UN scales up financial and other support to Pakistan after ‘latest climate tragedy’

New York, The Gulf Observer: A $7 million disbursement from the UN’s Central Emergency Relief Fund (CERF), announced on Friday, will bolster response to the devastating monsoon floods in Pakistan, the worst in more than a decade.

The funding will help prevent waterborne diseases and epidemics, and provide nutrition supplements, clean water and reproductive health care for the most vulnerable people, as well as feed for livestock.

The allocation was released by UN Emergency Relief Coordinator Martin Griffiths, who is in Pakistan to support the response.

“People in Pakistan are living through the world’s worst climate nightmare,” he said.

“People in Pakistan deserve climate justice, international solidarity and support from the world as they deal with this latest climate tragedy.”

This latest allocation brings CERF support to $10 million, following a $3 million disbursement last month.

Last week, the UN launched a $160 million appeal to help Pakistan deal with the floods, which have killed some 1,400 people, including hundreds of children.

Overall, some 33 million people have been affected, and access to many vulnerable communities is now cut off as hundreds of bridges and thousands of kilometers of roads were destroyed or washed away.

The floods have destroyed more than half a million homes and over 660,000 people are now living in camps. Many more are displaced in host communities.

Additionally, more than 750,000 livestock – a critical source of income for many families – have died. The Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) further reported that 1.2 million hectares of agricultural land in Sindh Province alone has been damaged.

The UN and humanitarian partners have so far supported the Government’s response with food aid to more than 400,000 people and clean water to 55,000, in addition to supporting 51 mobile healthcare clinics.