My comment is live on the World News Network on the Subject:Pakistan floods: UN urges world to step up aid efforts:The Observer

With best compliments,
B.N.Singh. Subject:Pakistan floods: UN urges world to step up aid efforts:The Observer

Bishwa Nath Singh
from Dalmianagar (Bihar),India.
Ban Ki-moon, UN chief on the 15th of August 2010 after visiting flood ravaged areas in Pakistan has expressed his shock and concern over pitiable conditions of flood affected areas of Pakistan urged the world to quicken aid for up to twenty million people hit by Pakistan’s worst humanitarian crisis. The United Nations has appealed for four hundred sixty million dollars to deal with the immediate aftermath of the floods but has warned that billions will be required in the long term with villages, businesses, crops and infrastructure wiped out. Pak. Govt. has appealed to the international community to help it cope with the challenges of a crisis that Pak.Prime Minister has compared to the 1947 partition of the sub-continent. Ban had asserted that He was here also to urge the world community to speed up their assistance to the Pakistani people that he had told reporters. He said he would report back to the UN General Assembly first thing this week and he will try to mobilize all necessary assistance and remember that the whole world is behind the people of Pakistan in this time of natural calamities Ban Ki-moon who after holding discussion with Pak. President & Pak. Prime Minister had flown over devastated areas in Punjab, agriculturally enrich areas of Pakistan and had met survivors at a relief camp in Muzaffargarh, where people are now returning after the flood danger passed what local officials had said to him. Around a quarter of the country appears to have been affected by the flooding, officials estimate. Some of the worst-hit areas are in the volatile northwest, where Taleban militants have been locked in fighting with Pakistani troops, and the wealthiest and agriculturally most important areas of Punjab and Sindh. Fresh foods hit the southwestern province of Baluchistan overnight, devastating hundreds of villages and causing tens of thousands to flee that was disclosed by the commissioner in the town of Jaffarabad. He had said that the situation is grim. Pakistan having population of 167 million is on the front line of the US-led fight against Al Qaeda and Western governments have traced overseas terror plots back to Taleban and Al Qaeda camps in the lawless tribal mountains. Pak..Premier had said that the floods affected some twenty million people, destroyed standing crops and food storages worth billions of dollars, causing colossal loss to national economy. Outbreak of epidemics in the flood-hit areas is a serious threat that can further compound the already grave situation, The United Nations estimates that fourteen million have been affected and that one thousand six hundred people have died whereas the Pak. Govt. in Islamabad has confirmed one thousand three hundred eighty four deaths. In the south, officials called on the city of Jacobabad to evacuate, saying ninety percent of residents had already fled as waters reached its outskirts, although the meteorological service expects the floods to ease from the 16th of August 2010.Jacobabad had presented a deserted look with scores of vehicles stranded on the flooded main road from the south as revealed by medias personnel. The United Nations has confirmed the country’s first cholera case in Mingora, in the northwestern district of Swat, and said at least thirty six thousand people were reportedly suffering from acute diarrhea. Charities said relief for those affected by the worst natural disaster in Pakistan’s history was lagging far behind what was needed. Humanitarian agencies were monitoring the risk of ‘a second wave of deaths induced by the floods in the shape of water-borne diseases. It is every likelihood that on appeal of Ban Ki-moon the international aids are bound to rush in Pak. but the difficulty is that the fund thus reached must be properly utilized We can express our deep sympathy with Pak. People on this hour of natural calamities.


World News Network
August 16,2010.