Months since the worst floods in Pakistan’s history, hunger and poverty is rising among survivors and millions of people are still homeless, struggling to feed their families and unable to access basic healthcare.
With funding for the response set to run out within weeks, Islamic Relief is calling on donors at Monday’s high-level international conference (Geneva, 9th January) – especially rich nations with high carbon emissions who have contributed most to the climate crisis – to dig deep and fund the new $16 billion appeal to rebuild the country’s infrastructure and people’s livelihoods.
The mid-2022 floods caused billions of dollars of damage to homes, roads, health facilities and other vital infrastructure, but the long-term impact is increasing:
- Nine million more people are expected to be pushed into poverty this year, on top of the 33 million people who are already affected. The floods destroyed the livelihoods of farmers, herders and small businesses, and people have to spend what little money they have on rebuilding their homes or rising food prices.
- Emergency levels of hunger have more than tripled since the floods. Almost half of the rural population of Sindh province (49%) – and more than one third of rural people in Balochistan and Khyber Pakhtunkwa (KPK) provinces – are now reported to be in ‘crisis’ or ‘emergency’ levels of food insecurity and are facing severe food shortages.
- 2 million people are spending the harsh winter in makeshift shelters, as large-scale reconstruction of homes has not yet begun and aid agencies are still struggling to provide emergency shelter
- In the freezing winter, sick elderly people, pregnant women and infants are without access to basic healthcare. More than 2000 health facilities were affected by the floods and hundreds of these are still damaged or destroyed or have run out of essential medicine.
- Many rural schools are still underwater or unusable, meaning that children have already missed out on months of schooling
Over the past few months international aid has saved many lives. Islamic Relief has now supported more than 1.2 million people with aid including food, shelter, water and support to livelihoods.
However, the enormity of the disaster means that huge long-term needs remain and the UN’s initial emergency appeal only received around one third of the funding it needed. As a result, 70% of food security and agriculture plans went unfunded, as well as 87% of health and 96% of education projects.
Asif Sherazi, Islamic Relief’s Country Director in Pakistan, says:
“The floodwater and global attention has subsided, but the impact has not.
“The long-term impact of the floods could ruin the future of an entire generation unless the international community steps up efforts to support recovery. Children can’t get enough food, their homes and schools are still damaged and they can’t access decent healthcare when they get sick. They are spending a freezing winter in makeshift shelters. Men and women lost their entire livelihoods and are now being pushed deep into poverty.
“The speed and scale of the response has been too slow and too small, and now the situation is getting worse, especially for the most vulnerable people like children and pregnant women. Much more funding is needed just to bring people back to their normal situation and restore their dignity.
“People here are on the front lines of the climate crisis. Rich countries that have the largest carbon emissions and have contributed most to climate change now have a moral obligation to support the people who are suffering its consequences. Climate change means we are going to get more frequent and more severe disasters, and the Pakistan floods have shown that ‘business as usual’ can’t work in such large-scale disasters – donors need to take a new approach.”