Advertisement

Analysis: U.N.: Help Pakistan!

By AYESHA AKRAM

UNITED NATIONS, Nov. 18 (UPI) -- Despite repeated pleas for help, donations have failed to meet even one-third of the required estimate for earthquake-ravaged northern Pakistan, as survivors now face the harsh Himalayan winter.

Almost five weeks after the massive earthquake hit, more than 70,000 people are dead, 3 million more have no homes and hundreds of thousands go to bed hungry and in the face of threatened outbreaks of disease. Thousands of children have yet to be immunized as a second wave of death is forecast.

Advertisement

With overworked manpower and meager resources in the bone-rattling cold, Pakistanis are asking if the rest of the world cares.

Minutes after landing in Pakistan Friday, U. N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan called on the international community to donate generously to assist reconstruction efforts in the devastated areas of Pakistan.

"We need much, much more to help the people in need," said Annan, speaking to reporters at Islamabad International Airport.

Advertisement

The main purpose of the secretary-general's three-day visit to Pakistan is to attend an international donor's conference aimed toward raising $5.2 billion the country still needs for reconstruction. The conference scheduled for Saturday is expected to be attended by representatives from more than 70 countries.

"We need more resources, not just for emergency relief, but also for recovery and reconstruction. We are going to do what we tend to call 'recovery plus.' Not just build what was there before, but build in a manner that can withstand, God forbid, if another disaster struck," said Annan Thursday.

The $550 million U.N. appeal for Pakistan remains largely under-funded with only 5 percent shelter needs and 9 percent of water and sanitation requirements met so far, said the U.N. Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs.

"Shelter has been reduced to rubble, water and energy supplies have been cut off and transport systems seriously threatened by unstable link roads," said the U.N. Food and Agriculture Organization.

Direct and indirect losses to crops, livestock and irrigation infrastructure from the Oct. 8 earthquake in northern Pakistan total more than $440 million. Yet FAO said it has as yet received not one cent of the $25 million it has sought for immediate emergency aid.

Advertisement

The limited aid response has stood in sharp contrast to the assistance given to victims of last year's Asian tsunami. Total commitments, fledges and contributions for victims of the tsunami reached $6.1 billion according to the U.N. Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs.

Pakistan's President Pervez Musharraf has suggested the international community has not been generous because foreign tourists did not die in the quake.

Britain's charity Oxfam, told the BBC less than 30 percent of the $312 million sought by U.N. aid agencies had even been promised. It said Germany, Italy, Japan and the United States had given less than their "fair share" as large economies. Austria, Belgium, France, Finland, Greece, Portugal and Spain had made meager or no donations so far.

Kemal Dervis, head of the U.N. Development Program has referred to "compassion fatigue" as one reason for the apparent disparity in generosity. "We have seen Katrina, the Guatemala mudslides and the tsunami," he said. "We know aid budgets are stretched. But we have to re-energize the donor community."

Dervis was to join Annan in representing the United Nations at the donor's conference. In recent days, both Annan and Dervis have emphasized the need for the civic sector to donate generously.

Advertisement

"I would expect the world, those with capacity, to be generous and to give, and give willingly and I am not just speaking to governments, I am also speaking to the private sector and individuals who have been generous in other situations. I call on all of them to help us here as well," Annan said when speaking to reporters in Pakistan.

Individuals in some countries have made admirable efforts at collecting donations. Schoolchildren in Turkey collected $10 million just from the surrounding areas in a few days after the quake, said UNDP.

With December approaching, the need for donations is becoming more urgent. On the ground, U.N. agencies have doubled their efforts to bring in relief supplies at the beginning of the Himalayan winter.

The threat of a second cycle of death in winter from disease, exposure and logistical difficulties in reaching victims after the quake worries U.N. officials. Annan expressed regret at the increasing death rate in Pakistan.

"If we had been able to get all the resources, some of the people who died may have been saved," he said.

The U.N. World Food Program is increasing food rations from 165 pounds of wheat flour per family per month to 220 pounds but has stressed the possibility of not being able to continue its programs if funds don't start pouring in soon.

Advertisement

"It's certainly no secret that funding is not to a level we requested. That's going to have an effect as no money means no flights," WFP Logistics Officer Tony Freeman said, referring to needed helicopter lifts.

WFP is distributing food by road and air, using mules for inaccessible areas.

The U.N. High Commissioner for Refugees started a new airlift of vitally needed tents, blankets and cooking equipment with British supplied heavy-lift Chinook helicopters. On the first day of operation, Thursday, two of the huge choppers delivered nearly half of the 65,570 pounds of aid slated for distribution in the remote Leepa Valley.

"It is extremely important we provide shelter and other supplies to these high altitude communities as quickly as possible. Snow is already accumulating on the peaks and soon these areas will be under several meters (of snow)," the agency's emergency coordinator, Christine Neveu, said.

For its part, the U.N. Children's Fund is working with the U.N. World Health Organization and Pakistani Health Ministry to immunize 800,000 children under 15 years of age against measles.

"We can have a major impact on child mortality in this disaster situation, in which children's immune systems are under stress due to chronic under-nutrition and trauma from the earthquake," UNICEF Emergency Coordinator Claudia Hudspeth said.

Advertisement

But the absence of adequate funding can force most, if not all of these programs to suspend their operations.

The country's economy has been dealt a severe blow by the quake, prompting calls for debt relief.

About 20 percent of the country's spending goes to paying off loans. But UNDP chief Dervis said wiping out debt is not the answer.

"Debt relief saves on interest payments over many years. Pakistan needs cash now," he said.

Dervis also said though loans have been issued from World Bank and Asian Development Bank, none of them are immediately available.

More hopeful is the apparent shift away from costly military spending.

Musharraf recently previously announced he would defer the purchase from Washington of 50 F-16 fighter jets costing a total of $2 billion.

Despite the dismal situation, Annan's speech to quake victims in Kashmir was full of hope.

Speaking to residents of Thori Camp Park Friday, Annan said: "As difficult as the situation seems, I have no doubt you will overcome, you will rebuild and you will build even better."

Latest Headlines