Ambassador Anne W Patterson said that it was difficult to provide an accurate estimate of the damage caused to life and property in the country’s worst humanitarian disaster in living memory. “The US government has so far provided $76 million for flood relief activities in Pakistan and the most urgent need is to provide food, shelter and medicine to the survivors,” she told a news conference at the US Embassy in Islamabad on Tuesday.
Patterson said that the long-term costs of reconstruction were also being taken into account. “It is a disaster of really broad proportions. Unlike some of the other disasters here [in Pakistan], it has affected most of the economic base of the country with the exception of Karachi,” she said. “Crops have been ruined, gas fields are shut in and power plants are flooded. So the long-term reconstruction cost is going to be very substantial.”
Ruling out the possibility that US aid may land into the hands of militant organisations, she said that the US was providing aid through credible NGOs and the Pakistani government. She also clarified that this aid was not part of the funds allocated under the Kerry-Lugar Bill and was specifically for flood relief.
Giving details of US relief assistance, she said that on August 16, four US Marine Corps CH-46 Sea Knight helicopters had arrived in the country, bringing the number of US military and civilian aircraft in Pakistan to 18. “Eight more helicopters are expected to arrive in the next few days while C-130 aircraft are delivering aid throughout the country. US aircraft have evacuated 4,613 people and transported an estimated 23,600 kilogrammes of relief supplies by August 16,” she said. The US has also provided 18 Zodiac rescue boats
The US has provided a month’s ration of food to more than 0.3 million people through the World Food Programme, she said. “Among the US-funded food rations, 440,928 halal meals were delivered to civilian and military officials in Pakistan within 36 hours of the initial flooding,” Patterson said, adding that six water filtration units had also been provided and that each unit could produce enough clean water for 10,000 people per day.
Talking about infrastructure rebuilding, she said that the US had provided 12 prefabricated steel bridges as temporary replacements for those that had been washed out, a 25-kilowatt electricity generator, 10 water storage bladders and 30 concrete-cutting saws.
Published in The Express Tribune, August 18th, 2010.
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