Pakistan PM vows compensation for those affected by the floods
ISLAMABAD: Pakistan’s prime minister on Wednesday promised the country’s homeless people that the government will ensure they are paid to rebuild and return to their lives ater the country’s worst-ever floods.
With winter is just weeks away, half a million people are living in camps ater being displaced by the flood, which destroyed 1.7 million homes. So far, the government’s priority has been to deliver food, tents and cash to the victims. The floods have killed 1,481 people since mid-june and affected 33 million.
“We will do our best to financially help you so that you can rebuild homes” and return to a normal life, Prime Minister Shahbaz Sharif told several families living in tents and makeshift homes in the town of Suhbatpur in Baluchistan. “Those who lost homes and crops will get compensation from the government,” he said in his televised comments.
Sharif also told dozens of school children, who were studying in a tent with help from the UN children’s agency UNICEF in the town of Suhbatpur, that they will get a new school in the next two months.
“Pakistan never witnessed such huge climateinduced devastation,” Sharif told a gathering of lawyers in Islamabad on Wednesday. “It was painful to see inundated villages, towns and cities.”
Sharif said the winter season will start in
Pakistan ater 15 days, and “then another challenge for the flood victims will be how to survive in the harsh cold as currently they were living in tents in summer.
Even providing clean drinking water to flood-affected people has become a challenge, he said.
The floods have destroyed 70% of wheat, coton and other crops in Pakistan. Initially, Pakistan estimated that the floods caused $10 billion in damages, but now the government says the economic toll is far greater. The United Nations has urged the international community, especially those responsible for climate change, to send more help to Pakistan.
The monsoon rains have swept away entire villages, bridges and roads, leaving hundreds of thousands homeless. At one point, a third of the country’s territory was inundated with water.
Multiple experts have blamed climate change for unprecedented rain-related damages in Pakistan.
Also Wednesday, Pakistan’s minister for climate change, Sherry Rehman, told a gathering of lawmakers from the Asia Pacific in the capital, Islamabad that right now the entire world is facing a threat from climate change which, she said, “knows no border.”
She called for reducing emissions to save other countries from the damage that her country is facing now.
Meanwhile, the first planeload of aid from Saudi Arabia arrived in Pakistan overnight.
So far, UN agencies and various countries, including the United States, have sent about 90 planeloads of aid.
On Wednesday, Julien Harneis, who is UN resident coordinator in Pakistan, told a news conference that member states had commited so far $150 million in response to an emergency appeal for $160 million.
Mater of honour: The 400 residents of Basti Ahmad Din, a tiny Pakistani village let surrounded by floodwater ater torrential monsoon rains, are facing starvation and disease.
But they have refused pleas to evacuate. Leaving for a relief camp would mean the women of the village mingling with men outside their families, residents told reporters, and that would violate their “honour”.
The women of Basti Ahmad Din do not get a say.
“It is up to the village elders to decide,” said Shireen Bibi, 17, when asked if she would prefer to go to the safety of a camp on dry land.
Catastrophic monsoon rains blamed on climate change have let vast swathes of Pakistan under water this summer, with villagers such as those in Basti Ahmad Din grappling with the destruction of their homes and livelihoods.
More than half of the 90 homes in Basti Ahmad Din, located in the Rojhan area of Punjab province, have been destroyed.
The coton crops that surrounded the village when the rains started in June are now roting in flooded fields, and the dirt road that once connected to the nearest city is under three metres (10 feet) of water.
Rickety wooden rowboats are the only way for villagers to head out to purchase food and supplies.
They are also expensive, with their operators charging fares far higher than normal.
Basti Ahmad Din’s families have worryingly low amounts of food let, and they have decided to pool and ration whatever wheat and grain they managed to salvage ater the rains.
Numerous volunteers who come to the village to drop off aid packages have pleaded with the residents to leave for safety, to no avail.
“We are Baloch. Baloch don’t allow their women to go out,” said Basti Ahmad Din resident Muhammad Amir, referring to the dominant ethnic group in the village.
“The Baloch would rather starve and make do than let their families go out.”
In many parts of conservative, deeply patriarchal Pakistan, women live under a strict system of so-called honour.
It severely limits their freedom of movement and how they interact -- if at all -- with men outside their families.
The UN chief on Wednesday made an urgent appeal to world leaders to act on climate change and “lower the temperature” so as not to “drown” the world, ater visiting flood-hit Pakistan.
“I have just returned from Pakistan, where I looked through a window into the future -- a future of permanent and ubiquitous climate chaos on an unimaginable scale,” Secretary-general Antonio Guterrestoldanewsconferencedaysbeforedozens of global leaders were due to arrive in New York for the UN General Assembly High-level Week.
“What is happening in Pakistan demonstrates the sheer inadequacy of the global response to the climate crisis, and the betrayal and injustice at the heart of it.”
Nearly 1,400 people died in flooding in Pakistan that covers an area the size of the United Kingdom and wiped out crops and destroyed homes, businesses, roads and bridges.
Guterres said on his visit he had “never seen climate carnage” on such a scale, blaming wealthier countries for the devastation.
“My message to world leaders gathering here is clear: Lower the temperature -- now. Don’t
What is happening in Pakistan demonstrates the sheer inadequacy of the global response to the climate crisis, and the betrayal and injustice at the heart of it, says Guterres
flood the world today; don’t drown it tomorrow,” he said on Wednesday, denouncing “decades of intransigence by big emiters,” particularly Group of 20 members.
“If one-third of G20 countries was under water today, as it could be tomorrow, perhaps they would find it easier to agree on drastic cuts to emissions.”
He hit out at big fossil fuel companies as well, accusing them of “killing the planet to rake in the most” possible.
The secretary-general also lamented divisions in the international community, saying, “Geostrategic divides are the widest they have been since at least the Cold War.
“They are paralyzing the global response to the dramatic challenges we face,” including war, climate change, poverty, hunger and inequality, he said.
“The solidarity envisioned in the United Nations Charter is being devoured by the acids of nationalism and self-interest.”
Separately, United Nations Resident and Humanitarian Coordinator for Pakistan Julien Harneis has said that it is inevitable to give financial assistance to the flood victims in Pakistan.
Addressing a press conference on Wednesday, he said that 300 million people have been affected by the recent floods in Pakistan.
“Several countries made announcements for the assistance that could not reach here so far,” he maintained.
Julien Harneis said that the Asian Development Bank and the World Bank are jointly working for the reconstruction and restoration of the floodaffected areas.
He said that Pakistan was already facing problems due to food shortage. “Ater the floods, population facing food shortage has multiplied. Presently, Pakistan needs to provide food to 5-6 million people immediately,” he added.
He said that it was very difficult to reach the flood affected areas due to washing away of the roads. “It is good that the prime minister has announced to conduct the audit of the flood fund through an international company,” he maintained.
Julien Harneis has said that the joint flash appeal by the Government of Pakistan and United Nations Secretary General got a positive response from the international community.
He said that United States, Canada and other countries had made good announcements in response to the appeal.
The purpose of the press conference was to ensure transparency, he said. “We will try to keep the media updated and will answer every question,” he added. He said the Emergency Relief Fund had announced $10 million, adding that they were exclusively discussing that how Pakistan could atain the maximum donations from the UN system.
He said the UN had already launched a $161 million flash appeal for Pakistan flood victims and for the rehabilitation purpose, adding the funding would provide critical food and cash assistance to nearly one million people residing in various districts of Balochistan, Sindh, Punjab and Khyber Pakhtunkhwa provinces.
He agreed, in the current situation, that $161 million may not be enough for relief activities as they had again made an appeal before the international community to grant more funds.