The United Nations said Monday that massive floods in Pakistan had affected 13.8 million people and eclipsed the scale of the devastating 2004 tsunami , as anger mounted among survivors. The Pakistani government and UN officials have appealed for more urgent relief efforts to cope with the worst floods in more than 80 years, with President Asif Ali Zardari due to return home after a heavily criticised European tour. The entire northwestern Swat valley, where Pakistan fought a major campaign to flush out Taliban insurgents last year, was cut off at the weekend as were parts of the country's breadbasket in Punjab and Sindh. "This disaster is worse than the tsunami, the 2005 Pakistan earthquake and the Haiti earthquake ," Maurizio Giuliano, a spokesman for the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA), told AFP. He said the 13.8 million affected outstripped the more than three million hit by the 2005 earthquake, five million in the tsunami and the three million affected by the Haiti earthquake. The United Nations estimates 1,600 people have died in Pakistan's floods. About 220,000 were killed by the December 26, 2004 tsunami in Southeast Asia.
Martin Mogwanja, the UN humanitarian coordinator in Pakistan, called on relief operations "to be massively scaled up". "Millions of people have suffered and still there is more rain and further losses are feared. I appeal to the world to help us," Prime Minister Yousuf Raza Gilani told reporters. Foreign donors including the United States have pledged tens of millions of dollars in aid but, on the ground, Islamic charities with suspected extremist links have been far more visible in the relief effort than the government. Pakistan's meteorological office forecast only scattered rain in the next 24 hours and said the intensity of monsoon showers was lessening. But with floods sweeping south, thousands of people are fleeing into cities to seek safety as heavy rains continued to lash the province of Sindh and water levels rose further in the swollen Indus river. Hundreds of farm workers were stranded on a bridge in the highway town of Karampur in northern Sindh,AFP reporter said. camped out with utensils and bedding while the road beyond lay flooded and the main Indus highway blocked, an "We wanted to go to a safer place but we can't move," said Dodo Khan, 50, an agriculture worker. "Our village is submerged in water. We fled to save our lives. We thought we would get relief goods but we got nothing. "We haven't eaten for three days. My younger son, who is just five years old, is crying with hunger." Gnawing on a piece of onion, the child winces at the bitter taste, crying and visibly unable to swallow. Survivors have for weeks lashed out at authorities for failing to come to their rescue, piling pressure on Pakistan's cash-strapped administration straining to contain Taliban violence and an economic crisis. [ BREITBART ] |
