UN appeals for €356m in Pakistan flood aid

THE United Nations appealed yesterday for$459 million (€356m) in aid for flood-hit Pakistan, warning of a second wave of death among sick, hungry survivors unless help arrives quickly.

Roiling floods triggered by unusually heavy monsoon rain have scoured Pakistan’s Indus river basin, killing more than 1,600 people, forcing 2 million from their homes and disrupting the lives of about 14 million people, or 8% of the population.

President Asif Ali Zardari, whose government has come in for harsh criticism for its perceived sluggish response to the disaster, defended a decision to travel abroad as the floods began, saying he helped focus international attention on the plight of the victims.