Humanitarian needs: UN agencies facing acute fund shortages in Pakistan

Over one million flood victims in dire need of immediate assistance.

ISLAMABAD:

United Nations agencies in Pakistan are facing acute fund shortages that could adversely affect their ongoing relief operations in flood affected areas of the country.

The UN’s new estimates say that a total of 1.3 million people need immediate food and livelihood assistance and safe drinking water in Pakistan.

“Critical humanitarian needs remain unmet across all sectors in flood-affected areas,” the UN Office for Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) wrote in a letter to its head office and all donors. The OCHA coordinates on behalf of different UN agencies with donors.

The World Food Programme (WFP), which is just one agency among many taking part in the relief activities, asked for $29 million but has received only $12 million so far, according to UN officials working in Pakistan. The United Nations’ Central Emergency Response Fund (CERF) was allocated only $9.9 million, which the agencies believe is not sufficient to meet their requirements.

Amidst political turmoil the issue of millions of people affected by this year’s floods remains on the backburner.

According to the UN/government Multi-sector Initial Assessment (Mira), in the five worst-affected districts of Jaffarabad and Nasirababad in Balochistan, Rajanpur in Punjab and Jacobabad and Kashmor in Sindh, there are at least 20,222,753 people who are in dire need of relief even two months after floods inundated those areas.

“Over 90% of the flood-affected people have reduced their meals to just once or twice a day, and feeding children has also been cut down in nearly 99% of the assessed communities,” said the Mira survey, the results of which are yet to be made public.

Over 338,400 vulnerable children under five and pregnant and lactating women need urgent nutritional support, while some 296,800 families need emergency shelter assistance. In addition, at least 2,294 temporary learning centers are urgently needed in the flood affected areas, OCHA said in its appeal to international donors.

WFP updates

In its operational updates released on Thursday, the WFP said after completing Phase I of the immediate life-saving food assistance to some 140,000 planned beneficiaries in Jacobabad, Jaffarabad and Naseerabad, they have begun Phase II of the emergency food assistance response in line with the request from the National Disaster Management Agency (NDMA).

As of October 23, WFP has distributed 3,419 million tonnes of food to some 246,162 flood victims.

While some distributions are planned over the Eid holiday, the plan depends on the availability of transporters and security support, certain areas like Jaffarabad might not distribute food during this time due to unavailability of adequate security arrangements.

During their second phase, the WFP plans to target up to 1.2 million flood affected people in Jacobabad, Kashmore, Shikapur, Jaffarabad and Naseerabad – or 92% of all those estimated to be in need of immediate food assistance – for one month.

Based on the evaluations of the flood-affected families continuing to need assistance, the WFP would seek to extend this assistance for an estimated 700,000 of the most vulnerable beneficiaries for two months longer.

WFP, in collaboration with Unicef and the Nutrition Cluster, determined the needs of 48 union councils in three districts of Sindh and 54 union councils in two districts of Balochistan, under the humanitarian operational plan for six months.

According to the plan, WFP is to reach 25,000 moderately malnourished children under five years of age, 16,000 severely malnourished children and 20,000 pregnant and lactating women with the support of 1,092 metric tonnes of food.

Published in The Express Tribune, October 27^th, 2012.