Flood victims face death, hunger amid winter, funds’ paucity

ISLAMABAD: Pakistan has received only $4 billion in financial foreign assistance to support flood relief activities in the country. Out of which, $3.64 billion is in the form of loans while $435.03 million in the shape of grants.

Besides, out of 20 million flood-hit people, 14.6 million people still need emergency food assistance from December 2022 to March 2023. In a news release issued on Monday, Federal Minister for Climate Change Senator Sherry Rehman said almost 3.9 million people in Sindh and 1.6 million in Balochistan are facing severe food insecurity, with 5.5 million people no longer having access to safe and clean drinking water.

“With 20 million people still currently dependent on humanitarian aid, the United Nations have received only 30 percent or $262 million of the $816 million under the floods response plan,” said Sherry, adding that flash floods caused loss and damage worth $30 billion.

The rehabilitation and disaster-reconstruction needs were at least $16.3 billion. The amount did not include investments required to support Pakistan’s adaptation to climate change and overall resilience of the country to future climate shocks.

“The UN has warned that 8.4 to 9.1 million people will be pushed below the poverty line. Winter will be harsh on the forgotten arc of climate misery. The numbers are too huge; 33 million impacted literally meant we were reinventing the lives of populations covering the size of three medium sized European countries at the same time,” said the climate change minister. The UN’s ongoing assistance is facing a looming risk of ending prematurely as they are running out of funds to continue the needed support. World Food Programme (WFP) has said that they would run out of funds by mid-January for Pakistan, putting an additional 1.1 million people at extreme risk of food insecurity. Funds are being taken from every sector of the Pakistan government to meet survival needs, but the size of the need is huge.

The minister said that over 240,000 people remain displaced with at least 10 districts of Sindh province continuing to report standing water, while the same situation persists in two districts of Balochistan. People have started returning to their homes, but they now face compounding issues of food insecurity and health-related challenges, she said.

Sherry warned that children are at the frontline of the flood aftermath, with 9.6 million children in urgent need of humanitarian assistance. “With the onset of winter and temperatures dropping to single digits, the survival of children in camps is at stake. We urge all local philanthropists and international agencies to assist provincial governments in sharing this unprecedented burden with Pakistan,” the minister said.

“Along with development partners, we estimate that 1.6 million children are suffering from severe acute malnutrition, and 7 million are in desperate need of nutrition services,” maintained Sherry Rehman.

Over half a million children are expected to go unvaccinated in areas devastated by floods, which will be disastrous for Pakistan’s efforts to eradicate Polio. The future of these children is also in peril as more than 2 million have been forced to stay off school due to damages caused to more than 34,000 schools, with education for girls among the most impacted. This needs every donor’s help, or the world will see an entire generation lost to this great flood, she remarked.

“Resilience is an expensive business, and I fear that there is little scope for real adaptation by societies and governments under stress to just meet basic humanitarian needs, unless the requisite funds are pipelined,” she said.

The minister concluded that the World Bank had mentioned in its CCDR report that Pakistan needed to spend $348 billion by 2030, or $43.5 billion annually, in climate adaptation, resilience and de-carbonization to survive the impacts of climate change. To address this, the government is currently working on the Resilient Recovery, Rehabilitation and Reconstruction Framework (4RF) which will be presented to the international community and the donors at the Climate Resilient Pakistan conference scheduled to be held in Geneva on January 9th, 2023, said the minister.

Meanwhile, in a series of tweets, she said Imran Khan’s politics of intimidation led the Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaaf (PTI) to such a blind alley that it ran out of political options.

The minister said Imran Khan believed neither in parliamentary democracy nor in dialogue. “When you do the politics of fascism instead of democratic and constitutional politics, it will be the ultimate end,” tweeted Sherry.

She mentioned the differences between Imran Khan and his allies have been surfaced while the PTI members are also unhappy with his decision. “It means only one person wants to dissolve the assemblies. Ishaq Khan and dictators had also dissolved the assemblies in the past. Imran Khan’s thinking is not different from them,” Sherry tweeted.

She added they have to find a scapegoat for their political narrative. They are holding former army chief responsible for no trust motion after foreign conspiracy narrative was exposed.

“They have a wrong perception that government and institutions will accept their demands through pressure tactics. Only, the parliament can lead them out of the blind alley,” maintained Sherry.