ISLAMABAD: Members of the government were increasingly concerned whether next week’s UN-backed conference will succeed in raising the billions of dollars needed to help survivors and launch reconstruction efforts following last summer’s devastating floods.
Authorities say they need $16.3 billion, half of which will be financed from the budget. The government seeks the other half — about $8 billion — in aid donations from the international community.
The United Nations and Pakistan are jointly hosting the conference on Monday in Geneva, which had earlier been billed as a donors conference. However, as expectations of large influxes foundered, the government now says the day-long event will be used to raise the alarm about the situation in the aftermath of the deadly deluge.
Those wanting to announce pledges at the event would be welcome, said Khalil Hashmi, Pakistan’s permanent representative to the UN. He spoke at a news conference in Geneva alongside Knut Ostby, United Nations Development Program’s representative in Pakistan.
The Geneva event aims to foster “solidarity” and support for the victims of the floods that killed 1,739 people and affected 33 million Pakistanis, Hashmi added.
“This is a pivotal moment for the global communities to stand with the people of Pakistan,” said Ostby.
He added hopes that the conference will mobilize the international community to support a resilient recovery from the devastating floods, which also displaced eight million people, damaged two million houses and washed away 13,000 kilometres of roads. At one point, a third of the country was submerged.
Earlier on Thursday, Mumtaz Zahra Baloch, spokesperson of the Foreign Office, said Pakistan suffered more than $30 billion in damages in the unprecedented flooding, according to an UN-supported assessment document.
UN spokesman Stephane Dujarric has announced that UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres will take part in Monday’s conference. He told reporters that Guterres “will call for support to strengthen the resilience of the communities in Pakistan for the future.”
The UN has warned that the funding raised so far for Pakistan’s flood victims will run out this month. The world body has so far received only a third of the $816 million in emergency aid it sought last October for food, medicines and other supplies.
Pakistan, which plays a negligible role in global warming and emits less than one percent of heat-trapping carbon dioxide, is still vulnerable to climate-induced devastation, experts say. Even before the heavy monsoon rains struck in mid-June, cash-strapped Pakistan was facing a serious financial crisis.
The nation also struggles with militant violence. On Thursday, security forces raided a militant hideout in a former Tehreek-i-Taliban Pakistan (TTP) stronghold near the border with Afghanistan, triggering a shootout that killed 11 militants, the military said.
The raid in South Waziristan, a district in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, also killed a militant commander, Hafiz Ullah, the military said.
