25 August 2010

United States Diverting Funds for More Pakistan Relief

Workers unload relief goods from a truck at an army relief camp for displaced people at Sultan Colony in Muzaffargarh district, Punjab province, Pakistan, on August 25.

By Merle David Kellerhals Jr.
Staff Writer

Washington — The United States is providing an additional $50 million to help Pakistan cope with the worst monsoon flooding seen there in more than 80 years, says Rajiv Shah, administrator of the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID).

Shah announced the additional funding in Sukkur, Pakistan, August 25 after he had completed a relief flight delivering plastic sheeting for shelters for flood-affected families. The new funds are being diverted from a five-year, $7.5 billion development program to help Pakistan that was announced by President Obama in 2009.

“The additional funding will support early recovery programs, such as rehabilitation of community infrastructure and livelihood recovery activities,” USAID said in an August 25 announcement.

The United States has already committed $150 million to Pakistan flood relief.

Shah told reporters that because of the immediate crisis, some priorities outlined in Obama’s development program for Pakistan may have to be shifted to a greater focus on recovery and reconstruction. Shah visited the Sukkur Barrage, which was partially breached by the heavy flooding. He discussed relief efforts with local officials and also spoke with families and visited a health clinic, according to USAID.

The United States is continuing to expand assistance and development programs in flood-stricken Pakistan, providing temporary bridges and mobilizing significant civilian and military resources to rescue victims of the flooding and deliver much-needed supplies, U.S. officials say. The United States is working closely with Pakistan’s National Disaster Management Authority (NDMA) in relief efforts.

U.S. Army Brigadier General Michael Nagata, the deputy commander of the Office of the Defense Representative, Pakistan, said at a briefing August 25 that the “focus, of course, is to save lives and provide humanitarian assistance, at the request of the government of Pakistan, to the people that have been affected by this terrible natural disaster.”

One of the pressing challenges is reaching people cut off by the flooding, Nagata said. The United Nations said August 25 that there are about 800,000 people who are accessible only by helicopters. Nagata said the United States is providing helicopters to the Pakistani authorities and will provide more as requested.

According to the U.S. Embassy in Islamabad, since the flooding began at the end of July U.S. civilian and military aircraft have evacuated at least 7,835 people and delivered more than 1.6 million pounds (725,750 kilos) of relief supplies in the most remote areas of Pakistan where relief convoys cannot travel overland. “The United States also is providing millions of dollars of additional in-kind and technical assistance,” the embassy said in a statement August 23.

Pakistani authorities say more than 6 million people have been left homeless from the mountainous north to the low-lying plains in the south, and water levels are still rising. Officials estimate 20 million Pakistanis have been affected by the floods. Authorities are hopeful that the flood waters will reach their crest and begin draining into the Arabian Sea within the coming days.

Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton previously announced that the United States is providing approximately $150 million to support relief efforts in Pakistan, including funding for the operations of the National Disaster Management Authority, the U.N.’s emergency relief plan and the many local and international organizations responding to this disaster.

The World Food Programme has reached more than 1.3 million flood-affected people with approximately 16,000 metric tons of food aid. Approximately 50 percent of that assistance was provided by the United States.

USAID has provided the World Food Programme with an additional $32.2 million so local and regional authorities can buy food, which brings the total U.S. contribution for food assistance to more than $51 million. U.S. water-treatment units have provided 4.8 million liters of safe drinking water, the embassy said.

(This is a product of the Bureau of International Information Programs, U.S. Department of State. Web site: http://www.america.gov)