Rehabilitation of flood victims likely to be stopped due to economic crisis

Pakistan will not be able to continue the country-wide rehabilitation process of the flood victims in January due to a severe economic crisis, the United Nations (UN) warned about the grave situation if financial aid was not disbursed to Islamabad at the earliest.

The United Nations on Thursday said emergency food aid for devastated flood-hit communities in Pakistan would run out in January after a funding appeal received only a third of its target.

The country was lashed by unprecedented monsoon rains over the summer that put a third of the country underwater, damaged two million homes and killed more than 1,700 people.

“It is a big concern for us to ensure food security in the coming days and weeks for the people affected by rains,” UN Resident Coordinator for Pakistan Julien Harneis told a press conference in Islamabad.

The UN had appealed for more than $816 million but said its agencies and other NGOs have only received $262 million from international donors.

“It is deeply worrying as other emergency responses around the world get a far higher percentage of response and we’re not getting that financing here,” Harneis added.

The UN’s World Food Programme will run out of funds for Pakistan on January 15, said the director of its mission in the country Chris Kaye.

“We have a major and frankly, I think, very serious crisis ahead of us as we go into 2023 unless we get the required support,” he added.

The number of people in need of life-saving food assistance will grow from the four million previously identified to 5.1 million during the winter, said Kaye.

Between eight million and nine million have been pushed below the poverty line by the floods.

The monsoon washed away vast tracts of crops, with many already impoverished families losing their livelihoods.

While most of the floodwater has receded, some homes remain submerged, leaving families living on elevated roads or in displacement camps. Some people have been pushed into child labour, child marriage, or trafficking, the UN said.

Pakistan places highly in the ranking of nations vulnerable to extreme weather caused by climate change but is responsible for less than one percent of global greenhouse gases.

Senior anchorperson Kamran Khan aired the special report of Dunya News investigative reporter Akhtiar Khokhar regarding the grave situation of flood affectees in Sindh province. Khokhar interviewed some families of the worst-hit Dadu city of the province in which they explained their unending miseries.

سندھ کے تباہ وبرباد سیلاب زدگان
وفاق تو بھول گیا تھا سندھ حکومت بھی بھول گئی
سب سے برا حال وزیر اعلیٰ سندھ کے دادو کا ہے
متاثرہ علاقے آج تک ڈوبے ہوئے ہیں#Sindh #FloodDisaster #Dadu @AkhtiarKhokhar pic.twitter.com/y0GOHL9Oxo

— DKKKS (@DunyaKKKS) December 15, 2022

سندھ کے تباہ وبرباد سیلاب زدگان
وفاق تو بھول گیا تھا سندھ حکومت بھی بھول گئی
سب سے برا حال وزیر اعلیٰ سندھ کے دادو کا ہے
متاثرہ علاقے آج تک ڈوبے ہوئے ہیں#Sindh #FloodDisaster #Dadu @AkhtiarKhokhar pic.twitter.com/AAjIaIdF2r

— DKKKS (@DunyaKKKS) December 15, 2022