AID AGENCIES yesterday warned that outbreaks of disease present a serious threat to victims of Pakistan’s catastrophic flooding, as the UN sought to galvanise donors to contribute more emergency aid for the country.
For more than two weeks the deluge, triggered by monsoon rains, has spread across Pakistan’s Indus river basin, from the mountainous northwest to the southern plains of Sindh province. It has left a trail of destruction in its wake.
More than 1,600 people have died, two million have been driven from their homes and more than 14 million – or 8 per cent of the population – have been affected in total. The final death toll is expected to be much higher as many remain missing and vast tracts of the worst-hit regions are still inaccessible.
Health experts believe that conditions, particularly in makeshift encampments where tens of thousands of the displaced have congregated, coupled with the blistering summer heat, are ripe for the spread of infection. Outbreaks of disease would further hinder relief efforts already severely hampered by damaged infrastructure.
The UN says it is increasingly concerned about water-borne diseases. Some 36,000 suspected cases of potentially fatal acute watery diarrhoea have been reported so far. Cholera is another fear. Some officials say there are indications it may have already broken out in some parts of the country.
Earlier this week, the UN appealed for $459 million (€359 million) in emergency aid and warned of a much higher death toll if assistance failed to materialise soon. The international response so far has been sluggish, with only $190 million pledged.
UN secretary-general Ban Ki-moon is expected to visit Pakistan over the weekend to discuss the unfolding crisis with Pakistan’s embattled government. Humanitarian agencies hope his visit will draw more attention to what is the worst natural disaster in Pakistan’s six decades in existence.
“We want to warn everyone that the crisis facing Pakistan is enormous,” said Mengesha Kebede, a representative of UNHCR, the UN’s refugee agency. “There continues to be massive destruction as the bloated rivers flow inexorably southwards across the plains.”
Speaking after a visit to Charsadda in Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa (formerly North-West Frontier Province), Concern’s regional director Lucia Ennis said the needs there were enormous.
“Families are desperately trying to rebuild some normality, but many have lost all their worldly processions, livelihoods and homes,” she said. “Families are now temporarily living in tents supplied by the Pakistan government and UNHCR.”
The International Monetary Fund has warned of the damage to Pakistan’s already limping economy. On a visit to Latvia, World Bank president Robert Zoellick said that the floodwaters were likely to have destroyed crops worth around $1 billion. “All of us will have to pitch in to help,” Mr Zoellick told reporters.
Analysts estimate the cost of repairing Pakistan’s infrastructural damage alone will run into billions.
Amid mounting criticism over his decision to visit Europe as the floods gained momentum earlier this month, Pakistan’s president Asif Zardari visited affected areas in his native Sindh province on Thursday. But the move failed to quell growing anger.
Many Pakistanis view the government response to the disaster as inadequate, and say the crisis has exposed Mr Zardari’s shortcomings. A spokesman for Mr Zardari announced yesterday that the president would cut short, but not cancel, a planned visit to Russia and forgo celebrations of Pakistan’s Independence Day later this month to visit flood victims instead.