The United Nations (UN) will allocate close to $10 million to provide aid for more than one million people living in the flood-hit areas of Pakistan that were most affected this year, according to the world body’s humanitarian arm.
“We must not allow the floods crisis to become a forgotten emergency,” the UN Humanitarian Coordinator in Pakistan Timo Pakkala said in a statement on the allocation of $9.9 million from the UN Central Emergency Response Fund (CERF).
The flood-affected populations are among the poorest and most vulnerable in Pakistan, Pakkala said. More must be done to meet people’s immediate humanitarian needs to help them recover and to reduce their vulnerability to similar calamities in the future, he added.
Launched in 2006 and managed by the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA), CERF enables the fast delivery of life-saving assistance to people affected by natural disasters and other crises worldwide.
It is funded by voluntary contributions from member states, non-governmental organisations, regional governments, the private sector and individual donors.
Floods this year in southern Pakistan affected almost five million people, according to government estimates, and many are still recovering from floods of 2010 and 2011.
Pakkala said that the government of Pakistan, the UN and its partners had distributed thousands of food packages, shelters, water and medicines yet people’s lives remained in jeopardy in those areas. In support of the government-led flood relief and recovery efforts, UN agencies and humanitarian partners will use the new funds to initially reach people in flood-affected communities in the seven hardest-hit districts of Balochistan, Punjab and Sindh, according to the statement.
The new funds will provide almost 33,000 people with emergency shelter materials, blankets and kitchen sets and almost 400,000 with food. More than 580,000 people facing malaria, dengue and cholera will receive emergency primary health care. The CERF allocation will also allow agencies to respond to critical water, sanitation and hygiene needs and will help families keep their livestock alive.
Standing water poses public health risks in inundated areas, said head of OCHA in Pakistan Lynn Hastings, following her visit to an area where flood waters stretched for 40 kilometres.
The most vulnerable families are living in temporary settlements along roadsides and in open spaces, she said. People need life-saving humanitarian assistance to stop the suffering and to allow them to rebuild their lives and livelihoods.
According to OCHA, Pakistan is the fourth-largest recipient of CERF funding, having received a total of $154 million of the more than $2.7 billion which the Fund has allocated since its operations began.
