ISLAMABAD: A funding appeal that received only a third of its target, according to the United Nations on Thursday, will run out of emergency food aid for Pakistani communities that were ravaged by the floods in January.
During the summer, Pakistan experienced unprecedented monsoon rains that submerged a third of the country, damaged two million homes, and killed over 1,700 people.
At a press conference held in the nation’s capital, UN Resident Coordinator for Pakistan Julien Harneis stated, “It is a big concern for us to ensure food security in the coming days and weeks for the people affected by rains.”
The United Nations had asked for more than $816 million, but it said that only $262 million has been received from international donors for its agencies and other NGOs.
Harneis went on to say, “It is deeply worrying because other emergency responses around the world get a far higher percentage of response and we are not getting that financing here.”
The UN’s Reality Food Program will hit a financial dead end for Pakistan on January 15, said the head of its central goal in the country Chris Kaye.
He continued, “Unless we get the necessary support, we have a major and frankly, I think, very serious crisis ahead of us as we go into 2023.”
According to Kaye, during the winter, the number of people in need of life-saving food assistance will increase from the four million previously identified individuals to 5.1 million.
The floods have dropped between eight and nine million people below the poverty line.
Many already-poor families lost their livelihoods as a result of the monsoon’s destruction of large areas of crops.
Although the majority of the floodwater has receded, some homes are still submerged, resulting in families living on elevated roads or in camps for the displaced.
According to the United Nations, some people have been forced into child labor, child marriage, or trafficking.
While Pakistan accounts for less than one percent of the world’s greenhouse gas emissions, it ranks highly among nations most at risk for extreme weather as a result of climate change.
