished hundreds of houses.
The Muzaffargarh thermal power plant was also in danger and its staff colony had been evacuated. Experts fear if any harm comes to this plant, the country will face a grave power shortage.
A bridge on the Chenab remained closed for many hours when a large number of vehicles from Muzaffargarh tried to cross it at a time.
In headquarters city areas most banks and ATM machines were closed. Hundred people rushed to banks to draw the money but failed.
This correspondent saw hundreds of families sitting on bypass road near river Chenab. In DHQ hospital hundreds patients ran for safety when they learnt about the flood.
DHQ Medical Superintendent Dr Ashiq Malik said that about 197 patients were there but after red alert one over a hundred ran away and the remaining had been shifted to Nishtar hospital, Multan.
DCO Farasat Iqbal said that district government was trying to save lives and moving affected people to safe places.
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Lutheran World Relief responds to massive flooding in Pakistan
09 Aug 2010 19:27:12 GMT
Source: Lutheran World Relief (LWR) - USA
Reuters and AlertNet are not responsible for the content of this article or for any external internet sites. The views expressed are the author's alone.
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Baltimore -- Recent monsoon rains in Pakistan have caused the worst flooding in the country in 80 years. The floods, which began in late July, have claimed at least 1,600 lives, left more than 700,000 people homeless and have affected nearly 14 million Pakistanis, according to official reports. Lutheran World Relief (LWR) is working quickly with partners on the ground to deliver critical relief to people affected by this crisis. “These floods bring even more devastation to poor, and disaster prone, areas of Pakistan,” says Joanne Fairley, LWR’s regional director for Asia and the Middle East. “LWR is working with our partners to distribute vital aid to families coping with this disaster.”
The provinces of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, Balochistan, Punjab and Sindh were most heavily affected by flooding. With so many families left homeless, and more monsoon rains expected, the people of Pakistan are in dire need of food, water and shelter to survive this disaster.
LWR is a member of the ACT Alliance, a global coalition of churches and agencies engaged in development, humanitarian response and advocacy, and is supporting the coordinated ACT response in Pakistan.
ACT Alliance members are working on the ground to distribute emergency relief, including shelter items and food packages. So far, ACT members have reached 155,200 people in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa and Balochistan and are working to reach even more.
LWR is also partnering with International Relief and Development to send 3,300 quilts, 13,000 health kits and 1,500 layettes to help displaced families.
The floods hit as people living in this region were still struggling to recover from five years of successive major disasters, with many families still living in makeshift shelters.
In 2005, a massive earthquake devastated parts of Pakistan. 2006 and 2007 brought floods that claimed lives, destroyed homes and killed livestock. In 2008, another powerful earthquake rendered thousands homeless in Balochistan at the onset of winter, and in 2009 millions were displaced as a result of conflict between the Pakistan military and militants in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa and Waziristan.
Throughout these years, severe droughts and water shortage severely plagued the country’s agricultural system and crippled its food supply. With this new disaster, millions of Pakistanis are in danger of going hungry.
Lutheran World Relief is accepting donations on behalf of the Pakistan floods. You may make a monetary donation online at lwr.org, by phone at by phone at 800-597-5972; or by mail at P.O. Box 17061 Baltimore, MD 21298-9832, USA.
In addition, those wishing to donate to LWR’s quilt and kit ministries may visit lwr.org/beinvolved or contact LWR by phone, or e-mail at lwr@lwr.org, for more information.
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Pakistan: floodwaters increase dangers posed by unexploded munitions
10 Aug 2010 13:07:08 GMT
Source: International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) - Switzerland
Geneva (ICRC) – Three young children were seriously wounded in Dera Ismail Khan today by a homemade bomb that detonated when one of them touched it.
The device was apparently dislodged from its original position by floodwaters before the children came in contact with it.
This tragic incident is a reminder of the risk posed by explosive remnants of war and the additional danger caused when they are moved by floodwaters.
Several parts of the country have recently been rocked by armed violence.
The use of booby traps and makeshift bombs, and the presence in some areas of mines and unexploded ordnance, remain a real threat to the unwary.
"All persons living in areas affected by fighting – or in adjacent areas subject to recent flooding – should be aware of the risk posed by explosive remnants of war," said Luiza Khazhgerieva, an International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) mine-risk education specialist.
"Areas that may once have been considered free of weapons can easily be re-contaminated when mines and unexploded ordnance are carried into them by floodwaters." People living in unsafe areas are urged to contact local authorities for reports of any weapons that have been discovered there, and not to touch dangerous or suspicious objects.
Children are especially vulnerable and should be reminded of the risks.
Unexploded munitions can be reported to the local authorities, the army, the police, or any Pakistan Red Crescent Society or ICRC staff person.
Meanwhile, food and shelter items for more than 100,000 people have been dispatched from the ICRC's logistics hub in Peshawar in the last week for distribution by Pakistan Red Crescent volunteers in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa and Balochistan.
In addition, medicines and medical supplies have been sent to Paroa Hospital in Dera Ismail Khan and to Bannu.
In cooperation with the Pakistan Red Crescent and the International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies, the ICRC continues its relief operations in the many disaster-stricken areas.
For further information, please contact:
Michael O'Brien, ICRC Pakistan, tel: +92 300 850 8138
Christian Cardon, ICRC Geneva, tel: +41 22 730 24 26 or +41 79 251 93 02
See also ICRC media contacts
This article on www.icrc.org
======
Pakistani militants urge rejection of Western aid
11 Aug 2010 07:22:14 GMT
Source: Reuters
* Taliban reject Western aid
* Islamist charity provides relief
* Zardari under fire (Updates with stock market, U.S. Swat flight)
By Kamran Haider
ISLAMABAD, Aug 11 (Reuters) - Pakistani Taliban militants have urged the government to reject Western aid for victims of devastating floods, saying it would only be siphoned off by corrupt officials.
The call from the militants battling the government came as the United States stepped up aid for victims of the floods which have killed more than 1,600 people, forced 2 million from their homes and disrupted the lives of about 14 million people, or 8 percent of the population.
"We urge the government not to take Western aid," a Pakistani Taliban spokesman, Azam Tariq, said by telephone from an undisclosed location.
"The government in Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa and the centre are desperate to get it, not for the people affected but to make their bank accounts bigger," he said, referring to the northwestern province hardest hit by the floods.
Roiling floods triggered by unusually heavy monsoon rain have scoured the Indus river basin leaving a trail of destruction from mountains in the north to the plains of Sindh province in the south.
Hundreds of roads and bridges have been destroyed and waters have not yet crested in the south, meaning the situation could get worse in Pakistan, a U.S. ally.
There is concern that Islamist charities with links to militant groups have been seeking to fill the gap left by what many see as the inadequate response by Pakistani authorities.
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For a graphic on Pakistan's floods, click
http://graphics.thomsonreuters.com/RNGS/2010/AUG/PAK3.jpg
For an analysis on global extreme weather click [ID:nLDE6780QX]
For an analysis of risks to watch in Pakistan, click
http://r.reuters.com/pyj83n
For more Pakistan stories click
or http://link.reuters.com/kac58m
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The United Nations says the disaster is the biggest the country had ever faced and it would cost billions of dollars to rehabilitate the victims and rebuild ruined infrastructure.
The International Monetary Fund has warned of major economic harm and the Finance Ministry said the country would miss this year's 4.5 percent gross domestic product growth target though it was not clear by how much. [ID:nSGE67909D]
Pakistani stocks were up 0.68 percent in morning trade but dealers termed this as as "pullback" after the KSE-index fell by nearly 4 percent in the last two trading sessions.
"Investors are very confused about the impact the floods would have on the economy as a whole as the picture is still unclear and one cannot get a clear assessment of total damages," said Mohammed Sohail, director at Topline Securities Ltd.
President Asif Ali Zardari, under fire for his government's perceived sluggish response to the floods, returned home on Tuesday from foreign visits he embarked on as the disaster was unfolding.
Zardari, the widower of assassinated former prime minister Benazir Bhutto, was in the southern city of Karachi on Wednesday. Officials said they did not know if he would visit the disaster zone. Earlier they said he was expected to.
Zardari, whose popularity has never matched that of his charismatic wife, enraged his critics by going ahead with visits to meet leaders in Britain and France after the floods began.
The military, which has ruled Pakistan for more than half of its 63-year history, has taken the lead in relief efforts, reinforcing the faith many Pakistanis have in the ability of their armed forces and highlighting the comparative ineffectiveness of civilian governments.
Analysts say the armed forces would not try to take over the country as they have vowed to stay out of politics and are busy fighting militants.
The United States announced an additional $20 million in help on Tuesday amid growing concern over the political, economic and security ramifications of the disaster. [nN10172558]
The United States needs a stable Pakistan to help it end a nine-year war by the Taliban in Afghanistan.
The new aid brought to $55 million the amount of funds committed by Washington to relief efforts, along with U.S. military helicopters that have been airlifting survivors trapped by the worst floods in the region in 80 years.
The U.S. efforts may win Washington some support in Pakistan, where anti-American sentiment runs high.
"Let's not talk about politics. We were trapped here and they came to evacuate us. You cannot imagine the terrible feeling I had and how happy we are now," Abdul Rehman, 37, who was evacuated by a U.S. helicopter after being stranded with a new-born baby and wife in the Swat valley.
"They're doing good. Let's appreciate them." (Additional reporting by Sahar Ahmed; Writing by Robert Birsel; Editing by Michael Georgy)
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Pakistan floods destroy crops, could cost billions
12 Aug 2010 09:37:07 GMT
Source: Reuters
* Agriculture heartland Punjab hit hard
* 500,000 T wheat, 500,000 T sugar lost - farm group
* U.N says food security of millions threatened
By Augustine Anthony and Michael Georgy
ISLAMABAD, Aug 12 (Reuters) - Flood recovery costs for Pakistan's vital agriculture sector and farmers could be in the billions of dollars, as a farmers association said half a million tonnes each of wheat and sugar had been destroyed.
Agriculture is the mainstay of Pakistan's fragile economy, while wheat markets are on edge about crop losses after a drought in the major exporting Black Sea region sent prices
"The devastation to crops is immense. I think it's safe to say it will take some billions of dollars to recover. I am referring to livelihood for agriculture and farming to get back in shape," U.N. humanitarian operations spokesman Maurizio Giuliano told Reuters on Thursday.
The Finance Ministry said this week the floods would hit growth and this year's gross domestic product growth target of 4.5 percent would be missed, though it was not clear by how much. [ID:nSGE67909D]. Growth was 4.1 percent in the last fiscal year.
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For a graphic on Pakistan's floods, click
http://graphics.thomsonreuters.com/RNGS/2010/AUG/PAK3.jpg
For an analysis on global extreme weather: [ID:nLDE6780QX]
For an analysis of risks to watch in Pakistan:
http://r.reuters.com/pyj83n
For more Pakistan stories: http://link.reuters.com/kac58m ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^>
The floods, triggered by unusually heavy monsoon rain, have scoured the Indus river basin, killing more than 1,600 people, forcing 2 million from their homes and disrupting the lives of about 14 million people, or 8 percent of the population.
Improving the economic plight of Pakistanis is vital for government efforts to win public support in the fight against homegrown Taliban insurgents.
Militants often try to capitalise on frustrations with the state to recruit people to take up arms against the U.S.-backed government, heavily criticised by many flood victims, including farmers, for its perceived sluggish response to the disaster.
Farmers have been reluctant to leave flooded areas. Some of those who do walk neck-deep in water pulling their buffalos to reach safety.
"I was growing sugar cane and cotton. Everything is lost. Six to seven feet water is covering my fields," said Abdul Ghani Soomro, a farmer in southern Sindh province.
"It will take another six months for that water to dry, maybe even more. I have lost not only my standing crop, but my whole year is wasted."
Pakistan's agricultural heartland Punjab province has been hit hard. "I think it's safe to say between 500,000 and one million hectares (of crops) have been flooded," said Giuliano.
The United Nation's Food and Agricultural Organisation (FAO) on Wednesday warned of serious threats to the livelihoods and food security of millions.
Ibrahim Mughal, president of a national farmers' association, estimated that up to 500,000 tonnes of wheat stocked with farmers has been washed away in Pakistan, Asia's third-largest wheat producer. A Food Ministry official said up to 600,000 tonnes of wheat stocks had been damaged or destroyed in the flood.
Pakistan, Asia's third-largest wheat producer, harvested 23.80 million tonnes of wheat in the 2009/10 crop, as well as a carryover stock of 4.22 million tonnes, and was expected to export this year after a ban on exports last year.
Pakistan, the world's fourth biggest cotton producer, has also seen that commodity hit hard, with up to 2 million bales of destroyed, industry officials said, out of an expected crop of 14 million bales in the 2010/11 season.
Pakistan, which produced about 12.7 million 170 kg bales last year, often has to turn to imports to feed its textile sector, which accounts for about 60 percent of its exports. The country imported about 2 million bales in the 2009/10 financial year that ended in June.
Output of refined sugar could fall by 500,000 tonnes because of damage to the crop, farmers' association official Mughal said.
Luke Mathews, a commodity strategist at Commonwealth Bank of Australia in Sydney, expects global sugar levels to swing back to a substantial surplus in the coming year. Nevertheless production hiccups may support prices in raw and white markets.
"Recent developments in Russia, parts of Europe and now Pakistan are certainly a little bit supportive for international international sugar pricing," said Mathews.
On damage to the rice crop, the farmers' association put the losses at about 200,000 tonnes of rice, an estimate also supported by a Singapore-based trading company.
"We are estimating around 200,000 to 300,000 tonnes of rice lost in these floods which will be reflected in Pakistan's exports," said the head of rice business at an international trading company in Singapore. (Additional reporting by Naveen Thukral and Lewa Pardomun in SINGAPORE and Faisal Aziz in SUKKUR; Writing by Michael Georgy; Editing by Michael Urquhart)
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Pakistan floods: mega disaster needs mega response
10 Aug 2010 10:41:07 GMT
Source: Oxfam GB - UK
Reuters and AlertNet are not responsible for the content of this article or for any external internet sites. The views expressed are the author's alone.
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Country drowning but funding slow compared with responses to other crises claims Oxfam
The floods that have engulfed Pakistan over the last week are a mega disaster and the world needs to mount a mega response to ensure the millions affected get the help they need, international aid agency Oxfam said today as it called for a “gear shift� in the response to the crisis.
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Almost 14 million people are now affected by the floods in Pakistan according to latest figures, and that number is likely to increase with water now surging south into Sindh Province. The UN now describes the floods as the world’s “worstâ€� current disaster but compared with other recent crises the speed of the response to Pakistan’s flooding has been sluggish. As of 9 August 2010, according to the UN’s financial tracking system, less than $45m has been committed, plus $91m pledged, which breaks down to $3.20 committed per flood affected person. Â
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This pales in comparison with the amounts committed to other crises. Within the first 10 days of the 2005 Pakistan earthquake, which left some 3.5m people homeless, the international community had committed  $247m and pledged $45m. This works out to $70 committed per person, 10 days into the crisis.
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In the first 10 days after Cyclone Nargis, which affected 2.4m when it struck off the coast of Myanmar, almost $110m was committed (and $109m pledged) in the first 10 days. This works out at $46 committed per person.
Likewise some $742m was committed to Haiti 10 days after the quake and $920 million pledged. Some 1.5m were directly affected by the quake, which works out at $495 per person, in funds committed, in the first 10 days.
Neva Khan, Oxfam country director in Pakistan said:
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“The rains are continuing and each hour that passes the flooding is multiplying misery across the entire country. Swathes of Pakistan are still under-water and people have seen homes, shops, schools and crops flattened. The world must not leave these people stranded. This is a mega disaster and it needs a mega response.�
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To date only five donors â€" USA, Australia, UK, Italy and Kuwait â€" have committed or pledged more than $5m in new funding in response to the crisis.
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Khan continued: “We have all been shocked by the ferocity and magnitude of this disaster. Everyone â€" donors, the UN, aid agencies, the government â€" all of us need to shift gear on this crisis. The people here are living in desperate conditions. This is the biggest disaster in the world right now and we all need to get behind it.â€�
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The UN is setting up a humanitarian coordination centre in Islamabad, and will launch a comprehensive plan for the disaster in the coming days. The Pakistan government has announced that it will send delegations to other countries to seek financial support for flood-affected people.
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ENDS
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Notes to editors Â
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1. Oxfam and partners are mounting a response across in four provinces Pakistan - Khyber Pakhtoonkkhwa (formally NWFP), Sindh, Kashmir and Punjab. So far the agency has reached more than 100,000 people with clean water and helped local groups evacuate 80,000 stranded people.
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1. Oxfam has been working in Pakistan since 1973. We support local partners and work with government authorities to improve the livelihoods of those living in poverty, and provide humanitarian assistance to those affected by disasters and conflict.
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More from the Oxfam Press Office at http://www.oxfam.org.uk/news
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Q+A - UNDP expert discusses disaster risk reduction in Pakistan
12 Aug 2010 11:31:00 GMT
Written by: Katie Nguyen
People are gathered around a truck to receive food supplies for flood victims in Nowshera, in Pakistan's northwest Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa Province, August 11, 2010. REUTERS/Fayaz Aziz
People are gathered around a truck to receive food supplies for flood victims in Nowshera, in Pakistan's northwest Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa Province, August 11, 2010. REUTERS/Fayaz Aziz
LONDON (AlertNet) - Pakistan's worst flooding in nearly a century has killed more than 1,600 people, forced 2 million more from their homes and affected the lives of 14 million Pakistanis.
The United Nations says it is the biggest disaster to ever face the country, which is prone to earthquakes, cyclones and flooding.
AlertNet spoke to Zubair Murshed, who was UNDP disaster risk reduction advisor to Pakistan between October 2006 and July 2009.
WHAT NEEDS TO BE STRENGTHENED?
A lot needs to be improved as is visible from the consequences of the Aug. 2010 flooding, Murshed said in emailed responses to AlertNet questions.
In terms of technical aspects following things need to be improved:
1. Forecasting and warning systems: There is need for installation of appropriate forecasting and warning equipment; e.g. weather radars, rain-gauges, seismic stations, etc. The technologies of the Pakistan Metereological Department are outdated and limited in numbers. More importantly the quality of human resources at the Met Department is poor. They need good quality trained human resource; who are innovative, creative and motivated and who are not afraid of taking risks with new technologies. Communication of information about impending disasters (floods, droughts) in appropriate language to stakeholders requires a lot of improvement. The attitude of Met department is that of a laid-back institution. It needs to be a proactive one.
2. Evacuation systems: NDMA (National Disaster Management Authority) and provincial governments need to put in place effective evacuation systems in place in collaboration with district governments in the wake of floods etc. Of course awareness of communities and community preparedness is very awareness of communities and community preparedness is very important for that. But also is important the need to take stern and timely action, to move people out of harm's way even if that has to be done by force, in anticipation of a clearly impending hazards - where there are no doubts about its occurrence.
3. Community preparedness: In flood, drought and earthquake prone areas, community awareness, community organising and community drills need to be taking place and systems need to be established for evacuation, search and rescue and first aid at the community levels.
4. Institutional Systems: In order to achieve the above objectives: The strengthening of Provincial and District Disaster Management Authorities is crucial. The Government of Punjab has till date not recognised the importance of setting-up the provincial authority and it has relied upon the Rescue 1122 as its main arm for disaster management. However, Rescue 1122, despite being an excellent medical first aid and rescue service for building collapse, has little capacity to deal with complex disasters like floods, droughts and earthquakes.
In other provinces although provincial authorities are formally established, but they remain very weak institutions- lacking good quality leadership and human resources, sufficient funds for DRR programming, awareness raising.
So is the case at the district level. The provincial and district governments need to change their over-confident approach to their ability to manage floods and disasters. The current flood has very well demonstrated the poverty of their approach and capacities. They need to get serious and get systematic, and plan better.
5. Linking with global institutions: This is extremely important, particularly with regards to the forecasting and warning of hazards. Globally there are technologies available to forecast and predict floods and other phenomena with much better accuracy.
The conservative leadership of Met Departments is hesitant to connect with best global resource centres and institutes, who could have helped it predict the accurate nature of current monsoon, which would have helped reduce the colossal losses from the ongoing flood.
WHAT ARE THE CHALLENGES?
There are a range of challenges. But the most strategic ones...are:
Political Commitment: A need for serious political commitment by the prime minister and the chief ministers towards establishment of an effective disaster management system. That means allocating the best possible human and financial resources to the national (NDMA) and Provincial Disaster Management Authorities (PDMAs.
Although NDMA is currently being led by a very capable officer, General Nadeem, the authority lacks any other capable officers under him. It seriously lacks funds. The situation of PDMAs is even worse. Unless the political leadership takes personal interest in the affairs of the Disaster Management Authorities, the bureaucratic hurdles will continue to affect their fate adversely.
Funds: NDMA and PDMAs are starved organisations. Even in best of the times, in their early stages, the total fund allocation for NDMA was 100 million rupees ($1.17 million), which is peanuts considering the kinds of tasks it needs to undertake.
This institution and its subsidiaries at the province levels, as well as the Met Department need to receive sufficient funds to improve disaster management systems.
WHAT HAS IMPROVED?
Three aspects...improved visibly.
1. Coordination: Coordination amongst government departments and at different levels of government
2. Awareness of government officers, parliamentarians, civil society and media about the need for disaster prevention and preparedness
3. Contingency Planning: Indeed an improvement was observed in the contingency planning system at two levels; i) establishing disaster scenarios every year and holding a monsoon contingency planning exercise. Unfortunately, this exercise didn't happen effectively before the 2010 Monsoon due to changes at NDMA. ii) stockpiling of materials by NDMA in collaboration with provincial and district governments in high risk areas; e.g. Gilget, Chiteral, Quetta of emergency stocks.
WHAT STRATEGIES HAVE BEEN PUT IN PLACE?
Legislation and planning: First of all a National Disaster Management (DMA) Law 2006, approved by the government, which called for a pro-active approach to disaster management, and provided a clear framework for coordination amongst different levels of government and define responsibilities of federal, province and district governments.
To further clarify the national law, a national disaster risk management framework was prepared, which defines the risk context in Pakistan, the strategies for risk reduction and preparedness and roles and responsibilities of different stakeholders; including ministries, departments, UN, NGOs, media, etc.
A national disaster response plan was prepared through a highly consultative manner and based upon review of global best practices. Province level disaster management plans were prepared for all provinces.
Institutional arrangements: NDMA was made fully operational as the national focal point for DRM; including staff, allocation of funding etc. Province level DM authorities were made partially operational in province of Balochistan, Sindh, Northern Areas, Kashmir and NWFP (North-West Frontier Province).
Search and rescue (SAR) teams: Two international standard SAR teams were established in Karachi and Islamabad. In addition over 250 people were trained from Army, Ministry of Health, Civil Defense in fire fighting, search and rescue and medical first aid.
Integrating DRR into development planning: This intervention was initiated with Planning Commission, inistries of water and power, housing and works, industries and production.
Human resource development and the National Institute for Disaster Management (NIDM): Over 500 government officers from district government departments and provincial departments were trained in basic concepts of disaster risk management across the country. In this regards, negotiations were held with Japan to help in establishing a National Institute for Disaster Management.
Community based disaster risk management: Community based DRM projects were initiated in a number of cities and districts; e.g. Muzzafarabad, Mansehra, Quetta, Gilget, Badin, Thatta, and a number of other districts
Advocacy with parliamentarians: Acknowledging the need for political support for DRM systems, an advocacy programme was implemented to raise awareness of parliamentarians from national to province level. Parliamentarians were invited from all parties represented in the assemblies of concerned provinces and the national assemblies. The parliamentarians were requested to raise voice on the forum of the house to provide sufficient funding and human and technical resources to the national, provincial and district DM authorities.
Awareness raising campaign: With a view to raise awareness of key decision-makers, media and general masses about the need for disaster preparedness, a number of initiatives were launched; e.g. the holding of national disaster management conference, publications for media, orientation sessions for media on disaster issues and disaster reporting.
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Pakistan floods: An aid worker’s diary â€" Day 4
13 Aug 2010 10:00:35 GMT
Source: Oxfam GB - UK
Zulfiquar Ali Haider is determined to get clean water and supplies to people affected by severe flooding in Swat Valley, Pakistan.
Damage to cotton fields from flooding has started in Pakistan. Photo: Oxfam GB
Sometimes I wonder how much more misery this country can take.
The front of today’s newspaper says that 750,000 people were ordered to evacuate Muzaffargarh town in Southern Punjab, when some had already fled flooding in other areas.
The minister whose constituency the town falls in was apparently in tears when she spoke about it in a press conference.
There has been so much destruction, but the rains keep coming. I find myself wondering when it will end.
There have been heavy rains in Swat Valley again today.
We managed to keep most of the trucking of clean water going, but we had to stop work in one of the outlying villages called Fatehpur, where we were planning to distribute hygiene kits (which include items like soap and buckets) and household kits (which include pots and mats) to 435 families.
This location is about 15km (9 miles) from the centre of our operations in Mingora, but there were risks of mudslides on the road, so we could not get there.
We brainstormed what we would do if it rained again tomorrow.
The rains don’t seem to be stopping any time soon, so we need to be creative in our approach.
We worked out that we could drive safely for a certain distance, and then we’d carry the items to their destination on our heads for the last kilometres. These people have lost everything; they are relying on us to get this aid to them.
Other problems have emerged. We have found that some families have not been collecting the water that we are trucking to them.
Women in this area do not leave their homes without a man accompanying them, so when their husbands have been on other business, there has been no-one to collect the water and they have gone without.
I met with a local civil society organisation and we discussed mobilising volunteers to take this water to the women in their homes. They need the clean water so I want to see that they get it.
Source: BBC Online
Copyright: BBC
Oxfam in action: Pakistan floods
Donate to Oxfam’s Pakistan floods response
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Relief efforts in Pakistan continue to be hampered by torrential rain, rising flood waters and ruined infrastructure as thousands remain out of reach despite aid workers attempting to reach victims by helicopter, boat, on foot or with donkeys.
A third of the country, a land mass the size of England, is now underwater as the flood wave passes through the southern province of Sindh. Water levels continue to rise ever further, threatening the Guddu and Sukkur barrages. Mass evacuations are seeing families pour out of villages and into relief camps as people anticipate the worst.
Muhammad Hayat Sial, who works for ActionAid, is part of the relief team in Kot Addu in Punjab providing aid to survivors in coordination with the district government:
“We were the first ones to reach those hit by the disaster in Koh Addu with rescue and relief support. So far, five relief camps have been set up in government buildings and 3,000 people are being provided with food, medical care and washing facilities. We are looking after the specific needs of women and girls and providing female doctors. In this camp there are 35 expectant mothers, three of which have just given birth,” he said.
ActionAid is helping 23,000 people throughout the country, and plans to scale up coverage in the days to come as urgent needs for food, clean water, medical care, shelter and household goods continue to multiply.
The flooding has so far claimed the lives of at least 1,600 people and affected up to 14 million, more than those affected by the 2004 Indian Ocean tsunami (five million), the 2005 Kashmir earthquake (three million) and the 2010 Haiti earthquake (three million) combined.
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"Only God knows what will happen to us"
13 Aug 2010 17:11:33 GMT
Source: UNHCR
AZKHEL VILLAGE, Pakistan, August 13 (UNHCR) – For 30 years, the Azkhel camp in north west Pakistan served as a welcome refuge for tens of thousands of refugees from the war in neighbouring Afghanistan. The settlement started as a cluster of makeshift tents but developed into a village with tea stalls, kebab sellers, fruit and vegetable shops and other small businesses.
"We came from the war in Afghanistan 30 years ago and made a life here," one resident, Naizbibi, who fled her homeland as an 11-year-old girl and who has since helped raise an extended family of 30 members in the camp, including children and grandchildren, told me this week.
Then came the worst floods in Pakistani history. The camp was flattened. The only building left standing is the community mosque. Everything is covered in a meter of thick, sticky, dark brown mud. Piles of wooden beams and other debris litter the jagged landscape. Naizbibi's family lost their home, their belongings and their livestock, including two cows, a calf and five goats. "We have only now the clothes on our backs," she told me, cradling a crying infant in her arms.
Naizbibi is among 300,000 people in Pakistan whom UNHCR has now reached with shelter or other supplies to help them cope with the massive flooding that has swept across the country. The family lived under a small tarpaulin slung between two trees until a few days ago but now has erected a UNHCR tent, one of 1,100 that the UN Refugee Agency has distributed along with other supplies such as quilts and mosquito nets to the Azkhel camp.
There is a lot of work still left to be done, however. Mosquitoes are everywhere and there is growing worry about disease. Many of the camps residents are still out in the open. "They are living," as one resident and community leader told me, " only for the mercy of God."
UNHCR is concerned with the basic needs, rights and well-being of everyone in Pakistan who has been displaced from their homes and who are now struggling to survive without sufficient community support structures. We are working with the authorities, UN and NGO partners to ensure that those needs are addressed. The provincial authorities in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Province report that 653 schools are currently occupied by people affected by the floods. Some schools have as many as 10 families per room. The safety of women and children in these crowded locations, including their health and potential sexual violence against them or other kinds of abuse is a serious concern.
We have established protection teams in northwestern Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province focusing on the three hardest-hit districts, Nowshera, Charsadda and Peshawar. Similar efforts are underway in Balochistan province, which was first hit by the bloated rivers and where the vast distances between affected communities and our main logistics hub at Quetta hampers relief efforts – five of nine trucks that were dispatched from Peshawar a week ago are still trapped by landslides and flooding. Due to the lack of aid stockpiles in Balochistan, we are looking into airlifting supplies into the region.
In Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Province, refugee camps in 17 districts in the province have been overwhelmed by the flooding, erasing more than 12,600 homes and leaving 85,800 refugees homeless. Thousands of homes have been seriously damaged among both refugees and Pakistanis. These vulnerable, homeless refugees, many women, children and older persons, will be given priority to safe shelter and emergency food and medical help in coordination with our partners.
UNHCR staff took part Thursday in a government-organized helicopter assessment, flying over Mianwali in Punjab Province which has hosted more than 18,000 Afghan refugees for three decades, and also to Dera Ismail Khan in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa which hosts some 300,000 displaced people from the conflict last year, as well as local Pakistanis. Vast areas are still under water, and the helicopter was unable to land in Multan due to continued flooding in the Punjab.
At Azakhel refugee camp, UNHCR has distributed 1,100 tents and non food items . We are also sending a further 1,000 tents to Swat, where our field team has been assessing needs among both internally displaced Pakistanis due to the conflict there and their host communities. We are working to fill gaps throughout the shelter cluster network of agencies and are also rushing aid to other areas of the country. One thousand UNHCR all-weather family tents have already been airlifted by authorities to Sukkar and Shikarpur in Sindh Province.
So far UNHCR has more than 17,000 tents and 43,700 sheets of plastic tarpaulin, 103,000 blankets and quilts, 59,000 sleeping mats, 60,000 jerry cans and buckets, 18,500 kitchen sets, 18 metric tons of soap and 25,000 mosquito nets.
We want to warn everyone that the crisis facing Pakistan is enormous and still unfolding. There continues to be massive destruction as bloated rivers flow southwards across the plains. And this crisis will not be over when the flood waters recede – due to homelessness, hunger and disease.
"Only God knows what will happen to us. It is still raining and we cannot make plans for the future," said Bibi Bacha Khan, 55, a widow who raised her children and grandchildren in Azakhel camp. UNHCR will continue to work hard to restore hope to millions like her now facing dire times in a devastated land.
By Ariane Rummery in Azakhel camp and Peter Kessler in Islamabad
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Saturday, August 14, 2010
Floodwater 1km away from Shahbaz Airbase
Jacobabad Evacuated
* Water from breached Tori Band likely to reach city within 24 hours
* Aid agencies warn fever, diarrhoea spreading among survivors
* 36,000 suspected cases of potentially fatal acute watery diarrhoea reported so far
SUKKUR: As raging river waters caused more devastation in the country on Friday, over 80 percent of the 300,000 people of Jacobabad city were evacuated ahead of expected flooding over the next 24 hours. The water was only one kilometre away from the nearby Shahbaz Airbase.
Floodwater is rushing towards the city after Tori Band (embankment) was breached. According to Jacobabad District Coordination Officer (DCO) Kazim Jatoi, the floodwater had entered Noorwah Canal, which would not be able to withstand the pressure for more than three hours.
“Water, if it enters the city, will first of all affect the nearby Shahbaz Air Base,” Jatoi warned.
Dozens of villages were inundated near Sultan Kot in Shikarpur district due to breaches in the Begari and Sindh canals.
Hundreds of villagers are waiting to be rescued in the area. Pakistan Army personnel were able to reach only one of the affected villages, Deen Muhammad Jafferi. They evacuated the people through a boat. Authorities in Sindh said that 45 people drowned in the Indus River on Friday.
Diarrhoea: In the rest of the flood-affected areas, fever and diarrhoea are spreading among the survivors.
“The crisis facing Pakistan is not only enormous, it’s still unfolding,”UN refugee agency spokesman Adrian Edwards said.
“There continues to be massive destruction as the bloated rivers flow southwards across the plains and the crisis in our view will not be over when the flooding recedes,” he said.
The UN said limited access to safe water and crowded and unsanitary conditions in makeshift camps meant an increased risk of diarrhoea, malaria and dengue fever. In Multan, large parts of which have been under water for days, medical workers have seen at least 1,000 children with illnesses such as gastroenteritis in the last three days. “The situation is alarming as the diseases can infect other survivors,” said Mumtaz Hussain, a doctor at the main government hospital.
Overall, there have been 36,000 suspected cases of potentially fatal acute watery diarrhoea reported so far.
“This is a growing concern. Therefore we are responding with all kinds of preventative as well as curative medication... for outbreaks,” said Maurizio Giuliano, the UN humanitarian operation spokesman.
The UN warned that dams in Sindh province could still burst in the coming days as bloated rivers gush through. More rains are expected over the weekend, and monsoon season is forecast to last several more weeks. In Gilgit-Baltistan, death toll from rains and landslides rose to 116. Diamer and Skardu were the worst-affected districts. agencies
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UN says no aid yet for 6 mln flood victims in Pakistan
14 Aug 2010 12:30:23 GMT
Source: Reuters
* Six million still need relief
* Anger rising
* World Bank may redirect $900 million in aid
* 500 stranded fuel tanker drivers
(Adds Zardari remarks, politicians pledging cooperation)
By Robert Birsel
SUKKUR, Pakistan Aug 14 (Reuters) - United Nations aid agencies have provided assistance to hundreds of thousands of victims of Pakistan's worst floods in decades but relief operations have yet to reach an estimated six million people.
The lives of 20 million people -- nearly 12 percent of the population -- have been disrupted by one of the worst catastrophes in Pakistan's history. Six million still need food, shelter and water, the UN said in a statement.
Highlighting the scale of the disaster, Prime Minister Raza Yusuf Gilani said in an Independence Day speech the country faces challenges similar to those during the 1947 partition of the subcontinent.
Thousands of families were torn apart after the bloody partition into Hindu-dominated India and Muslim-majority Pakistan that led to the flight of at least 10 million refugees in the greatest migration in recorded human history.
The floods, triggered by torrential monsoon downpours just over two weeks ago, engulfed Pakistan's Indus river basin, killing up to 1,600 people.
^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^ For a graphic on Pakistan's floods, click
http://graphics.thomsonreuters.com/RNGS/2010/AUG/PAK5.jpg
For a story on agricultural costs of floods [ID:nSGE67B050]
For an analysis of risks to watch in Pakistan, click
http://r.reuters.com/pyj83n
For a picture slideshow on floods, click
http://link.reuters.com/sum54n
For more Pakistan stories, click [nAFPAK], or click
http://link.reuters.com/kac58m
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Pakistan's government, overwhelmed by the disaster, has been accused of being too slow to respond to the crisis with victims relying mostly on the military and foreign aid agencies for help.
Anger is spreading, raising the possibility of social unrest. In Sindh province, flood victims complain of looting and there are signs of increasing lawlessness.
Gilani and opposition leader Nawaz Sharif, Pakistan's most popular politician, vowed to work together to tackle the crisis.
"Politics at this time is haram (forbidden by Islam)," Sharif said in a joint news conference.
Millions of Pakistanis, frustrated by political struggles at the best of times, want to know when their government will help.
"The government has given us half a carpet. We have received rice and medicine from the government but no tent," said 22-year-old labourer Zarsheed.
Pakistani President Asif Ali Zardari drew heavy criticism for going abroad to meet the leaders of Britain and France as the crisis unfolded, and not cutting short his trip.
"Despondency is forbidden in our religion. We consider it as a test from Allah for us. This is a test for us and for you," he told flood victims at a relief camp on Saturday. "We will try to meet all your wishes. We will build a new house for you. We will build a new Pakistan."
Despite the government's perceived failure in the crisis, analysts say a military coup is unlikely. The army's priority is fighting Taliban insurgents, and seizing power during a disaster would make no sense, they say.
It already sets security policies and influences foreign policy, and is described by some as a state within a state.
U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon is expected to meet Pakistani leaders in Islamabad on Sunday to discuss the flood crisis.
ECONOMIC COSTS
The economic costs of the flooding are staggering, making it tougher for the government to carry out strategic spending in former Taliban bastions to win public support.
The International Monetary Fund has warned of major economic harm and the Finance Ministry said it would miss this year's 4.5 percent gross domestic product growth target.
Wheat, cotton and sugar crops have all suffered damage in a country where agriculture is a mainstay of the economy.
Floods have affected about one-third of Pakistan, an area the size of a European country, says the U.N. Clean drinking water is needed for an initial target of six million people.
The floods roared down from the northwest to Punjab province to Sindh, where more flooding is expected. Sindh is home to Pakistan's biggest city and commercial hub Karachi. Floods have damaged mostly rural areas there, although concerns are rising that other urban centres are at risk.
Pakistanis are still at the mercy of the elements.
Scattered thundershowers with few heavy falls are expected in the upper northwest, upper Punjab, parts of the north and Kashmir over the next 24 hours, said the Meteorological Department.
Scores of villages have been wiped away. Some people only have a patch of land to stand on.
In the town of Muzaffagarh in Punjab, 500 fuel trucks line both sides of a highway. Like about two million Pakistanis, the drivers live in the open, sleeping on mats under their vehicles.
Along the same stretch of road, about 5,000 people live in and around the median along a 10 km (6 mile) stretch. Relief groups stop and hand out lentils and bread. Motorists throw water bottles out car windows at children who run alongside vehicles. (Additional reporting by Aija Braslina in SIGULDA, Tim Wimborne in NOWSHERA, Adrees Latif in MUZAFFAGARH, Robert Birsel in KHANPUR, Zeeshan Haider and Augustine Anthony in ISLAMABAD and Junaid Khan in MINGORA; Writing by Michael Georgy; Editing by Sanjeev Miglani)
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Ministers tried to break flood safety walls (Thori Dike) to save their own lands: Jamali
Former Prime Minister Mir Zafar Ullah Khan Jamali said that ministers broke the flood safety walls in order to save their agricultural lands from floods. He said that everyone is worried about safeguarding the US airbase in Jaccobabad but nobody is concerned about the citizens of Pakistan. Talking to Dunya News, former Prime Minister said that flood water is only 3 to 4 miles from his area and there is no hope of any kind of help else Allah almighty. He told that he also contacted the civil administration but even after 3 to 4 days passed, no response came from them. Jamali said that Federal Minister Ejaz Jakhrani, DPO and DCO Jaccobabad deliberately diverted the course of water towards our side. If the airbase is so important, then what priority is given to the citizens and there is only one major road that links Sindh with Baluchistan and all people are after it but have no concern, he added. When Jamali went to the flood affected area today, he saw many people along with eight to ten cars who were persistent in saying that this bypass must be demolished in any case.
Yesterday Federal Minister for sports Ejaz Jakhrani tried to demolish a portion of Jamail Bypass in order to save his agricultural lands from the flood water of River Indus; however the local administration managed to stop this activity. When contacted, Ejaz Jakhrani simply denied giving his view point upon this issue. Ejaz Jakhrani reached at the Jamali bypass along with his hundreds of companions and heavy machinery in order to demolish a portion of the bypass but the administration and tribals of Jaffarabad reached the site and managed to halt this activity. There was a danger that villages of Dera Allahyar might have also drowned if this demolishing act was not stopped. According to DPO Jaffarabad Javed Gharsheen, Sindh police and Ejaz Jakhrani managed to demolish the bypass from 4 different areas last evening due to which eight villages were flooded. Later in the night, Sindh police again tried to demolish the bypass connecting Sindh with Baluchistan but this effort was not made successful. Deputy Commissioner Jaffarabad Saeed Jamali said that DCO and DPO Jaccobabad tried to demolish the National Highway illegally due to which the villages of Dera Allahyar would have been destroyed.
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Nari River threatens more Balochistan areas
* Villages in Sibi, Kachi, Naseerabad, Jaffarabad, Harnai threatened by flash floods
* People protest against shortage of relief goods
By Mohammad Zafar
QUETTA: Flash floods threatened dozens of villages and thousands of people on Tuesday as the Nari River in Balochistan was in high flood near Sibi.
The river swelled near Kachi area following the entry of 80,000 cusecs of floodwater from Nari bank near Sibi.
Flood warning has been issued in Sibi and Kachi villages, while 10 villages have been inundated in Loni locality of Loralai, trapping hundreds of people in floodwater.
The catchment areas of Nari River received intermittent rains on Monday night, causing floods in the downstream destroying mud houses, farms and agriculture fields in the whole region.
The flash floods continued to play havoc in Sibi, Kachi, Naseerabad, Jaffarabad and Harnai on Tuesday. “The fresh flash floods affected more than 50,000 people in Sibi,” an official said adding that people are already evacuated the Haji Shahr, Loni, Machri and adjoining areas and had taken shelter at higher ground.
Flood-affected people in Dera Murad Jamali and Loralai staged protest demonstrations over the inadequate relief operation. The protesters blocked the national highway.
Army Chief General Ashfaq Kayani viewed the flood-affected areas of eastern Balochistan from the air on Tuesday. The army chief also met the flood-affected people in Naseerabad and assured them that C-130 planes carrying relief goods would arrive in the area today (Wednesday).Naseerabad Division Commissioner Sher Khan Bazai briefed the army chief about the devastation caused by floods in the area.
“The Pak-Army will take every possible step to help the affected people in this hour of need,” Gen Kayani said.
Thousands of flood-affected people from Sindh have arrived in Jaffarabad. The Naseerabad district administration has started registration of the displaced people. Local relief activists urged the authorities to assistance to the affected people.
The telecommunication network of Sohbatpur, Kohlu, Barkhan Rakni, Duki and Loralai remains dysfunctional, as the telephone exchanges of these districts were completely inundated in floodwater.
Meanwhile, Balochistan Chief Minister Nawab Aslam Raisani urged the federal government and international aid agencies to come forward and help the affected people of the province.
“A large area of the province has been devastated by flash floods and it is beyond the capacity of provincial government to rehabilitate the affected people,” the CM said in a statement.
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KARACHI: The cuts in the bunds or protective embankments along the River Indus mean that water will continue flowing through the gaps after the raging torrents calm down, explained Mushtaq Maher, a landowner who lives in Sukkur.
The 60-something grower thus anticipates a terrible outbreak of violence in the post-flood scenario. “This water is going to take a long, long time to dry,” he said. “The water will keep flowing through the cuts they made in the bunds unless the government or army close them up.”
The problem here is that dry earth will be needed to close the breaches but everywhere you look, there is water.
Deliberate breaches, for instance, were made in the Beghari Sindh (BS) feeder. But Maher is sceptical the irrigation department will be able to get the job done in time. “If you want to judge their efficiency, take this example. A while ago one of the doors in the canal broke. They came and put in a new one, but that broke too,” he said. The small doors are actually sliding mechanisms at the mouth of an offshoot irrigation canal from the river into the fields. When the metal door is slid down, the water is prevented from entering the channel from the river.
Aside from the breaches, other infrastructure has taken a hit. The Sukkur-Shikarpur road, which was already in bad shape, is now badly damaged, riddled with potholes and strewn with rocks even though the water didn’t make it here.
Maher also predicts a food crisis. “We lost the rice crop in the flooding,” he said. “But we won’t be able to sow wheat in November now because the water will still be there or the land won’t be ready.” As it is looting is rampant. Armed men in boats have been sneaking into abandoned areas, breaking down shops and stores and taking off with supplies. “When a man is hungry and his children are hungry, he’s going to take up his gun,” said Maher. When asked if the police were anywhere to be seen, he said that they won’t be able to control any such situation.
“You know how the Baloch women wear baalis (earrings). Well, they’ve been holding them at gunpoint and robbing them,” he said. “A sardar had to intervene when one man was robbed of 35 cows. These people are down and out and they do this to them.”
People from surrounding villages started arriving in Sukkur about a week ago and a fresh wave of displaced people has started arriving from Jacobabad. “They are going to be stuck here till long after Eid,” Maher predicted, primarily because he feels the waters are going to take a long time to recede.
They have arrived with tractor-trolley combinations piled high with refrigerators, TVs and other household appliances. The people eat and sleep with their livestock tethered near by, so afraid are they of losing what little they managed to save.
Relief work
When Maher’s 23-year-old son Musheer was away from the house the whole day, the elderly lawyer started to get irritated. But then he saw the relief camp Musheer and 12 of his buddies had set up opposite the Hayat CNG he felt an immense sense of pride.
“I met a man on the road who said that they had lost 80 of their cattle that cost Rs100,000 each,” said Musheer. “He asked for my help and said he had some money, if I could just get him some clean drinking water.” Musheer realised that he simply had to do something. So he and 12 friends got together and erected a tent by the side of the road and started getting bottled water, milk packs for the children and cooked food.
“The worst thing is that people are ignoring the kids,” he said. “The adults are taking the milk meant for the kids. They’re crazed with hunger.”
Musheer and his friends got a small Suzuki pick-up to try and distribute food elsewhere and were ambushed by starving people. “They surrounded us and one of my friends was attacked. They ripped his shalwar!”
It has nonetheless been a learning experience for these young men. They have been slowly figuring out better ways to distribute the packets. His father got together with the transporters’ union and these vehicles help with the distribution.
For a few days they had rice cooked but then they realised that people would get tired of it. “We gave the order for lentils and naan, and you should have seen the people when they found out,” said Musheer. “It was madness.”
For now, Musheer said that given their donations they should be able to keep feeding people, but he doesn’t know how long this will continue. “I went to the market to get fruit and everything was Rs100 a kilo,” he said. “I asked the guy what the hell was going on, and he said, ‘You should’ve come yesterday. It was more expensive.’”
Published in The Express Tribune, August 15th, 2010.
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EXPERT VIEWS: Pakistan's devastating floods
13 Aug 2010 14:12:00 GMT
Written by: Nita Bhalla
Residents being evacuated through flood waters dodge an army truck carrying relief supplies for flood victims in Pakistan's Punjab province. REUTERS/Adrees Latif
Residents being evacuated through flood waters dodge an army truck carrying relief supplies for flood victims in Pakistan's Punjab province. REUTERS/Adrees Latif
NEW DELHI (AlertNet) - Pakistan is facing the worst floods in a generation where over 14 million people -- almost one in 10 Pakistanis -- have had their lives disrupted.
The disaster has killed more than 1,600 people and inundated up to a third of the country -- devastating towns and villages, destroying communications lines, washing away bridges and roads and damaging thousands of homes, schools and hospitals.
The United Nations says around six million people require aid urgently and has appealed to international donors for $460 million for the next three months.
AlertNet interviewed four experts on various aspects of the catastrophe. The experts were Neva Khan, Pakistan Country Director, Oxfam GB, Malini Morzaria, South Asia Information Officer, European Commission Humanitarian Aid and Civil Protection Department (ECHO), Elisabeth Rasmusson, General Secretary, Norwegian Refugee Council and Paras Tamang, International Emergency and Conflict Team Advisor, ActionAid.
There's been criticism that the response by government and aid agencies has been very slow. What's your assessment of the humanitarian response so far?
Neva Khan: I think that this is a very fair criticism. We are talking about 14 million people who have been affected and it is a struggle against time to make sure that their very basic needs -- food, clean water, shelter, access to healthcare -- are met quickly. The response at the moment is not adequate for the scale of the crisis and that is my biggest concern. We are trying to mobilize everyone to do much more and a lot of that is dependent on funding at the moment. The amount of money which has so far been committed to a crisis of this scale is just peanuts. A huge amount more needs to happen and it needs to happen now. Tomorrow will be too late for a lot of people.
Malini Morzaria: Hundreds of thousands of people now affected by the floods were already in a vulnerable position due to the conflict in some areas of the country and the high number of internally displaced persons, especially in the north. In some cases, the relief stocks prepositioned by humanitarian organisations have been damaged or destroyed by the floods. Partner relief organisations of the European Commission's Humanitarian Aid and Civil Protection department (ECHO) were already working in the conflict-affected areas, so they were able to assist the flood victims very quickly in those places where they had access. Relief organisations also had to scale up human resources to meet the scale of the disaster. It is very understandable that someone directly affected by serious floods is going to be frustrated in a situation that is very fluid and changing almost daily and where the urgently needed help may not always be available in a way it should in an ideal situation.
Elisabeth Rasmusson: This is really a mega crisis and I don't think anybody understood at the beginning how bad it was going to get. There is clearly not enough capacity nor enough people and resources. But I think we have to take into consideration the magnitude of the crisis when we speak about the response to the crisis. Six million people are in need of humanitarian assistance - that is more than the entire population of Norway. We really have to speed up and scale up.
Paras Tamang: I would, at this time, think that the humanitarian community is doing all it can to respond to the disaster along with the civilian government and the army with its limited resources. The scale of the disaster itself -- 14 million people affected and an area the size of England underwater -- is a huge challenge for a country already with an internal political crisis to deal with.
How effective were the early warning signals? Do you think enough preparation was made in advance?
Neva Khan: I think the scale of the disaster is enough to knock any government it is a disaster of magnanimous proportions. However, the preparation work and early warnings were not adequate and the main reason why is because scientific data provided by the metrological department was not accurate enough. In May, they forecast Pakistan's monsoon season this year to be normal, but it has been quite the opposite -- it has been a monsoon season of extreme rain and flooding throughout the country. But even after getting the predictions wrong, we could have done more as we saw the impact further north in Khyber Pakhtunkwa Province on the 29th and 30th of July and could have reacted in a more timely and efficient manner in the south. We should not be having the same extent of the problem in areas like Sindh and Punjab, in my opinion, because there should have been the preparation and work and there was the time to do that. The problem, I think, was that we were just not ready to be proactive enough, particularly given all the different complexities of Pakistan that exist.
Malini Morzaria: These are the worst floods that Pakistan has seen in decades and they were not expected in the scale that we have seen. Early warning is difficult with flash floods so in the early stages of the crisis there were lives lost. However, as the scale emerged and the water moved southwards, people were evacuated from certain areas and this has certainly saved lives. Compared to the scale of the disaster, the number of deaths is actually very low, but every life lost is a personal tragedy.
Elisabeth Rasmusson: My opinion is that the early warning systems have not functioned the way they should have and clearly not enough people have been evacuated. I think it is important now is to look into the reasons why this did not happen. Why weren't people informed? And those that knew, why didn't they take action and evacuate more people?
Paras Tamang: The early warning system was effective enough to get people away from vulnerable areas, those who were willing to move. However, people attached to their homes and livelihoods were reluctant to move away quickly. People found it hard to believe that such a large scale flooding would occur.
What do you think of the response from international donors to appeals for aid so far?
Neva Khan: For the scale of this type of disaster, it doesn't not seem to be enticing the kind of interest from donors as we would imagine. At least six million people need urgent assistance. This is more than those who were affected by the 2005 earthquake here or the Haiti earthquake earlier this year or the 2004 Indian Ocean tsunami. For some reason, there doesn't seem to be that drive or motivation to dig deep into people's pockets as previous disasters, which is unfortunate. I think the reason is because of a combination of factors such as the death toll being relatively low, donor fatigue and also because of the economic crisis. However, I still think when you have something of such scale, where people have literally had their livelihoods wiped out, that something would be figured in any human being that we really need to mobilize and it hasn't been as quick enough. I think things are changing and more interest is being generated, but time is of the essence and we have to move fast.
Malini Morzaria: The European Commission has adopted two humanitarian aid decisions for vulnerable people in Pakistan in the last 10 days worth 40 million euros ($52 million). In addition, EU member states are also providing bilateral humanitarian aid and offering in-kind civil protection assistance to Pakistan. The European Commission has relief experts on the ground monitoring and evaluating the situation. We are coordinating our assistance with the UN and are in touch with other donors and organisations. Europe will continue to support the population in need. If necessary, the European Commission could request more funds.
Elisabeth Rasmusson: Response from donors has been very bad, very slow. I think there is a combination of reasons. Some donors think that Pakistan is not that poor and that they can cope with the disaster. There is also donor fatigue. But I also think that the UN and the Pakistani government have not been professional enough to communicate the crisis enough earlier. There should have been more communication before the Emergency Response Plan was launched on Thursday. There could have been some rough estimates to warn donors about the severity of the disaster. Prior to the appeal, the amount registered was just peanuts so clearly those donors who contributed didn't have a clue about the magnitude and severity of this catastrophe. I am not confident at all that donors will come forward. So that's why I think that we all have to work very hard to push donors. We also need to use the media which is crucial to get the message out.
Paras Tamang: Looking at the trend of aid flow at the moment, it will be a challenge for the government and aid agencies to respond to the disaster effectively. When you consider 2.5 million people directly affected and who have lost homes and livelihoods, the amount of funds required is huge. However, institutional donors and governments are showing promise like Disasters Emergency Committee raising over 10 million pounds, and ECHO coughing up 20 million euros, hopefully this trend would continue. The UN sending out appeals is also hopeful.
Are you concerned about Islamic groups linked to militants taking advantage of slow humanitarian response in some areas to provide aid in order to win support?
Neva Khan: It doesn't surprise me to hear stories of militant groups trying to win the hearts and minds of people particularly in inaccessible areas. At the end of the day, we have to remember that Pakistan is a complex country and that there are many people and many groups with different interests. That is why the humanitarian community, including Oxfam, has a priority to ensure basic needs are met in an efficient way and to try to keep it as apolitical and neutral as possible. Everyone would be concerned about such things but this is not something that is new. It happened during the 2005 earthquake and during the displacement crisis last year and it is going to happen during these floods.
Malini Morzaria: Most disasters in any country inspire a lot of good will in the non-affected population. The important thing is to have the timely delivery of humanitarian aid to the people most in need in an impartial and independent manner; without being political or otherwise biased. This has proven to save lives and this is why international humanitarian law is in place; so that the people most at risk get help to overcome the crisis.
Elisabeth Rasmusson: In such a huge crisis, any one who has response capacity should use that response capacity. However I am very much against using humanitarian assistance for winning hearts and minds or converting people to religion of whatever. Humanitarian aid should be provided according to humanitarian principles.
Paras Tamang: We are hearing from the media that this is already taking place and I hope that this aid is provided with a humanitarian perspective and not a political one. The reality is people need support whether they are living in sensitive areas or not. What we do know is that the aid we give will reach those in need rather than benefitting any armed groups.
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Donkeys come to the rescue in Pakistan floods
16 Aug 2010 08:12:17 GMT
Source: Reuters
* Donkeys come to the rescue of flood victims
* Aid slow in coming
* Many villages still unreachable
By Kamran Haider
KOZA SIRAI, Pakistan, Aug 16 (Reuters) - Millions of dollars may have been donated for Pakistan's flood victims, but on the ground authorities are having to use donkeys to slowly transport supplies to cut off mountain villages.
Logistical nightmares, shortages of helicopters to access remote areas and more rains that triggered landslides have forced authorities and aid agencies to take desperate measures.
Reaching remote villages tucked between mountains is one of the most daunting challenges. In scenic Shahpur valley, where Koza Sirai is located, some 150,000 people are in urgent need of food and medical supplies, officials say.
With an area roughly the size of Italy affected by floods, government and foreign aid has been slow in coming and the United Nations has warned of a second wave of deaths among the sick and hungry if help does not arrive.
As urgent appeals for international aid are made, policemen guide 30 donkeys strapped with flour, rice, cooking oil and sugar along narrow, muddy tracks and mountain terrain to villages.
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For a graphic on Pakistan's floods, click
http://graphics.thomsonreuters.com/RNGS/2010/AUG/PAK5.jpg
For a story on agricultural costs of floods [ID:nSGE67B050]
For an analysis of risks to watch in Pakistan, click
http://r.reuters.com/pyj83n
For a picture slideshow on floods, click
http://link.reuters.com/sum54n
For more Pakistan stories, click [nAFPAK], or click
http://link.reuters.com/kac58m
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Pakistan's powerful military, which has raised its profile with rescue and relief efforts in the flood catastrophe, is overseeing such operations, which take four hours each way.
Local officials are managing the donkey missions. That may not have inspired confidence in the government, which has drawn heavy criticism for its perceived slow respone to the crisis.
TIRED BEAST OF BURDEN
"If you're a relative of someone who is influential, you will get more food no matter how big or small your family is," said teacher Mohammad Niaz at a food distribution centre.
Swollen by torrential monsoon rains, major rivers have flooded Pakistan's mountain valleys and fertile plains, killing up to 1,600 people and leaving two million homeless.
The villages, part of the greater Swat valley, were cut off for four days after the floods washed away houses, markets and crops.
Officials say the donkeys have hauled over 20 tonnes of supplies along the route to Shahpur since Aug. 3.
Before the floods, the government promised to pour hundreds of millions of dollars into Swat to rebuild infrastructure, schools and hospitals damaged in the war against Taliban insurgents there, in order to win over the public.
Now the economic damages of the flood disaster may force the government to hold back or cut into that strategic spending.
Prime Minister Yusuf Raza Gilani has urged the international community to provide Pakistan with helicopters, boats and hovercrafts to help relief efforts.
Only a quarter of the $459 million aid needed for initial relief has arrived, according to the United Nations.
Getting food distributed by donkeys is in some ways a luxury because the programme is so small. Hundreds of thousands of villagers make the journey on their own. The sick and wounded are carried on people's shoulders on a charpoy, a frame strung with light ropes.
Military officials say many villages are still inaccessible. Even beasts of burden struggle to get through one of the biggest disasters in Pakistan's history. They move along the edge of sheer mud cliffs created by landslides in blistering heat.
"Two of my donkeys got injured as they fell on a narrow track," said donkey owner Munawarullah Khan, beating his animal with a stick to force it to move. In a nearby river bed, several mules turned over(The sterile hybrid offspring of a male donkey and a female horse, characterized by long ears and a short mane.
) and rubbed their backs on wet sand. "They are exhausted," he said.
(Writing by Kamran Haider and Michael Georgy; Editing by)
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Grand Shia Cleric Donates 50.000 Dollars to Pakistani Flood Victims
In a meeting with Pakistani ambassador, Grand Ayatollah Makarim Shirazi said he will donates 50 thousand dollars to Pakistani flood victims.
Grand Shia Cleric Donates 50.000 Dollars to Pakistani Flood Victims
Ahlul bayt News Agency (ABNA.ir), Pakistan's ambassador in Iran in a meeting with top Shia cleric Makarim Shirazi, described recent flood victims and grand Ayatollah said he will donate 50 thousand dollars to the victims.
"There is another flood in near future and we need your material and spiritual helps" the ambassador said.
Meanwhile Grand Ayatollah said: we know the depth of the disaster, we pray for all of them. I request to all Iranians to pray for victims and survivors.
In addition Grand Ayatollah Ali Safi Golpayegani issued a statement on Saturday authorizing that a third of the Imam’s share of the khoms charity tax be donated to floods victims in Pakistan.
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‘We haven’t even begun to understand what hit us’
The kachcha areas of Jacobabad have been submerged by the floodwater. Pakistan’s UN envoy in Geneva said the floods in the south ravaged an area “the size of England.” photo: AFP
KARACHI:
“I don’t know if anyone has understood the enormity of the disaster that has hit Sindh like an avalanche,” says Hasan Ali Khan, the chairman of Continental Biscuits that is based in Sukkur. While he may not necessarily be a spokesman for the people of the area, he has perhaps articulated one facet of this tragedy.
“The people are in total shock. I’m worried about the time when they emerge from this to actually realise that they’ve lost everything, their grain, their livestock… They have nothing to go back to. And now their children are starving and dying in front of their eyes.”
Khan and his wife have been working on aid. The company plans to spend Rs10 million and is distributing 20 deghs of food each day. “But I’m not giving any money to the politicians,” he said. “We’re doing it directly with the people so we know at least that it’s reaching the right ones.” One of his factory managers went to meet the corps commander, who has contacted all the businesses in the area for donations to the army. “And we’re only going to give them biscuits,” said Khan. “No money.”
It is not clear, however, how long individual efforts will be able to keep up with the needs of the flood survivors. “Nature has its way of bringing relief,” said Khan, a little ominously. He uses words like “anarchy” and “revolt”, glimpses of which have started to surface in Sukkur. “What will people have to lose,” he asks. “If their children are sick and dying… what parent can bear that?”
It seems, however, that the government and elected representatives are getting their act together. A young man who set up a camp said that he was gradually going to hand it over to the government. Officials came by and asked him what else they needed. He said that hand pumps would help provide a steady stream of clean water. Other officials came and made cards for the heads of the families so that they can receive rations.
The government is, however, cognisant of the fact that there is a risk of Cholera, dysentery, gastroenteritis. But it is not clear if doctors have started heading towards the flood-hit areas in the numbers that are required.
The government wasn’t prepared for the flooding that hit but now people are worried that they are not prepared for the disease outbreaks. The Express Tribune contacted Dr Liaquat Bhutto, who is the director of the federally managed Central Health Establishment. “If there is an outbreak, we will be there to provide,” he said. He did not otherwise detail any plan for Sindh and indicated that most of the work was being done by the provincial governments. When asked about a budget, he said he couldn’t comment.
It was the people themselves who first responded to the flooding. “The politicians roll up in their Prados in their starched white shalwar kameezes,” said Brigadier (retd) Nisar Maher, who went to his village on the outskirts of Sukkur. “At a time like this, they’ve got spotless clothes. Someone should ask if they’ve done anything.”
Indeed, there is a big question mark over the performance of the elected representatives. And the people will be watching closely.
The Continental Biscuit factory has a famous resthouse in Sukkur that is packed with foreign journalists, representatives from the World Food Programme, Unicef, the UN. “I haven’t given a single room to any politicians, any of those bekar, faltoo people,” said Hasan Ali Khan with barely concealed disdain.
It seems as if the government is aware of this sentiment, for the DCO of Sukkur has urged people to work directly with the flood survivors so that there are no doubts about transparency.
“Just do whatever you can,”Hasan quoted him as saying.
Published in The Express Tribune, August 18th, 2010.
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KARACHI: More than 18,000 flood survivors arrived in relief camps and tent villages set up by the City District Government Karachi by Sunday evening.
Over 5,000 people arrived at the Polytechnic School and tented village in Razzaqabad while the relief camp at the Workers Welfare Board Flats and tented village received more than 12,000 people. Some 500 displaced people reached ST-8 GBSS Cattle Colony in Bin Qasim Town and 550 others came to ST-5 GBSS Cattle Colony. More than 200 displaced people arrived at a camp at the Lyari Resettlement Colony on Hawkesbay Road and 96 survivors came to the camp at Merwat Park, Mehmoodabad.
NADRA has started registering the people who were visited by Administrator Fazlur Rehman on Sunday. A special 50-bed ward has also been set up for them.
Meanwhile, Sindh Home Minister Zulfiqar Mirza said that the provincial government will provide all basic facilities to the flood-affected people. He visited the camp set up at Razzaqabad, where he promised security and food for the people living there.
What next for Thatta?
The pressure of flood water is continuously increasing downstream Kotri Barrage, heading towards Thatta.
In district Thatta, protective embankments for the River Indus at Minarki, Sorjani and Sonda are braving the rising pressure. Irrigation officials and army personnel are monitoring these embankments around the clock. Sixty per cent people from the kaccha area have been moved to relief camps. On other hand, illegal embankments built by landlords to protect their crops were demolished by revenue officials and police.
Meanwhile, Sindh Chief Minister Qaim Ali Shah had an aerial visit of the flood-hit areas, including Jacobabad, Kashmore, Sukkur and Ghotki. He asked the officers to expedite the work on strengthening the embankments of the canals and rivers. He visited relief camps at Sukkur Airport Road and met the displaced people. He inspected the facilities and listened to their problems. He also went to the Sukkur Bypass.
He said that the affected people would be shifted to Karachi and camps have also been established in other parts of Sindh, including Hyderabad.
Published in The Express Tribune August 16th, 2010.
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Muzaffargarh, Pakistan: Caught between two rivers
17 Aug 2010 12:13:00 GMT
Source: Oxfam International
Tariq Malik
483420 logo
Oxfam's Tariq Malik speaks to rescue workers and people affected by severe flooding in Muzaffargar, Pakistan.
District Muzaffargarh is called Doaba in the local language, meaning a piece of land that lies between two rivers. This geographic advantage for Muzaffargarh turned into a disadvantage when rivers Chenab and Indus surged on both its sides, leaving huge numbers of people from 443 small villages in sub-districts Alipur, Jatoi, and Kot Adu homeless.
The District Government so far has evacuated 90,285 people, mainly small farmers, tenants and daily wagers. There are 49 relief camps in the district. Doaba, Oxfam's partner named after the area it operates in, issued warnings in ten villages in Jatoi tehsil. [Doaba has issued over 178 early warnings to 178 villages across the Punjab area.] It also has plans in place to carry out initial assessments for the needs of people in the relief camps over the next two weeks. It provided a boat to emergency service Rescue 1122.
It was raining when a team of ten rescue workers loaded one boat owned by Doaba and a rented bus and left for Rangpur, 65 kilometers away from the district headquarters.
Ejaz Ahmed, in charge of Rescue 1122 in Muzaffargarh said, "We have received news on mobile phones that the river Chenab has inundated nearly 20 small villages there and the now the town is in danger."
When asked what a single boat would do for the thousands that are stranded, he replied, "we are doing what we can. Rescue 1122 has two boats that are engaged in rescue work in the Mehmoodabad area."
Oxfam teams couldn't visit the camps or move to the DG Khan district further south in Punjab, as the floods had reportedly damaged Ghazigoth Bridge, which is on the route. Taunsa Barrage - the other access to DG Khan - has been closed to traffic for days. The team travelled back to Layyah, which took six hours as there was heavy rain. On the way, I was thinking of the rented vehicle for the rescue workers heaving with exhaustion.
All along the route people were seen taking shelter under trees. Cows, goats and buffaloes were found tethered to trees, munching on the green patches along the road. A young boy hailing from the Chowk Munda, sipping a cup of tea at a roadside hotel, said, "this area is safe because it is surrounded by sand dunes that act as natural protection against floods." He said people from the devastated villages are flocking to this area to save their lives and livestock.
Zafar lund, director of Heerik Development Foundation, Oxfam's partner organization who has worked in the area for a decade, said that civil society has three demands to make from the government:
1. establishment of a flood commission to investigate the causes of flood destruction;
2. compensation payment through cheques; and
3. damage assessment in consultation with government, NGOs and community notables.
Read more
Donate to Oxfam's Pakistan flood appeal
Take action: Email European Commission President José Manuel Barroso to get the EU to donate more to Pakistan
Oxfam's humanitarian response to Pakistan floods
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Pakistan flood victim finds safety on ancient mound
20 Aug 2010 03:21:52 GMT
Source: Reuters
* Traces of ancient civilisation washed away
* More destruction feared
By Robert Birsel
AMRI, Pakistan, Aug 20 (Reuters) - Pakistani flood victim Achar has taken refuge on what villagers say was the seat of ancient kings.
Floods that began three weeks ago with torrential monsoon rain over the upper Indus river basin have forced more than 4 million people from their homes. Most are living in wretched conditions beside roads, many sleeping in the open with little food and no clean water.
Achar, a gaunt, elderly man, is camped out with his family on a mound in the ancient city of Amri, on the flooded plains of the southern province of Sindh.
He seems content enough on his island.
"There are no shady places on the road and here it's safe, it's high up," said Achar, who has only one name, and is living with his extended family of 16 people.
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For a graphic on Pakistan's floods, click
http://graphics.thomsonreuters.com/RNGS/2010/AUG/PAK5.jpg
For a story on agricultural costs of floods [ID:nSGE67B050]
For an analysis of risks to watch in Pakistan, click
http://r.reuters.com/pyj83n
For a slide show, click http://link.reuters.com/sum54n
For more Pakistan stories, click [nAFPAK], or click
http://link.reuters.com/kac58m
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Tufts of henna-dyed hair, somewhere between orange and red, stuck out from beneath his white skull cap. His cropped beard was the same colour.
Amri, west of the Indus, dates from about 3000 BC.
The Indus basin was believed to have been the cradle of civilization in South Asia and Amri was one of its earliest known settlements, older than Moen Jo Daro, the main city of the Indus civilization and one of Pakistan's most important archaeological sites. Moen Jo Daro, also in Sindh, has not been flooded.
The sandy soil of Amri's hillock is littered with shards of pottery the colour of red brick. Larger pieces stuck out of steep, eroded slopes.
Every time there's heavy rain, more pieces of pottery are washed out of the ground on the hill where kings once lived, villagers said.
"Once it was a city and these pots were common," Achar said. "Sometimes we find pieces with glaze or patterns on them. It looks very old."
He said he had never found anything of any value.
On the other side of a nearby road, which has not been cut off by the flood, a small museum surrounded by water houses artefacts from the site.
GREAT FIRE
The deluge is still making its way across Sindh's flat farmland and stretches of semi-desert. The flood only hit Amri five days ago.
Villagers were warned of the advancing water and Achar said he was able to pack up his possessions and move to the top of the hill where he hacked down some bushes and strung up a large piece of white canvas.
Eight rope beds, pots, pans and bundles of clothes were crammed underneath the awning, along with several women and some children, taking shelter for a blazing midday sun.
Government relief workers had arrived on the road the previous day, across about 300 metres of water, and Achar was able to take a boat to collect supplies of rice, flour, lentils, sugar and tea. For drinking water, he pointed at the flood: "We're used to it," he said.
From his lofty camp, Achar pointed out his collapsed mud-walled house. The thatch roofs of villagers' homes and farm buildings stuck out of the water.
In the other direction, beyond the flooded museum, only the tops of small trees could be seen above the flood until a distant wall of mountains rose, their high ridgeline barely visible in the glare.
Apart from the shards of pottery, there's no trace of the people who once lived in Amri, which was believed to have been destroyed in a great fire.
Thousands of years later, it's a great flood that threatens Pakistan's ancient land and its people. (Editing by Michael Georgy and Alex Richardson)
========
Breakdown of major Pakistan flood aid donations
26 Aug 2010 10:02:26 GMT
Source: Reuters
ISLAMABAD, Aug 26 (Reuters) - More than $800 million has been donated or pledged to help Pakistan's flood victims, the foreign minister has said.
Following is a list of major commitments and contributions for flood victims as of Aug. 26. The table does not include uncommitted pledges.
Donors (Millions) (Pct)
USA $156 (24.3)
Saudi Arabia $74.4 (11.6)
United Kingdom $64.76 (10.1)
European Commission $55.65 (8.7)
Australia $31.62 (4.9)
U.N. Central Emergency Response Fund $29.60 (4.6)
Norway $14.81 (2.3)
Sweden $14.74 (2.3)
Japan $14.44 (2.2)
Germany $14.09 (2.2)
Turkey $12.68 (2.0)
Denmark $11.74 (1.8)
China $9.26 (1.4)
Spain $7.5 (1.2)
Austria $7.4 (1.2)
Source: Information provided by donors and appealing organisations to United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs. (http://fts.unocha.org)
(Compiled by Augustine Anthony and Kamran Haider in ISLAMABAD and Faisal Aziz in KARACHI) (michael.georgy@thomsonreuters.com; Reuters Messaging: michael.georgy.reuters.com@reuters.net; Islamabad newsroom: +92 51 281 0017) (If you have a query or comment about this story, send an e-mail to news.feedback.asia@thomsonreuters.com)
=====
Pakistan Initial Floods Emergency Response Plan 2010
NON-CAP
Requested:
459 million USD
Funding:
278 million USD
Coverage: 60.5%
Pledges:
43 million USD
=======
United States 155,930,000 24.3 % 0
Saudi Arabia 74,448,904 11.6 % 40,000,000
United Kingdom 64,765,001 10.1 % 43,250,328
Private (individuals & organisations) 57,300,275 8.9 % 102,935,845
European Commission 55,652,573 8.7 % 39,318,480
Australia 31,616,969 4.9 % 225,836
Central Emergency Response Fund (CERF) 29,595,962 4.6 % 0
Norway 14,810,658 2.3 % 0
Sweden 14,745,602 2.3 % 693,674
Japan 14,440,000 2.2 % 0
Germany 14,089,429 2.2 % 19,014,594
Turkey 12,682,059 2.0 % 0
Denmark 11,741,459 1.8 % 0
China 9,262,089 1.4 % 0
Spain 7,482,760 1.2 % 0
Austria 7,393,185 1.2 % 0
Switzerland 7,012,488 1.1 % 0
Netherlands 6,553,080 1.0 % 2,096,986
Finland 5,766,710 0.9 % 0
Canada 5,329,456 0.8 % 26,647,287
Kuwait 5,000,000 0.8 % 5,000,000
Oman 5,000,000 0.8 % 0
Belgium 2,818,112 0.4 % 0
Bahrain 2,659,574 0.4 % 0
Allocations of unearmarked funds by UN agencies 2,658,777 0.4 % 0
France 2,453,414 0.4 % 0
United Arab Emirates 2,181,226 0.3 % 0
Morocco 2,000,000 0.3 % 0
Italy 1,766,466 0.3 % 3,276,540
Russian Federation 1,539,712 0.2 % 0
Allocation of funds from Red Cross / Red Crescent 1,338,810 0.2 % 0
World Bank 1,300,000 0.2 % 0
Brazil 1,200,000 0.2 % 0
Korea, Republic of 1,102,000 0.2 % 0
Afghanistan 1,000,000 0.2 % 0
Algeria 1,000,000 0.2 % 0
Indonesia 1,000,000 0.2 % 0
Malaysia 1,000,000 0.2 % 0
Iran (Islamic Republic of) 751,502 0.1 % 0
New Zealand 727,800 0.1 % 1,455,604
Luxembourg 669,275 0.1 % 0
Qatar 604,396 0.1 % 0
Various (details not yet provided) 532,969 0.1 % 0
Ireland 348,703 0.1 % 2,280,472
Mauritius 300,000 0.0 % 0
Egypt 250,000 0.0 % 0
Czech Republic 209,699 0.0 % 0
Slovakia 170,380 0.0 % 0
Greece 131,062 0.0 % 0
Nepal 130,000 0.0 % 0
Singapore 100,000 0.0 % 0
Estonia 83,879 0.0 % 0
Thailand 75,000 0.0 % 0
Poland 65,531 0.0 % 0
Hungary 50,000 0.0 % 0
Sri Lanka 26,667 0.0 % 0
Slovenia 13,106 0.0 % 0
Argentina 0 0.0 % 0
Azerbaijan 0 0.0 % 1,000,000
Iceland 0 0.0 % 192,000
India 0 0.0 % 5,000,000
Jordan 0 0.0 % 0
Montenegro 0 0.0 % 65,531
Sudan 0 0.0 % 0
Syrian Arab Republic 0 0.0 % 0
Grand Total: 642,876,719 100 % 292,453,177
====
PAKISTAN: "At least someone can come and listen to our pain"
30 Aug 2010 17:40:58 GMT
Source: IRIN
Reuters and AlertNet are not responsible for the content of this article or for any external internet sites. The views expressed are the author's alone.
THATTA, 30 August 2010 (IRIN) -
"The water is coming!" was the cry in the streets of Thatta, about 200 km east of Karachi, as shutters came down on shops; wives, children and a few belongings were packed into vehicles and sent off to neighbouring Makli in the hills a few kilometres above threatened city. Merchants closed their shops and did what they could to strengthen their doors against water and thieves.
On 28 August, water gushing out of one of more than 10 breaches in the embankment containing the Indus River entered a suburb of Thatta, a town of around 200,000 inhabitants, a huge port on the Arabian sea where the river debouches.
By evening the town was quiet, with very few people still around; two old men sat gossiping in a lane, confident that the Indus would not rise that high. When morning came, the flow of the water had slowed because some of it had been diverted, but no one was certain that the danger had passed.
More tragedy
A bigger tragedy has been unfolding in Makli, which usually houses about 30,000 people. In the past week hundreds of thousands from Thatta have sought shelter with friends and relatives in Makli, and between 100,000 and 150,000 people have fled their drowning villages in the district and moved into every available space.
They all need food and water. Hundreds of people line the main roads, waiting for a private donor's vehicle with flour or water to pass by; everyone scrambles for the few bags that are tossed out and the scene quickly turns violent. "We have become like animals, but hunger takes out the worst in every being," said a displaced man watching a fight with tears in his eyes.
Every bottle of water and bag of food is fought over; people get hurt every day. Last week a woman died after one such tussle. "I don't like what I am doing but I have to do it – we will run out of flour in two days and I have to feed my children," said Rahim Dino, who survived a gash in his head but lost his bag of flour.
The donors toss bottles and food out as they drive around, and desperate people run after the vehicles. "We are not dogs – I tell my children not to go out onto the road – rather we die," said Allah Rakha, who fled his village three days ago.
Politicians arrive, look around, and drive away. There are very few tents, and some are aligned to political parties. Police and soldiers watch the crowd but no one seems to be in charge. Men, women, children and babies sit on the ground under open sky in the rain and heat; many succumb to exhaustion as the temperature climbs above 30 degrees Celsius.
The inhabitants of Makli have never seen so many people - they are in the grounds of the hospital, in the park, even in the graveyard. "This is like it was when Pakistan and India were partitioned and we had refugees," an older resident remarked.
Zohuar Khan, who drove my taxi from Karachi, has never witnessed such destitution. "This is the end!" he says in disbelief. There are 15 people from his village staying in his one-room house in Karachi.
On the way to Makli a man and a woman have collapsed at the roadside but families squatting nearby share their tiny reserves of sugar and salt to make a solution to help rehydrate the woman. Zohuar and Asghar Ali, an official from Sindh Radiant, a local NGO, and I help them into the taxi and take them to the nearest mobile clinic a few kilometres away.
"The crisis has just broken in southern Sindh [where Thatta is located] and is still unfolding. Even with limited resources we have managed to stabilize the situation in the north," said Fawad Hussain, of the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA), who is coordinating the NGO response in Sindh Province in southern Pakistan.
Heartbreak
Hussain said he did not have the resources to respond, but noted that UN agencies were also overwhelmed. He has managed to secure 10,000 tents, which "I know is too little, but can provide shelter to at least 50,000 people - the tents should get there [Makli] in a day or two," he told IRIN.
He said the politicisation of aid was another issue that should be addressed. "In terms of humanitarian aid principles, if political parties establish any relief effort they have to do it "on non-political grounds".
Makli is filled with heart-breaking sights: malnourished women trying to breastfeed their babies, little children chewing on pieces flat bread made of rice flour. Most of the displaced people were paddy farmers in the Indus River Delta. "Rice is all we had, and we are running out," said one mother, shaking her almost empty flour tin.
Help is on the way. Irfan Malik, programme officer at the World Food Programme (WFP) in Sindh, said they were awaiting reports from their assessment team and would start food distribution in Thatta district in a day or two, but the scale of the disaster would make it difficult to cater to everyone's needs immediately.
In the first phase WFP will provide aid to about 330,000 of the estimated 1.8 million people so far affected in Sindh - the numbers are climbing as flooding continues. More than 20 million people have been affected by the floods in a disaster described as the "worst ever" in this part of the world.
On 29 August, I see several families packing their belongings as I prepare to leave. "There is nothing here – we know we will die if we stay longer – no one is giving us any food," said Sher Mohammed.
"We will wait for someone to give us a lift to, maybe, Karachi – we understand there are camps there." Most of the displaced families have used all their savings to pay for transport out of their water-logged villages to Makli. "Everyone has made money out of the floods – vehicle owners, shopkeepers who have hiked up the prices of food and even bottled water," he said.
Ghulam Hussain Khwaja, president of Sindh Radiant, said Thatta district was one of the most disaster-prone areas in Pakistan; a seismic fault line runs through the area, and the coastal areas are vulnerable to floods and cyclones. "Communities often get displaced, and yet we do not have a permanent strategy in place," he commented.
His father, Iqbal Khwaja, a veteran journalist and a correspondent for Dawn, a local national daily, said the authorities needed to act promptly to redeem the people's faith and trust in public institutions.
As I leave Makli the taxi is mobbed by desperate and sometimes angry people looking for any kind of aid. "Koi aake humhara dukh dard hi soon le [At least someone can come and listen to our pain]," says a displaced woman, wiping the sweat off her face.
===
U.S. Senator Kerry warns of instability in Pakistan
30 Aug 2010 13:09:44 GMT
Source: Reuters
* Millions battle hunger, disease
* No move toward Islamists seen in rural Punjab
* Death toll expected to rise significantly (Updates dateline, byline, comments on Islamist charities)
By Chris Allbritton
ISLAMABAD, Aug 30 (Reuters) - Flood-stricken Pakistan urgently needs more international aid to combat potential instability and extremism, influential U.S. Senator John Kerry said, as hunger and disease threaten millions of victims.
In a commentary in the International Herald Tribune, Kerry, who heads the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, said that the international community was not meeting its responsibilities towards Pakistan, where floods have killed more than 1,600 people and left at least 6 million homeless.
"The danger of the floods extends beyond a very real humanitarian crisis," Kerry wrote in Monday's edition.
"A stable and secure Pakistan, based on democracy and the rule of law, is in all of our interests. Pakistan has made enormous strides in combating extremism and terrorism -- at great sacrifice. But its ability to keep up the fight requires an effective response to this crisis." <^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
For a graphic on Pakistan's floods, click
http://link.reuters.com/tub25n
For a factbox on agricultural costs of floods, click
[ID:nSGE67P0BL]
For a factbox on disease risks, click [ID:nTOE67T06E]
For an analysis of risks to watch in Pakistan, click
http://r.reuters.com/pyj83n
For a slide show, click http://link.reuters.com/sum54n
For more Pakistan stories, click
[nAFPAK] or http://link.reuters.com/kac58m ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^> Pakistan has struggled with its response to the massive flooding, which has left one-fifth of the country under water, an area the size of Italy. Some Pakistanis have grown increasingly angry with the sluggish government response, and are turning to Islamist charities, some of them tied to militant groups.
"We don't want politicians. We want the Islamic groups in power. The government just steals," said Haidar Ali, a college student in the devastated Swat Valley, whose life has been reduced to laying bricks all day in stifling heat.
The United States worries that the battle against Islamist militants may have become harder in Pakistan, with a weakened administration battling economic meltdown and public fury.
But in south Punjab, there is no evidence people are looking to the Islamists to solve their problems. No one interviewed expressed any interest in politics, nor indeed in any subject, beyond getting help from whoever was prepared to provide it. There also was no evidence of Islamist groups out in force.
Poor, rural and fatalistic, the people were more inclined to be resigned to their fate.
"God will decide our future. We don't know," said 80-year-old Malik Mahmood.
The floods began in late July after torrential monsoon downpours over the upper Indus basin in the northwest.
WATERS RECEDING
In Jampur, in southern Punjab, about 500 km (310 miles) southwest of Islamabad, waters have begun to recede but thousands of people still live in relief camps.
"In about two weeks' time, when the river returns to normal, that's when we expect movement in the population (to go home)," Brigadier Zahid Usman told Reuters.
Further south in Thatta, in Sindh, the flooding that threatened the city of 300,000 has been largely stanched, said Saleh Farooqi, director general in Sindh for National Disaster Management Authority, but Sajwal to the east is under water.
"There has not been a substantial relief but things have improved," he said. "Water is still flowing but the speed and levels are reducing. It will take another four to five days for things to improve further."
The death toll from the flooding was expected to rise significantly as the bodies of the many missing people are found. There is no official estimate of the number of missing because mass displacements have made accounting for them almost impossible.
Kerry is a co-sponsor of the Kerry-Lugar-Berman aid package, which would funnel $7.5 billion over five years in civilian development money to Pakistan. Last week, the head of the United States Agency for International Development said $50 million from the package would be diverted to immediate flood relief.
The United Nations said aid workers were increasingly worried about disease and hunger, especially among children, in areas where even before the disaster acute malnutrition was high.
The receding floods have left behind huge pools of stagnant water, which in turn are breeding disease. U.N. officials say an estimated 72,000 children, affected by severe malnutrition, were at high risk of dying.
(Additional reporting by Myra MacDonald and Kamran Haider in JAMPUR, Faisal Aziz in Karachi; Editing by Sanjeev Miglani and Alex Richardson)
====
Pakistan's ruling party losing support among flood victims
04 Sep 2010 05:46:29 GMT
Source: Reuters
* PPP losing support among flood victims
* Ruling party says no way to prepare for flood
By Chris Allbritton
MEHMOOD KOT, Pakistan, Sept 4 (Reuters) - A month after Pakistan's worst natural disaster, those most affected have lost almost everything they had. But the ruling political party is losing things too: It is losing the poor's vote.
In Mehmood Kot, 40 km (25 miles) east of Multan in southern Punjab, day labourer Mohammad Ramazan says he won't vote again for his representative in parliament because she has done nothing for his demolished village.
He said Hina Rabbani Khar, minister of state for finance and economic affairs, just drove through the village after the floods and didn't stop.
"I thought she would take care of us, but it did not happen," he said. "In the campaign, they promise a lot, but they do not take care of us."
The floods have deepened anger with the government of President Asif Ali Zardari, who also heads the Pakistan People's Party (PPP) which was already perceived as ineffective.
Khar, a PPP member of parliament, told Reuters she had been to the village three times since the floods ripped through Pakistan, forcing at least 6 million from their homes and killing more than 1,600 people.
"Tell me who is ready to deal with the disaster like this," Khar said. "We all saw what happened with Katrina in the United States. ... Here you are looking at a slow-moving disaster, literally inching foward, through the length of your country."
Her explanations don't matter much to Ramazan, who lost two children to diarrhoea in the past month. Rukhsana and Abdulhakim were just two years old and five months old.
"We've been shattered," he said. "At this point we have nothing. I have nothing to give to my children. Eid is coming, but I have nothing."
<^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
For more Pakistan stories, click
[nAFPAK] or http://link.reuters.com/kac58m
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"PLEASE DON'T MAKE US BEGGARS"
Though the village is 20 km (12 miles) from the Indus, it was inundated from two directions because local officials tried to block the floodwaters by diverting the river into a nearby canal.
That broke, however, submerging Ramazan's home in 8-10 feet of water. Water from another canal hit the town from another direction shortly after that.
"We lost crops, sugarcane, cotton," said Rana Farmanullah, a resident and employee of Punjab's agriculture and water management service. "We left the houses, but when we returned, we didn't find anything. Robbers took everything. Electronics, jewellery. The whole village was looted."
He blames the local and federal government for making the disaster worse after the past month, he said. People are getting aid that don't need it, he said, such as politicians' supporters.
"It's beyond my understanding why this is happening and why they (the government) have not been able to cope with this situation," said Ramazan. "I don't know what is the solution and how long we must face this problem."
"The government is responsible for all this," echoed Farmanullah. "They can do it, they have the power. But they are not doing it."
Not so, counters Khar.
"It's huge, it's absolutely huge," she said. "From my constituency there are 21 union councils, 20 of them severely, severely affected. ... So the scale of the disaster is huge."
Only the army, Islamist charities such as Jamaat-ud-Dawa and foreign countries such as Saudi Arabia and the United States have helped them, Ramazan said.
In the United States, an ally which regards Pakistan as a front-line state in its war against the Taliban, concerns have grown that Islamist charities linked to militants had increased their involvement in the flood relief effort, possibly exploiting anger to gain recruits.
People said they need jobs more than charity or aid.
"We don't need charity or anything," Farmanullah said. "That would make us beggars. ... We are poor, but we are hard workers. Please don't make us beggars." (Additional reporting by Kamran Haider and Asim Tanveer; Editing by Sugita Katyal) (For more Reuters coverage of Pakistan, see: http://www.reuters.com/places/pakistan) (E-mail: chris.allbritton@thomsonreuters.com; Reuters Messaging: chris.allbritton.reuters.com@reuters.net; Islamabad newsroom: +92-51 281 0017)) (If you have a query or comment about this story, send an e-mail to news.feedback.asia@thomsonreuters.com)
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