Pakistan floods: UN appeals for $365m to help victims Skip to main content

Pakistan floods: UN appeals for $365m to help victims

The BBC's Orla Guerin: "Families are homeless, hungry, and threatened by disease"

Related Stories

The United Nations has launched an appeal for $365m (£231m) to help some six million Pakistanis who have been affected by devastating flooding.
The UN said the money would be used to help the affected people in the southern provinces of Sindh and Balochistan over the next six months.
Pakistan's Prime Minister Yousuf Raza Gilani is currently touring two towns in the flood-ravaged areas.
His government's response to the crisis has been heavily criticised.
The perception is that, for a second year running, his government has failed hundreds of thousands of flood victims, the BBC's Aleem Maqbool in Sindh province says.
These floods - caused by heavy monsoon rains - have already killed 248 people and damaged or destroyed some 665,000 homes since they began last month.
Aid agencies are warning again of a humanitarian disaster as thousands of refugees stream towards Karachi, Hyderabad and other urban areas unaffected by the floods.
More than two million people are said to be suffering from flood-related diseases following the torrential rain, cases of malaria and diarrhoea are increasing, and at least 7,000 people are being treated for snake bites.
Hollow words On a visit to the badly-hit towns of Nawabshah and Sanghar, Prime Minister Gilani announced that flood victims could live in government relief camps as long as they wanted and would be provided with food and shelter.
But they are hollow words for so many people living on the roads of rural Sindh, who say there are either no camps in their areas or that they have been turned away from places that are full, our correspondent reports.
He says his route was blocked by one group of women, who were so desperate they were sitting in the road to alert people to the fact that they had nothing and their children were dying.
The UN's humanitarian arm, the UNHCR, says it is seeking $33.2m to supply tents, plastic sheeting and household items to an estimated 525,000 flood victims.
It has identified some 65,000 families in Sindh province and an additional 5,000 families in Balochistan who will receive the relief supplies.
"That so many of those caught up in this emergency were still trying to re-establish their lives after last year's terrible flooding makes this a very complex and urgent situation," said Mengesha Kebede, UNHCR representative in Pakistan.
Millions were displaced across the country and about 2,000 people died as torrential monsoon rains in 2010 caused rivers to burst their banks, washing away homes and property. Sindh was one of the worst affected regions.
People in Sindh have told the BBC they are angry the authorities have not done more in the wake of last year's disaster.
They say flood prevention projects and proper drainage systems could have saved homes and lives and an awful lot of misery.
map of floods
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-south-asia-14965336

Comments

Popular posts from this blog

Chronology of the Press in Burma

1836 – 1846 * During this period the first English-language newspaper was launched under British-ruled Tenasserim, southern  Burma . The first ethnic Karen-language and Burmese-language newspapers also appear in this period.     March 3, 1836 —The first English-language newspaper,  The Maulmain Chronicle , appears in the city of Moulmein in British-ruled Tenasserim. The paper, first published by a British official named E.A. Blundell, continued up until the 1950s. September 1842 —Tavoy’s  Hsa-tu-gaw  (the  Morning Star ), a monthly publication in the Karen-language of  Sgaw ,  is established by the Baptist mission. It is the first ethnic language newspaper. Circulation reached about three hundred until its publication ceased in 1849. January 1843 —The Baptist mission publishes a monthly newspaper, the Christian  Dhamma  Thadinsa  (the  Religious Herald ), in Moulmein. Supposedly the first Burmese-language newspaper, it continued up until the first year of the second Angl

ARSA claims ambush on Myanmar security forces

Arakan Rohingya Salvation Army (ARSA) on Sunday claimed responsibility for an ambush on Myanmar security forces that left several wounded in northern Rakhine state, the first attack in weeks in a region gutted by violence. Rakhine was plunged into turmoil last August, when a series of ARSA raids prompted a military backlash so brutal the UN says it likely amounts to ethnic cleansing of the Muslim Rohingya minority. The army campaign sent some 650,000 Rohingya fleeing for Bangladesh, where refugees have given harrowing accounts of rape, murder and arson at the hands of security forces and vigilantes. Myanmar's military, which tightly controls information about Rakhine, denies any abuses and insists the crackdown was a proportionate response to crush the "terrorist" threat. ARSA have launched few attacks in recent months.  But the army reported that "about ten" Rohingya terrorists ambushed a car with hand-made mines and gunfire on Friday morning

Thai penis whitening trend raises eyebrows

Image copyright LELUXHOSPITAL Image caption Authorities warn the procedure could be quite painful A supposed trend of penis whitening has captivated Thailand in recent days and left it asking if the country's beauty industry is taking things too far. Skin whitening is nothing new in many Asian countries, where darker skin is often associated with outdoor labour, therefore, being poorer. But even so, when a clip of a clinic's latest intriguing procedure was posted online, it quickly went viral. Thailand's health ministry has since issued a warning over the procedure. The BBC Thai service spoke to one patient who had undergone the treatment, who told them: "I wanted to feel more confident in my swimming briefs". The 30-year-old said his first session of several was two months ago, and he had since seen a definite change in the shade. 'What for?' The original Facebook post from the clinic offering the treatment, which uses lasers to break do