NEW YORK: United Nations Secretary-General Antonio Guterres has reaffirmed the full support and cooperation to Pakistan for its post-flood humanitarian relief work as well as for long-term recovery, rehabilitation, and reconstruction.

The UN Secretary-General in a meeting with Foreign Minister Bilawal Bhutto Zardari said the success of the conference and Pakistan’s resilient reconstruction was his “top priority”.

The meeting took place in New York on the margins of the G-77 Ministerial Conference

Guterres appreciated the foreign minister’s timely initiative to convene a special ministerial conference of the G-77 and China to build a unified and comprehensive strategy to overcome immediate challenges facing developing countries.

The foreign minister conveyed his appreciation to the Secretary-General for his solidarity with and call for massive support to Pakistan in the wake of the devastating floods in the country, and for co-hosting the International Conference on Climate Resilient Pakistan in Geneva on January 9, 2023.

He sought the Secretary-General’s continued cooperation to secure the participation of key donors, development institutions and the private sector in the pledging conference and to encourage them to support Pakistan’s comprehensive Plan and specific project proposals.

The Asian Development Bank (ADB) has approved a $554 million financing package, including new and reallocated funds, to support recovery and reconstruction efforts following this year’s devastating floods.

The Manila-based lender on Monday said in a statement that the funding would also be utilised to strengthen Pakistan’s disaster and climate resilience.

“The financing, which includes a $475 million loan and a $3 million technical assistance grant from the Asian Development Bank (ADB), and a $5 million grant from the Government of Japan, will support the restoration of irrigation, drainage, flood risk management, on-farm water management, and transport infrastructure in the flood-affected provinces of Balochistan, Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, and Sindh,” read the statement.

ADB’s Emergency Flood Assistance Project will also incorporate climate and disaster resilience measures into the design of the infrastructure. The lender has also repurposed an additional $71 million from existing loans to support the government’s flood-response efforts.

“This year’s floods, which affected 33 million people and brought enormous damage to infrastructure and agriculture, are a devastating reminder of Pakistan’s acute vulnerability to climate change,” said ADB Director General for Central and West Asia Yevgeniy Zhukov.

“This project will help to rebuild critical infrastructure in affected areas and restore rural livelihoods,” he said.

Large swathes of areas were left inundated in Pakistan this year, as the country suffered a prolonged and intense monsoon that led to the country’s worst flooding in a century.

A post-disaster needs assessment conducted by the government and development partners, including ADB, estimated total damage and losses at more than $30 billion and recovery and reconstruction needs at $16.3 billion.

ADB said that the loan would be utilize to reconstruct about 400 kilometers (km) of roads; about 85 km of the N-5, the country’s busiest national highway; and about 30 bridges.

“It will also help to restore and upgrade irrigation and drainage structures including canals and on-farm water facilities to restore livelihoods, and strengthen flood risk management structures to mitigate future risks to agricultural land, communities, and assets,” said ADB.

“More people are expected to fall into poverty as a result of the floods and the food-insecure population is likely to double to more than 14 million people in the most affected districts,” said ADB Principal Transport Specialist Zheng Wu.

“In close coordination with the government and other development partners, this project will provide crucial support to restore agriculture and other priority infrastructure to support socioeconomic recovery from floods.”

A $5 million grant, funded through the Japan Fund for Prosperous and Resilient Asia and the Pacific, will support staple crop cultivation in Balochistan and provide at least 60,000 farm households with higher quality, certified rice seeds for increased productivity over 54,000 hectares of land.

The $3 million technical assistance grant will support the implementation of the project and the preparation of an ensuing flood risk management investment.

In October, ADB approved a $1.5 billion loan to support the government’s provision of social protection, food security, and employment to mitigate the adverse impact of cumulative external shocks.

This article was originally published on the Business Recorder website.

The unprecedented floods during the monsoon this year affected 33 million people, with millions in small towns and villages across Pakistan losing their homes in the deluge. A large number of those people continue to live under open skies awaiting promised assistance that had to come long before winter did.

The situation in Balochistan is relatively worse than the rest of the country due to it being under developed with pockets of populations spread over vast areas and a terrain that can appear uninviting if not inaccessible.

Considering the situation, it is imperative to ensure that any assistance meant for the floot-hit reaches them.

That is not what the Jamiat-e-Ulema Islam-Fazl (JUI-F) did when provided tents meant for flood victims.

The tents, with the markings of the UN Refugee Agency (UNHCR) were seen being used as ground covering or carpets at the JUI-F workers’ convention held at the Ayub Stadium in Quetta.

Party leaders and venue administration resorted to blame-game when quizzed about why the tents meant for flood victims were being used at a political event.

Footage shared widely on social media shows tents across the racing track.

The ground’s management said that they had only instructed the JUI-F workers to ensure the safety of race track.

Sources said the tents intended for flood victims were handed over by the Balochistan Provincial Disaster Management Authority (PDMA) to the political party instead of the victims.

I was watching TV last night where a woman called into a prime time talk show and beseeched the journalists to give some updates on the flood-hit parts of Pakistan. Enough of politics and Imran Khan, she said, when my friends abroad ask me for information I actually don’t know what is going on. For God’s sake tell us.

I felt ashamed. We really truly had abandoned telling people about what is happening in those villages. That night, on our work WhatsApp group, our newsroom decided to put more effort into getting updates from areas that were hit by the floods.

One person I know who has been working since the waters came in August is Naween Mangi. A disclaimer here: She is a friend and was a journalist who was my first boss in a newsroom. Since she left journalism after working for Bloomberg, she has been working in her village of Khairo Dero outside Larkana for about 15 years. It was through her that I had much firsthand information about what happened in the floods. I decided to do a quick interview with her on what she had learnt from working in her area.

In this recorded Zoom call we had this morning, I asked her all the questions I had about the latest situation and what needs to be done. Some takeaways:

• The most urgent need is to rebuild homes. People are saying they want one room and will add on later. They are reusing bricks from their collapsed houses. But this time the design is to lay a more sturdy foundation with iron or saria. The people are putting in their own labour and just need engineering advice and help with buying cement and extra bricks or roofing materials.

• People need blankets and winter clothing and shoes.

• When the disaster hit people asked for tents but they were too hot to use. People found better use for plastic sheets to get shade in the September heat. Next time a disaster hits, we don’t always need to assume tents are the solution.

• Ask people what they need because, like most of us, they actually are the best judge of what they need. Making assumptions leads to misplaced donations.

• Don’t donate substandard medicines and dry packed goods.

• People do not necessarily always need bottled drinking water. It is advisable to ask first because in many areas it could be the case that the groundwater is perfectly clean and usable (especially after a flood).

• Respecting and upholding the dignity of people should ideally be a priority when distributing aid. A system of surveying families and issuing tokens may be labour-intensive but can prove much better than driving a truck into town and throwing ration bags from it, which only the fittest can get their hands on in a crowd.

• Rations bags have to be designed to really cater to family needs. Flour and rice measurements should be on the higher side.

KUNRI: Near Kunri, a town in the Umarkot district of Sindh known as Asia’s chili capital, 40-year-old farmer Leman Raj rustles through dried plants looking for any of the bright red chillis in his largely destroyed crop which may have survived.

“My crops suffered heavily from the heat, then the rains started, and the weather changed completely. Now, because of the heavy rains we have suffered heavy losses in our crops, and this is what has happened to the chilies,” he said, holding up desiccated, rotten plants. “All the chilies have rotted away.”

Floods that wreaked havoc across Pakistan in August and September, on the back of several years of high temperatures, have left chili farmers struggling to cope. In a country heavily dependent on agriculture, the more extreme climate conditions are hitting rural economies hard, farmers and experts say, underscoring the vulnerability of swathes of South Asia’s population to changing weather patterns.

Officials have already estimated damages from the floods at over $40 billion.

Pakistan is ranked fourth in the world for chili production, with 150,000 acres (60,700 hectares) of farms producing 143,000 tonnes annually. Agriculture forms the backbone of the economy, leaving it vulnerable to climate change.

Before the floods, hot temperatures made it harder to grow chili, which needs more moderate conditions.

“When I was a child, the heat was never so intense. We used to have a plentiful crop, but now it has become so hot, and the rains are so scarce that our yields have dwindled,” Raj said.

Read: Punjab stops supply of flour to other provinces

Dr. Attaullah Khan, director of the Arid Zone Research Centre at the Agricultural Research Council, told Reuters that heatwaves over the past three years had affected the growth of chili crops in the area, causing diseases that curled their leaves and stunted their growth.

Now the floods pose a whole new set of challenges.

“Coming to climate change: how do we overcome that?” he said. “Planning has to be done on a very large scale. Four waterways that used to carry (excess) water to the ocean have to be revived. For that, we will have to take some very hard decisions but we don’t have any other choice.”

Many farmers say they have already faced tough decisions.

As flooding inundated his farm a few months ago, Kunri farmer Faisal Gill decided to sacrifice his cotton crops to try to save chili.

“We constructed dikes around cotton fields and installed pumps, and dug up tranches in the chili crop to accumulate water and pump it out into the cotton crop fields, as both crops are planted side by side,” Gill said.

Destroying his cotton enabled him to save just 30 percent of his chili crop, he said, but that was better than nothing.

In Kunri’s bustling wholesale chili market, Mirch Mandi, the effect is also being felt. Though mounds of bright red chili dot the market, traders said there is a huge drop in previous years.

“Last year, at this time, there used to be around 8,000 to 10,000 bags of chilies in the market,” trader Raja Daim said.

“This year, now you can see that there are barely 2,000 bags here, and it is the first day of the week. By tomorrow, and the day after, it will become even less,” he said.

Islamabad: Finance Minister Ishaq Dar has stated that Pakistan wants to further augment its bilateral relations with the United States in the fields of economy, investment, and trade.

Talking to US Ambassador to Pakistan Donald Blome in Islamabad, he said the two countries have historic, long-standing, extensive, and durable relations.

The finance minister apprised the ambassador about the estimated losses faced by Pakistan due to recent devastating floods and appreciated the US support for flood relief activities.

Donald Blome expressed the same sentiments on bilateral relations between the United States and Pakistan.

He also informed about his recent visit to flood-affected areas and expressed sympathy for the enormous losses caused by floods.

The recent floods in Pakistan have affected 33 million people, many lost their homes, jobs, and businesses, large number of cattle and crops are devastated, tens of thousands people are still homeless. Pakistan estimates the total losses from its recent floods could be as high as $40bn – $10bn more than the government’s initial estimate.

ISLAMABAD: Pakistan needs at least US$16.3 billion for rehabilitation and reconstruction in a resilient way to support the country’s adaptation to climate change and overall resilience of the country to future climate shocks, said a new report of Post Disaster Needs Assessment (PDNA) launched here on Friday.

The assessment estimates total damages to exceed $14.9 billion, and total economic losses to reach about USD 15.2 billion.

The report shows that housing; agriculture and livestock and transport and communications sectors suffered the most significant damage, at $5.6 billion, $3.7 billion, and $3.3 billion, respectively.

Sindh is the worst affected province with close to 70 percent of total damages and losses, followed by Balochistan, Khyber Pakhtunkhwa and Punjab.

The Ministry of Planning, Development and Special Initiatives led the Post-Disaster Needs Assessment (PDNA), which was conducted jointly with the Asian Development Bank (ADB), the European Union (EU), the United Nations agencies with technical facilitation by the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) and the World Bank.

The PDNA, in addition to estimating damages, economic losses and recovery and reconstruction needs, also assesses broader macro-economic and human impacts and recommends principles along which it has to develop a comprehensive recovery and reconstruction framework.

The report was launched by Minister for Planning, Development and Special Initiatives Ahsan Iqbal, Minister for Economic Affairs Division (EAD) Ayaz Sadiq and Minister for Climate Change Sherry Rehman.

Addressing the ceremony, Ahsan Iqbal asked International Monetary Fund (IMF) to soften the conditions on Pakistan government to utilize its own resources.

ISLAMABAD: Different parts of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa (KP), Gilgit-Baltistan, Kashmir, Potohar region and other parts of upper Punjab received first rainfall of this winter season last night (Wednesday) that considerably brought down the temperatures in these areas on Thursday.

Some of these areas also received hails.

The weather grew cold following heavy rain, accompanied by strong winds in Islamabad and its outskirts while the weather department predicted more rain, with hail at places, for the federal capital during the next 24 hours, especially in the morning.

The Met Office said that more rains and hailstorms were expected in different parts of KP, GB, Kashmir and upper Punjab during the next 24 hours.

It predicted rain, strong winds, hailstorms and snow at higher elevations in Chitral, Dir, Swat, Abbottabad, Balakot, Mansehra, Kohistan, Malakand, Buner, Darosh, Mirkhani, Mardan, Haripur, Bajaur, Mohmand, Kurram, Kohat,

Peshawar, Charsadda and Nowshera in upper and central KP, and dry weather for Bannu, Dera Ismael Khan, North and South Waziristan, which are located in the south of the province.

The weather department forecasts thundershowers and gusty winds for Rawalpindi, Murree, Galyat, Jhelum, Attock, Chakwal, Gujrat, Gujranwala, Sialkot, Narowal, Lahore, Jhang, Toba Tek Singh, Faisalabad, Khushab, Sargodha and Mianwali in upper and central Punjab in the morning.

The department said parts of these areas also expected to receive hails. However, it predicted dry weather for southern parts of the province during the next 24 hours.

Similarly, the weather will remain dry in most parts of Sindh and Balochistan, the Met Office forecast.

However, it said, gales were likely in Dalbandin, Nokandi in Balochistan.

ISLAMABAD: Pakistan is considering buying discounted Russian oil, its finance minister said on Wednesday, as he sought to allay concerns that the country might need to reschedule its Paris Club debt following devastating floods.

Credit agency Moody’s cut Pakistan’s sovereign rating by one notch on Oct. 6, citing increased liquidity and external vulnerability risks caused by the floods’ economic impact, in a decision strongly contested by the government.

Economists say Pakistan will have to explore all options to raise and save on its foreign reserves, which have fallen to around one month of imports that consist largely of oil and gas purchases.

Asked if Pakistan might turn to cheap Russian oil, Finance Minister Ishaq Dar told reporters: “We’re definitely considering it. If India is buying oil from Russia, we also have a right (to do so).”

The Group of Seven richest economies has been trying to enforce a price-capping mechanism on Russian oil exports by Dec. 5, when European Union sanctions banning seaborne imports of Russian crude come into force.

Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif has appealed for debt relief from the Paris Club, but Dar said on Wednesday that Pakistan would not seek a restructuring from that group of creditor nations, and neither would it default.

“We can, God willing, manage (to meet our fiscal commitments),” he told a conference in Islamabad. “I assure you don’t need to worry.”

Pakistan’s economy, already in turmoil with a rising current account deficit, over 20% inflation and a massive rupee depreciation, has been further weakened by the floods, whose economic impact is estimated at above $30 billion.

Dar, who told Reuters in an interview last week that Pakistan will seek a restructuring of bilateral debt worth $27 billion, also said Pakistan would repay a $1 billion Eurobond that matures this year.

He met credit rating agencies and U.S. administration officials last week at the International Monetary Fund and World Bank annual meetings.

ISLAMABAD: Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif has emphasized the need to utilize all available resources for early dewatering of flood-stricken areas of Balochistan.

He said this while talking to the media on the occasion of a briefing given to him regarding progress on relief and rehabilitation activities in District Sohbatpur on Monday.

The premier said that 25 thousand rupees are being distributed among flood-affected families, adding that the government would provide seeds to farmers for the next cultivation season.

“The affected people have not been charged electricity bills for the last two month,” the prime minister said and directed the concerned authorities to take further measures to control the spread of waterborne diseases in flood-affected areas.

He appreciated the efforts of the provincial government in providing clean drinking water and distributing mosquito nets among affected people.

PM Shehbaz also visited Jacobabad and reviewed relief and rehabilitation efforts in the flood-affected areas.

Later, the prime minister visited Flood Relief Camp established in Sohbatpur to review available facilities for flood-stricken families.

On this occasion, he also met flood-affected families and schoolchildren and asked questions about the problems being faced by them. Balochistan’s Chief Secretary Abdul Aziz Uqaili briefed him about measures taken for assistance and rehabilitation of flood and rain affectees.

He said 359 medical camps are working in Sohbatpur and twelve thousands tents have also been distributed in flood affectees of Sohbatpur.

ISLAMABAD: World Bank will provide 850 million dollars in aid to the 34 flood-affected districts of Pakistan including Dera Ghazi Khan and Rajanpur.

A delegation of UNO met Commissioner DG Khan Liaquat Ali Chatta in Multan on Monday and discussed the required assistance.

Divisional Commissioner DG Khan told the delegation that all flood-affected people of DG Khan and Rajanpur districts have shifted back to their home sites.

He said the flood victims deprived of their homes are staying in tents. Tanveer Ahmad Khan, the representative of the United Nations in Pakistan, said that the UNO wants to work with local administration.

KARACHI: Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif on Sunday called for collective steps to ensure food security in the world.

“The recent devastating floods destroyed standing crops on millions of acres. An agricultural country like Pakistan will have to import edible items to compensate for these crop losses,” the premier said in a tweet, adding that World Food Day highlighted the need for collective measures to ensure the food security of different countries.

“Due to climate-induced natural disasters and because of rising prices in the international market, there is a risk of further shortage of already scarce nutritional food at the international level,” the prime minister added.

He said climate change was having negative effects on our lives and the increase in poverty and hunger were the foremost issues.

The United Kingdom announced on Friday to provide an additional £10 million of life-saving humanitarian aid for flood relief efforts in Pakistan.

Lord Tariq Ahmad of Wimbledon, UK Minister of State for South Asia (FCDO), during his visit to flood-affected areas of Pakistan, announced the additional humanitarian aid.

In addition to the UK’s £26.5 million donation in humanitarian funding, a UK Royal Air Force flight recently delivered 8 boats and 10 portable generators for use in flood relief operations.

In a press statement, British Embassy said that during his visit Lord Tariq Ahmad met Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif, Foreign Minister Bilawal Bhutto Zardari, and other key government counterparts, community leaders, and aid agencies to discuss the response to the humanitarian crisis and long-term recovery for the country.

The additional extra £10m will be spent on “urgent life-saving needs such as providing shelter, water, and sanitation to prevent waterborne diseases,” it said, elaborating that the funds will focus on supporting people who were still displaced and those returning to their land by helping re-establish communal water supplies.

In his statement, Lord (Tariq) Ahmad of Wimbledon said that the UK continued to help the people of Pakistan recover from the recent devastating floods.

“Our support will help to tackle the spread of waterborne diseases and to improve access to clean water, sanitation, medical care, and shelter across the country”.

“We are working night and day with Pakistan and our international partners to ensure that UK aid reaches the hardest hit areas. As well as helping with urgent life-saving needs, the UK is supporting Pakistan’s economic recovery and resilience against future climate disasters,” he added.

He said the UK’s new Developing Countries Trading Scheme would help grow trade by giving duty-free access to 94% of goods exported from Pakistan to the UK.

ISLAMABAD: Over 1,76,153 acres of crops destroyed, 4,66,366 homes affected, and over 2,16,974 cattle have been reported dead amid flooding across the country, the National Flood Response Coordination Committee’s (NFRCC) latest figures show.

According to the NFRCC, over 1,60,460 homes were partially affected while 1,17,356 were completely demolished amid the floods.

The committee issued province-wise data on damages caused by the floods across the country. The NFRCC has announced to coordinate with multiple institutions to form a low-cost rehabilitation program for affected people.

Balochistan

In Balochistan, over 3,90,201 homes have been affected while 124 people have lost their lives amid floods. 1,33,994 homes were completely demolished while 94,742 homes were partially damaged.

Crops on 1,57,954 acres have been affected, while 89,234 cattle were reported dead due to floods.

Gilgit Baltistan

In Gilgit Baltistan, 23 people were reported dead, and 8,479 homes were affected due to floods, the NFRCC told. At least 667 houses were completely demolished while 1126 suffered partial damage, it added.

Crops on 9,244 acres were affected and 609 cattle were reported dead amid floods.

Punjab

In Punjab 2,328 homes were completely demolished, and 373 were partially affected by floods. Crops on 2208 acres were affected, while 307 cattle were reported dead due to floods.

Khyber Pakhtunkhwa (KP)

Over 33,301 homes were affected, 85 dead, and at least 10,048-acre crops were affected by floods in KP. At least 23,222 cattle were reported dead, NFRCC told.

Sindh

Sindh suffered a loss of 10,721 acres of crops, 3,603 cattle and 26 lives lost. Over 14,967 homes were affected by floods, out of which 9,576 were completely destroyed.

KARACHI: At least 17 flood affected people died of burns near Nooriabad on Wednesday night when the passenger bus caught fire they were travelling in caught fire, officials said. The incident occurred at the M-9 motorway connecting Karachi with Hyderabad and Jamshoro cities of Sindh province.

So far, 17 passengers have died in the accident, 10 were injured who were treated by rescue teams, parliamentary health secretary Siraj Qasim Soomro told reporters.

Around 35 people were travelling in the bus.

“Those who were travelling in the bus were flood affected people who had relocated somewhere off the motorway, and they were heading back home in Dadu district,” Jamshoro District Commissioner Asif Jameel told Reuters.

They were using private transport for the purpose, Jameel added.

Dadu district is among the worst flood hit districts of the Sindh province.

It was not immediately clear as to what caused the fire, but police said that apparently the fire erupted at the rear portion of the bus which engulfed the entire bus. Some passengers jumped out of the bus to escape the fire.

In August, 20 people died in a fiery crash at a motorway in Multan Southern Punjab when it collided with an oil tanker. Deadly road accidents are common in Pakistan, mainly due to speeding, poor road infrastructure and use of unfit vehicles. In 2017, an oil tanker overturned and caught fire in the region, killing more than 100 people.

The recent spell of floods that following historic monsoon claimed nine more lives taking the death toll to 1,717 across Pakistan, the National Disaster Management said on Tuesday.

Of those killed, 733 were men, 345 were women and 639 were children. More than 12,000 people were injured.

The provincial breakdown of casualties stands at:

• Sindh: 779 deaths
• Balochistan: 336 deaths
• Khyber Pakhtunkhwa: 308

The report also detailed infrastructure losses, stating that 436 bridges were affected by the flood. Road network spanning 13,115 kilometers was also damaged.

A total of 1,308,159 were partially damaged due to recent floods, while more than 8,06,000 hwere completely destroyed. The number of livestock lost due to the floods is estimated at 1.1 million.

ISLAMABAD: Between six and nine million Pakistanis are set to be dragged into poverty as a result of cataclysmic monsoon flooding linked to climate change, the World Bank said on Thursday.

Pakistan has been lashed by unprecedented monsoon rains this year which killed 1,700, devastated two million homes, and put a third of the nation underwater.

Eight million people remain displaced, living in ramshackle tent cities and scattered camps near the stagnant lakes which swallowed their belongings and livelihoods.

A World Bank report said Pakistan’s poverty rate is expected to rise between 2.5 and 4 percentage points as a direct consequence of the floods.

Loss of jobs, livestock, harvests, houses, and the closure of schools – as well as spread of disease and rising food costs – threaten to put between 5.8 and 9 million in poverty, it said.

“Reversing these negative socio-economic effects is likely to take considerable time,” it added.

In the nation of 220 million some 20 per cent are already living below the poverty line, according to Asian Development Bank data.

Before the deluges began Pakistan’s coffers were already in dire shape, with a cost-of-living crisis, a nose-diving rupee and dwindling foreign exchange reserves.

The World Bank said inflation in the country is set to stand at 23 per cent for the financial year 2023.

Pakistan is responsible for less than one per cent of global greenhouse gasses, but places highly in rankings of nations vulnerable to extreme weather caused by climate change.

Credible research says severe weather events are becoming more frequent and more severe as a result of man-made emissions.

Islamabad has called for richer and more industrialised nations with larger carbon footprints to contribute to the aid effort as a form of climate justice.

“We have no space to give our economy a stimulus package, which would create jobs, and provide people with the sustainable incomes they need,” said climate change minister Sherry Rehman on Tuesday.

“We are still in a long, relentless struggle to save lives.”

KARACHI: Foreign Minister Bilawal Bhutto Zardari said that the Sindh government has done a commendable job by discharging the stagnant water speedily, adding that by end of November, “we will be ready to cultivate the Rabi crop and Inshallah will help the small growers to reclaim their lands and make them fit for cultivation”.

The foreign minister said that in Pakistan, 33 million people – one in seven people - have been affected by unprecedented rains/floods, and the cumulative losses and damages have been estimated at $30 billion.

“We are estimating the losses but the actual survey will take place when the inundated areas are cleared,” he said while addressing a press conference at CM House on Thursday.

The PPP chairman was accompanied by Sindh Chief Minister Syed Murad Ali Shah, Sindh PPP President Senator Nisar Khuhro, Minister Information Sharjeel Memon, Minister Irrigation Jam Khan Shoro, Saeed Ghani, Murtaza Wahab, Advisor to CM Rasool Bux Chandio and others.

Bilawal said that a great portion of the country was facing inundation as floods were still in progress because the water was coming down from Balochistan. He added that 50 percent of the total inundation had been cleared, but various towns and settlements in Sindh, Balochistan, Southern Punjab, and KPK were still under water. “Out KN Shah, Kotdiji, and various other towns and cities looking like the sea.

He said that it was not a riverine flood, but it was the result of a heavy downpour that displaced a population of 33 million people – equivalent to the population of the UK, Australia, and New Zealand. “Now, the stagnant water has started breaking out water-borne diseases, breeding mosquitoes and causing malaria, dengue, and such other issues,” he said and added the floods have damaged 10 percent of our health facilities infrastructure; therefore, the required services have also been affected but even then 3.8 million people have been provided medical treatment through special medical camps.

The foreign minister said that one-third of the country had been inundated but some politicians instead of coming over to help the affected people were playing politics, demanding elections, and trying to subvert the government’s efforts to rescue and rehabilitate the affected population.

Bilawal said that it was not only a massive displacement of the people but their standing crops over millions of acres have been washed away, therefore the country was facing multiples losses such as economic loss, loss of lives, and the cattle, therefore we have to take concrete measures to ensure food security.

He agreed to a question that the government has not reached to each and every affected person. “The catastrophe is so huge that if an affected person has been provided with a tent, but he has not been given mosquito net, if a person has been given ration he has not been given water and if he has got water his cattle cannot be given fodder,” he said and added still we were trying to provide relief goods to each and every flood-victim.

The foreign minister thanked Prime Minister Shahbaz Sharif who has owned each and every person affected by floods. “He owns the entire Pakistan and feels the pain of each, and every person hit by the flood,” he said and added the prime minister visited all the flooded areas, met with the people, and supported them.

Bilawal said that the international community was ready to help but deplored that some politicians were hatching conspiracies and giving irresponsible statements to affect the international support reaching the affected people in Pakistan. “But, this will not affect because we have reconstructed and restored the cordial relationship with all the countries which were vitiated by the PTI Chairman during his tenure as prime minister.,” he said.

He said that he was not thinking about who will vote for us or not, but we have to help everyone to rehabilitate him,“ he said and vowed to help every flood victim in the country.

“We will not give up but keep supporting people and iNshallah will pass through this time of the test. We are assessing the damage.”

The foreign minister thanked UN Secretary-General Mr. Antonio Guterres for his visit to the flooded areas of Pakistan to witness the magnitude of the catastrophe. “He visited the flooded areas, met with the people living in the camps, visited health facilities, and went to visit Mohenjo Daro, the World Heritage Site, that also been damaged by heavy downpours,” Mr. Bhutto Zardari said and added that Mr. Guterres admitted that he has never seen such a huge catastrophe in his life.

The foreign minister also thanked US President, Mr. Biden, for his support for the affected people.

The foreign minister appreciated the provincial government for convincing the World Bank to come over and help reconstruct the collapsed houses at a cost of Rs110 billion.

“The provincial government has taken the lead in reaching the donor agency and convincing them for the solid support,” he added.

He said that the issue of climate change needed to be addressed on an international level. “Our contribution of carbon emission is hardly 0.8 percent, but we faced the catastrophe squarely.

ISLAMABAD: The United Nations has upscaled its humanitarian appeal for the flood-affected people of Pakistan to $816 million from the previous $160 million assistance, considering a multitude of rehabilitation and health-related issues, cropping up in the post-flood situation, Julien Harneis, UN Humanitarian Coordinator for Pakistan said at a briefing in Geneva, held prior to the main event held simultaneously in Geneva and Pakistan on Tuesday.

“There will be an increase in child morbidity and it will be pretty terrible unless we act rapidly to support the government in increasing the provision of health, nutrition, and water and sanitation services across the affected areas,” Reuters has quoted the UN official as saying.

The revised appeal was made for Pakistan on the basis of an updated on-ground need assessment of the flood situation in the country.

According to the latest data and estimates, nearly 1,700 people had been killed in the floods triggered by heavy monsoon downpours. Millions had been displaced while the UN also raised alarm on the rise of water-borne diseases in the flood-hit population.

The government of Pakistan estimated the cost of the damage at $30 billion. Both the government and the UN have viewed climate change as the main reason behind the befall of natural catastrophe in Pakistan.

The Foreign Office, earlier in a press statement, said the Floods Response Plan had been prepared in close coordination between the government of Pakistan and the United Nations and focuses on providing necessary assistance to the vulnerable people affected by the unprecedented floods. It complemented the government’s overall response to the recent climate-induced floods in Pakistan.

In her virtual address from Islamabad to the event on an upscale UN Flash Appeal for Pakistan floods held in Geneva, Minister of State for Foreign Affairs Hina Rabbani Khar called on the need for a comprehensive future-based strategy to equip the people in Pakistan to survive the devastation of floods.

She said it was the collective responsibility of the world to provide assistance to the people badly affected by the country’s massive flash floods.

She mentioned the ‘resilience and endurance’ of the people in the flood-hit areas and said that efforts needed to be converged on their rehabilitation.

Minister for Climate Change Sherry Rehman, while stressing immediate global help, said that Pakistan could not afford to spend more on recovering from devastating climate-induced floods.

She told the conference that the world was facing an accelerated global warming issue.

“It is becoming clear to all that this is the climate event of the century.”

“The scale of the catastrophe is more than existential. We are gathered here to reboot your compassion simply because the numbers are too staggering to serve any country alone,” she maintained.

The minister pointed out that it was a real race against time for the country.

“Winter is fast approaching, people are left at the mercy of open skies, about 7.9m are still scrambling for dry land,” she added.

Speaking on the occasion, Director General World Health Organisation Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus told the meeting that Pakistan was on the verge of a public health disaster.

Under-Secretary-General for Humanitarian Affairs and Emergency Relief Coordinator Martin Griffiths said the people of Pakistan were the victims of global inaction to tackle issues emanating from climate change.

The UN official stressed the need for the supply of shelters and other essential household items to the families affected by floods in Pakistan.

The ministerial-level participation from the Government of Pakistan included Minister for Climate Change Senator Sherry Rehman, who attended the event in person in Geneva, and Minister for Planning, Development and Special Initiatives Professor Ahsan Iqbal, Minister for Economic Affairs Sardar Ayaz Sadiq, and Minister of State for Foreign Affairs Hina Rabbani Khar participated virtually from Islamabad.

UN Under-Secretary-General for Humanitarian Affairs and Emergency Relief Coordinator Martin Griffiths and Director General World Health Organization Dr. Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus represented the UN, along with Resident Coordinator in Pakistan Julien Harneis.

The meeting was attended by UN member states as well as various UN agencies and humanitarian organizations working in the area of disaster relief.

KARACHI: After a lapse of almost five weeks, trains have returned to railtracks in Karachi, with the resumption of the Rehman Baba Express and Khyber Mail Express that transport people between Peshawar in the country’s north and Karachi at the southern tip.

Three other trains running between Karachi and Lahore have also resumed service with a new fare: the Karakoram Express, Pak Business Express and Karachi Express.

Railway officials at the Cantt Station said that the Rehman Baba Express would depart at the schedule time of 10am while Khyber Mail would leave at 10pm.

Train services in various parts of the country were suspended as train infrastructure, including railway bridges, were either destroyed or submerged in floodwater. As floodwaters start receding, train services have started resuming.

However, train service between Karachi and Quetta remains suspended. A decision on the Awami Express and Jaffar Express is expected on Wednesday, October 5.

With the resumption, commuters are expected to return to train stations to return to train stations. But footfall at the Cantt Station remained low on Tuesday, with passengers complaning about inordinate delays.

‘Losses in billions’

Federal Minister of Railways Khawaja Saad Rafique said on Tuesday that revenue worth tens of millions of rupees has been lost due to the closure of railway operations.

Speaking to the media in Lahore, Rafique said that the Pakistan Railways (PR) was facing financial uncertainty due to the floods.

The minister that they would move the relevant court against over an appeal by the department seeking permmission for commercial use of railway land.

“We can recoup losses to the tune of Rs6 to Rs7 billion if we given permision,” he said, adding that the country’s top court has been approached in this regard.