Floods —Pakistan needs help

The latest torrential rain and floods in Pakistan have caused vast devastations again. This time, it is the Sindh province that is bearing the brunt. Approximately five million people have been dislocated, hundreds have died, besides huge losses to livestock and standing crops.

Over four million acres of land is under water, 2.5 million acres of crop has been destroyed and over a million houses have been damaged or washed away. Initial estimates paint a grim picture. Economic losses, caused by the havoc, could run into billions of dollars. In view of the magnitude of the destruction, urgent humanitarian assistance is required to save lives and to carry out rescue operations. There is urgent need of tents, aqua tablets, water purification equipment, food supplies, dewatering pumps and medicines.

President Asif Ali Zardari has appealed to the international community for humanitarian assistance. The UN secretary general has been requested to mobilise the international community for urgent relief assistance. A team of UN agencies is visiting the affected areas to assess the losses. People at home and abroad have been appealed to make generous contributions for rescue, relief and rehabilitation efforts for the affected.

Last year’s devastating floods had caused unprecedented destruction, which the UN described to be worse than the Asian Tsunami. The World Bank and the Asian Development Bank assessed the losses to be $10 billion. With the government still grappling last year’s flood’s devastation, the recent floods were the last thing one would have expected in a country which is already facing enormous problems, including extremist threat, regional instability and an acute energy crisis.

Although, despite better economic performance, with 40 per cent rise in exports ($27 billion), robust foreign exchange reserves ($18 billion), highest level of remittances by Pakistani diaspora ($12 billion) and a bullish trend in the stock market (12,000 points), the country requires global support, especially to provide immediate succour to those affected.

The Pakistani community in UK has always been at the forefront whenever Pakistan has faced any calamity. Last year, it made a generous contribution to the prime minister’s Flood Relief Fund. It also directly reached out to the victims and built thousands of houses in all four provinces.

The British government’s generous assistance of £134 million and the Disaster Emergency Committee’s donation of £71 million, distributed through its affiliate NGOs, have provided the much-needed relief to the affectees. The rehabilitation work is still continuing. However, the fresh floods have pushed us back to square one, adding extraordinary strain on the government and the people of Pakistan to provide relief to their vulnerable compatriots. I am confident that the international community would, once again, play its role in sharing the burden of the government.

While we continue to rely on our own resources, certain emergencies are beyond any government’s control. For this reason, the Pakistan High Commission and its consulates-generals in Manchester, Birmingham, Bradford and Glasgow would be on standby to guide the Pakistani community to channel their relief efforts through the National Disaster Management Authority (NDMA). I would also appeal to the community to direct their relief work through the NDMA since it is in a much better position to coordinate relief work and provide assistance to the areas that need help on the most urgent basis.

Published in The Express Tribune, September 13^th,  2011.