Humanitarian crisis looms with arrival of winter in Pakistan flood-hit areas

Islamabad: With the arrival of winter, a humanitarian crisis is unfolding in the flood-hit areas of Pakistan and the woes of the affected children, particularly women and children are multiplying.

The humanitarian needs of the flood-hit people have intensified and more resources are urgently needed to deal with the situation, the UN Secretary General’s spokesperson Stephane Dujarric stated in a news conference.

The UN spokesperson Stephane Dujarric’s statement has come at a time when Pakistan’s Minister of State for Foreign Affairs Hina Rabbani Khar while addressing a hybrid pledge event of the Central Emergency Response Fund (CERF) in New York also stressed the need for a time-responsive, well-funded, and strategically robust emergency response system.

The event she addressed was organised at the UN Headquarters to garner international attention and support for the CERF enabling it to respond to emergency humanitarian needs across the globe.

Recalling the humanitarian impact of the recent devastating climate-induced floods in Pakistan, Khar acknowledged and appreciated the critical assistance provided by the CERF.

She echoed the UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres’s call for scaled-up funding to CERF, enabling it to assist the developing countries braving climate-induced disasters.

Later, in a tweet, while responding to a UN report on the miseries of the people living in the flood-hit areas of Sindh, Hina Rabbani Khar drew the attention of the developed nations to the grim situation people of interior Sindh and rest of the country were facing due to the shortage of basic necessities of life.

“The cameras may have left but the lives of people in many parts of Pakistan including Dadu in Sindh continue to be ravaged by a climate event. This is a good reminder as we prepare for ‘Climate Resilient Pakistan’ conference in Geneva on the 9th of January,” she said.

Pakistan receives 23pc of promised $816 million fund

According to the UN Secretary General’s spokesman, only 23 per cent of the $816 million Floods Response Plan has been received and more resources are urgently needed.

He said even as flood waters receded, more than 20 million people continued to depend on humanitarian aid, adding that reconstruction efforts were just beginning in some areas.

“To date, in support of the government response, our humanitarian partners have reached more than 4.7 million people with aid since the onset of the flood” in August this year, he said.

He pointed out that some 2.6 million people had received food assistance while UN’s humanitarian partners had also helped 125,000 children resume their education, including through more than 500 temporary learning centres.

The UN humanitarian partners have also helped 125,000 children to resume their education, including through more than 500 temporary learning centres.” However, schools remain inaccessible for more than two million children, he said.