ISLAMABAD: Pakistan and the United Nations are likely to revise the flood-relief flash appeal next month for more funds to deal with the catastrophic flood’s destruction across the country.
In a press conference on Wednesday, UN Resident and Humanitarian Coordinator Julien Harneis stated that the first plea for $160 million in funds was insufficient given the scope of the calamity.
At the news conference where Unicef field operations chief Scott Whoolery also spoke, Mr. Harneis stated that the United Nations and Pakistan would be modifying the flash appeal upward over the course of the next ten days since we now need more money.
In addition to starvation, Mr. Harneis claimed that diseases were causing a cascading “second tragedy” in Pakistan. The request for additional funding was made in response to reports that widespread occurrences of skin and eye infections, diarrhea, malaria, typhoid fever, and dengue fever had been linked to stagnant floods.
“We hope to finish the process in time for the briefing on floods to UN member states in Geneva on October 4” Mr. Harneis added.
Despite more than $160 million in relief pledges from other countries, he noted that the UN had only received $60 million to date.
“We are receiving good support from the member states, but we need to turn those [promises] into money more swiftly so that plans can become actions.”
According to the UN humanitarian coordinator, despite the need for $10.2 million for education, $1.1 million for logistics, and $13.2 million for protection, the clusters of education, logistics, and protection have not yet received funding from the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs.
Floods in Sindh and Balochistan ruined agricultural crops, endangering food security, but the food security and agriculture cluster had only received $6.6 million compared to the $48 million it needed. The amount of money needed in the health sector was calculated at $22.8 million. However, just $3.4m had been given to this cluster, he added.
With only $2.3 million received compared to a requirement of $9 million, nutrition, an essential component for both women and children, has also continued to receive inadequate funding. While the WASH cluster earned $7.1 million versus a requirement of $25 million, the cluster for shelter and non-food items only obtained $2.5 million.
The floods directly caused the death of 500 children, said Mr. Whoolery “Hundreds are not a concern. Regarding the health crisis, we’re concerned about thousands.”
“And we will probably never know because many of them won’t be counted.”
