Lack of funding leading to greater challenges: United Nations

ISLAMABAD: Enormous funding is required to meet the needs for coverage of the upcoming months as new challenges are emerging on a daily basis, stated Stacey Winston of the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (Unocha).

To date, approximately $873 million of the total $1.93 billion appealed for has been provided which is only 45 per cent of the total need, she added. The needs of all provinces were presented to the international community at the Pakistan Development Forum.

“If funding remains sluggish then it will be difficult to meet the target needs after a few months,” said Winston. She stressed on the fact that the effects of the disaster are  still there but response has slowed down with time. The prolonged time duration of the emergency phase is making it difficult for the agencies to progress faster and it isn’t helping them meet targets on time. “Funding is slow and in a month or two it will eventually start affecting operations,” she said, adding, “there are still more needs which need to be met.”

According to Jackie Dent, press officer at the World Food Programme (WFP), every day new challenges are coming forward as the water recedes. “We are identifying people daily whose needs have to be met on time,” said Dent.

Winston also stressed upon the fact that all the clusters are under-funded and the pledged funding would be utilised to meet critical emergency needs prioritising with health, nutrition, water and food clusters. “If we look at the statistics then all the clusters are witnessing a shortfall and all life-saving elements would suffer,” said Winston.

Even though funding does remain a primary concern, other issues such as inaccessibility to areas in the north are also alarming the agencies. According to WFP, the crop land in the north is mud and rock and it will be a challenge for people to cope with that. The agency is now focused on repositioning people in Gilgit-Baltistan and Khyber- Pakhtunkhwa. Whereas in southern Sindh they are still in the process of identifying communities which need immediate help.

Truls Brekke from the Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO) highlighted the need for additional funds for Sindh. “The irrigation system has either failed or collapsed in Sindh and water is still standing in some areas. We cannot plant and are looking for alternatives,” said Brekke. He further said the irrigation situation remains critical as water is required for lands where floodwaters have receded as a dry spell is expected in March. “Where some areas have retrieved, there are others which have collapsed completely.”

Published in The Express Tribune, November 17^th, 2010.