Pak needs ‘billions of dollars’ to recover from flood disaster: UN
By ANIMonday, August 9, 2010
ISLAMABAD - The United Nations (UN) has said that Pakistan will need billions of dollars to recover from he unprecedented devastation caused by the country’s worst ever floods.
Over 1,600 people have been killed as raging floodwaters continue to wreak havoc in the country.
UN Special Envoy for Assistance to Pakistan, Jean-Maurice Ripert, said that the UN is still calculating specific figures, but “the emergency phase will require hundreds of millions of dollars and the recovery and reconstruction part will require billions of dollars”.
Ripert also said that the foreign aid could be difficult to procure given the ongoing financial crisis around the world, The Daily Times reports.
The UN has estimated that the deluge, which is being described as the worst in the last 80 years, has affected over four million people.
Relief and rescue work has been hit badly by continuous rains, particularly in the north western region.
According to officials, water from swollen rivers has also entered occupied Kashmir, where more than 130 people have reportedly been killed. Some parts of Punjab are said to be under six feet of water.
The world famous ancient remains of Mohenjodaro are also under threat from the swollen Indus River in the Sindh province.
Over 900,000 cusecs of water is expected to enter Sindh through the Indus River raising fears over the safety of Mohenjodaro, which was declared a World Heritage site by the UN in 1980. (ANI)
