Winter is coming: Situation alarming as flood relief remains unfunded

Only 18 per cent of the $357 million target of the Pakistan Flood Response Plan achieved.

Militancy or a lack of media coverage -- which one is more responsible for leaving flood relief efforts in Pakistan critically unfunded?

According to the Media Advisor of International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Society Joe Cropp, the starving children of Somalia get more attention due to extensive media coverage, as compared to the flood victims of Pakistan.

According to statistics, only 18 per cent of the $357 million target of the Pakistan Flood Response Plan has been achieved so far, leaving behind 3 million people in need of nutrition assistance and 0.85 million people without any shelter.

With winter just round the corner, situation in the flood-stricken area is becoming more alarming and will get out of control if funds remain undermined.

(Read: Flood survivors: NDMA needs one million tents before winter sets in)

The reluctance in donating to Pakistan is also due to the fact that Pakistan is attributed with fostering terrorism and providing safe havens to militants.

However, Cropp urged that “the people of Sindh are not militias, they’re ordinary people, they’re farmers, they’re teachers, they need help.”

Philanthropist organizations Oxfam, United Nations Children's Fund (UNICEF), United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (UN OCHA) and ACT Alliance have been insisting donors to step up to donate to flood victims of Pakistan and preventing them from “falling further below the poverty line and deeper into debt and uncertainty.”