Pakistan braces for second death wave

THE United Nations warned yesterday that up to 3.5 million children were at risk from water-borne diseases in Pakistan’s floods and said it was bracing for thousands of potential cholera cases.

Fresh rains threaten further anguish for millions of people who have been affected by the country’s worst floods for 80 years and UN secretary general Ban Ki-moon has urged the world to speed up international aid urgently.

Described as the worst humanitarian crisis in the world yesterday, the three-week disaster has affected 20 million people, and has destroyed crops, infrastructure, towns and villages, according to the Pakistani government.

The United Nations has launched an aid appeal for $460 million (€359m), but charities say the response has been sluggish and survivors on the ground have lashed out against the civilian government for failing to help.

Maurizio Giuliano, spokesman for the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA), feared Pakistan was on the brink of a “second wave of death” unless more donor funds materialised.

“Up to 3.5 million children are at high risk of deadly water-borne diseases, including diarrhoea-related, such as watery diarrhoea and dysentery,” he said, estimating the total number at risk from such diseases at six million.

Typhoid, hepatitis A and E are also concerns, he said.

Minister for Overseas Development, Peter Power, yesterday said Irish people can be assured that aid money sent to Pakistan will not go to the Government but to the people suffering as a result of the recent floods.

He said we “simply cannot turn our backs” on the tens of millions of Pakistanis who do not have access to shelter, food, water and sanitation because of the worst floods in decades.

After meeting the Pakistan Ambassador Naghmana A Hashmi yesterday to discuss Ireland’s contribution to the disaster, Power announced the shipment of 100 large multipurpose tents to Pakistan from Ireland’s humanitarian stockpiles.

The €60,000 worth of tents will be used to provide emergency shelter to hundreds of affected families.

He said the Government is working in partnership with aid agencies such as Concern, Trócaire and Goal and has released €800,000 in funds for the immediate humanitarian response.

He also said Ireland had placed a general fund of €20 million with the United Nations to help with the crisis.

He has the Rapid Response Corps on standby and they are ready to deploy if needed.

But he said Irish people should not be concerned that Ireland is bailing out a Government who has spent money on nuclear weapons.

“It’s vital to emphasise that no money whatsoever is going to the Pakistani Government. The vast majority of our contribution to the aid effort is going towards Irish Aid agencies, to the United Nations and, in our non-financial contribution, by way of pre-position stocks and by way of our rapid response corps,” he said.

The United Nations estimates 1,600 people have died in the floods, while the government in Islamabad has confirmed 1,384 deaths.

The floods have sparked rage against the government in the nuclear-armed country on the frontline of the US-led fight against al-Qaida, where the military is locked in battles with homegrown Taliban in the north-west.

Several hundred people yesterday blocked the main highway linking the breadbasket of Punjab province to the financial capital Karachi, calling for assistance and holding up traffic for more than an hour, witnesses said.

“We have no food and no shelter. We need immediate help,” shouted the protesters, who included women and children.

Bibi Momal, 35, sat in dirty clothes and broken shoes on a roadside near the southern city of Sukkur waiting for relief, weak and exhausted. “We have no tents. We spent the night in the rain. Our children are hungry and sick. We came here for relief, but we got nothing.”

In Punjab, evacuation orders were issued to residents of Fazilpur and waters also threatened the nearby town of Khangarh.

“Thousands are getting ready to leave,” said Nasrullah Tareen, 30. “People have taken shelter on high ground. Our major problem is safe drinking water. Water is rising everywhere, but there is no drinking water.”

Floods also threaten the sites of Moenjodaro, on the UNESCO world heritage list, and Aamri, the head of Sindh antiquities said.