The United Nations has decided to appeal for an aid of additional $800 million from the global community to respond to the urgent needs of flood victims of Pakistan, according to a UN official.
The appeal comes only a few weeks after the intergovernmental organization sought $160 million in emergency funding for 33 million flood affectees of Pakistan.
While speaking to local reporters of Islamabad on Friday, Julien Harneis, the U.N. resident coordinator in Pakistan, said that the latest aid appeal will be issued from Geneva on Tuesday.
Harneis told the U.N. decided to publish the revised appeal “to respond to the extraordinary scale of the devastations” caused by the floods. The displaced Pakistanis are now facing waterborne and other diseases, he said.
The outbreaks, according to health officials, have caused over 300 deaths so far.
Along with the UN agencies, several other countries have sent more than 130 relief airlifts carrying aid for the victims of flood, lots of of whom complained that they have either received too little help or are still waiting for it.
Experts and officials have blamed climate change for the torrential rains and resulting flooding.
Earlier this month, U.N. Secretary-General Antonio Guterres visited some of the flood-hit areas while he repeatedly called on the international community to send huge amounts of aid to Pakistan.
Pakistan floods 2022 snapshot (from June 14 – October 1)
- 33 million affected by floods
- 1,693 lost their lives including 629 children
- 13049 wounded
- 2 million houses either partially or fully destroyed
- 1,158,355 livestock lost
- 13,074km of roads and 410 bridges damaged
The unprecedented floods — likely aggravated by climate change — have killed more than 1600 people in Pakistan since mid-June while nearly half a million survivors are still living in tents and makeshift shelters.