ISLAMABAD: Pakistan won more aid pledges Tuesday as UN officials warned money needs to come through faster to help 20 million people hit by disastrous floods and stave off a "second wave of death" from disease.
Torrential monsoon rain triggered catastrophic floods which have affected a fifth of the country, wiping out villages, rich farm land, infrastructure and killing an estimated 1,600 people in the nation`s worst natural disaster.
The United Nations last week launched an immediate appeal for 460 million dollars to cover the next 90 days and UN chief Ban Ki-moon visited Pakistan at the weekend, calling on the world to quicken its aid pledges.
In Geneva on Tuesday the UN said just 40 percent of this figure had been reached, but noted that was double the figure of 24 hours earlier.
Zamir Akram, Pakistan`s ambassador to the United Nations in Geneva, said the country had received more immediate multilateral relief aid through the UN and direct bilateral aid totalling about 301 million dollars (235 million euros).
Japan on Tuesday came forward to pledge an additional 10 million dollars in emergency aid and Australia promised an extra 21.6 million dollars.
The World Bank agreed to give Islamabad a 900-million-dollar loan, warning that the disaster`s impact on the economy was expected to be "huge".
State media in Saudi Arabia said the country had raised 20.5 million dollars in aid on the first day of a national campaign for the Pakistani floods.
Afghanistan donated a million dollars and Turkey doubled its contribution to 10 million dollars, and began to transport 140 tonnes of relief supplies.
The United States has pledged 87 million dollars in cash, air assets and relief goods, and currently operates 18 helicopters on relief sorties in Pakistan.
But flood survivors crammed into sweltering tent cities or camping out along roadsides have hit out furiously against Pakistan`s weak civilian government for not doing enough.
Britain, which is emerging from a recent diplomatic row with Pakistan, branded the international response "lamentable" and charities said Pakistan was suffering from an "image deficit" partly because of perceived links to terror.
The nuclear-armed country is on the frontline of the US-led fight against Al-Qaeda, where the military is locked in battle with Taliban in the northwest.
President Asif Ali Zardari told aid agencies it would take years to recover from what he called "the worst calamity of the world history".
Foreign Minister Shah Mehmood Qureshi warned the disaster could play into the hands of insurgents.
"We don`t know what impact it`s having on the insurgents... the idea that this flood would essentially come on top of a very corrosive insurgency is extremely worrisome," said US ambassador to Islamabad, Anne Patterson.
The UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) fears Pakistan is on the brink of a "second wave of death" unless more donor funds materialise, with up to 3.5 million children at risk from water-borne diseases.
The government in Islamabad has confirmed around 1,400 deaths, but WHO representative Guido Sabatinelli said he suspected the toll was much higher.
"In any case it will be much higher but it`s difficult to predict. We`re talking about 20 million people affected today and there is no infrastructure and no health centres that can register the deaths," he told AFP.
About six million people are deemed to be at risk of deadly water-borne diseases. Typhoid and hepatitis A and E are concerns.
The World Health Organization is preparing to help up to 140,000 people in case of a cholera outbreak.
"Two million dollars are needed every day to provide water, this is not sustainable. We don`t have two million dollars a day," said Daniel Toole, the regional director for the UN Children`s Fund (UNICEF).
"I would ask urgently the international community to change pledges into cheques. We need an urgent effort," he said.
Akram said reconstruction in northern areas alone could cost 2.5 billion dollars and said the floods had ravaged an area "the size of England."
UNICEF estimates that over 5,500 schools and 1,300 health centres have been either damaged or destroyed and that nearly 5,000 schools are now housing displaced families.
BDST: 11:06 HRS, August 18, 2010
