Netherlands announces €3.5m aid for flood-hit Pakistan

The Netherlands has pledged €3.5 million in relief assistance for flood-affected people of Pakistan, the country’s foreign ministry announced on Thursday.

“The Netherlands stands in solidarity with the people in Pakistan who were affected by the severe floods,” the ministry wrote in a tweet.

The ministry said the country would provide €3.5 million of relief assistance for the victims through the Dutch Relief Alliance (DRA) and Rode Kruis “in addition to our continued support to the UN, WHO and ICRC, and others”.

More than 33 million people in Pakistan have been affected by the flooding, brought on by record monsoon rains amplified by climate change. The floods have caused nearly 1,400 deaths and washed away homes, businesses, roads and bridges.

The UN's World Health Organisation said more than 1,460 health centres had been damaged, of which 432 were fully wrecked, the majority of them in Sindh.

More than 4,500 medical camps have been set up by the WHO and its partners, while more than 230,000 rapid tests for acute watery diarrhoea, malaria, dengue, hepatitis and chikungunya have been distributed.

Such diseases are already circulating in Pakistan, alongside Covid-19, HIV and polio, and "now all these are at risk of getting worse", WHO spokesman Tarik Jasarevic told reporters in Geneva.

Also read: Death toll from floods at 1,325 as 11 more perish

"We have already received reports of the increased number of cases of acute watery diarrhoea, typhoid, measles and malaria, especially in the worst-affected areas."

Jasarevic said it was still difficult to get to areas hit hard by the floods, which have submerged a third of the country – an area the size of the United Kingdom.

Mortality among newborn babies and severe acute malnutrition are at risk of increasing due to disruption of services.

"The situation is expected to worsen," Jasarevic warned.

The WHO has delivered $1.5 million in medicines and emergency stockpiles, including tents, water purification kits and oral rehydration sachets.

It is appealing for $19 million from donors.