Pakistan says out of money for flood recovery; UN appeals for aid

Pakistan's climate change minister has urged prompt international help to respond to the soaring life-saving needs of Pakistani flood survivors.

Sherry Rehman told a conference in the Swiss city of Geneva on Tuesday that Pakistan was out of money to spend on recovery from recent devastating floods.

"We have no space to give our economy any stimulus," she said.

Rehman called on the international community to accelerate funding for the ongoing domestic climate-linked disaster, which she claimed had no parallel in known history.

Over seven million people have been displaced from their homes, the minister said.

Rehman also said Pakistan was in urgent need of medicine for 8.2 million people and would need to import extra supplies of food as the country's export crops had been washed away.

The floods have submerged huge swathes of the South Asian country and killed nearly 1,700 people, most of them women and children.

The deluge has impacted 33 million people out of a population of 220 million. The floods, caused by abnormal monsoon rains and glacial melt, also caused damage the government estimates to be at $30 billion, as crops, roads, livestock, bridges, houses, schools, and medical facilities were washed away.

The developments come as a surge of water-borne diseases and fear of growing hunger in Pakistan pose new dangers after weeks of unprecedented flooding. Hundreds of thousands of displaced people who are living in the open are being exposed to diseases like malaria, diarrhea, dengue fever, and severe skin and eyes infections.

Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, director general of the World Health Organization, told the meeting Pakistan was "on the verge of a public health disaster."

Pakistan declares emergency as devastating floods affect millions

The government of Pakistan has declared a state of emergency to deal with the monsoon floods that have hit areas across the country.

Speaking at the ceremony, Pakistan's Economic Affairs Minister, Ayaz Sadiq, said that it would take "years and years" for the country to rebuild and help rehabilitate the millions of people whose homes were destroyed by the flooding.

UN, Pakistan launch fresh appeal for rehabilitation 

The world body and Pakistan jointly launched a fresh appeal at the event for the rehabilitation of millions of Pakistanis affected by the devastating floods.

The UN revised up its humanitarian aid appeal for Pakistan five-fold to $816 million from $160 million.

Julien Harneis, the UN resident coordinator and humanitarian coordinator in Pakistan said the $816 million target for the appeal was "absolutely not enough."

"We need all of these funds and we need it quickly," he said, adding that only $90 million out of the $160-million previous UN appeal had so far been received.

The Pakistani government and the UN have blamed climate change for the disaster.

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