Funds for Pakistan flood relief come too little, too late

(Climate Home News, 12 Oct 2022) Two months on from devastating, climate change induced floods, millions of Pakistanis are still living on roadsides and struggling for food, shelter and clean drinking water.

But the wealthy nations who bear most responsibility for causing climate change have yet to deliver all the funds they have promised, let alone enough funds to cover the damage done.

Immediately after the floods, Pakistan’s planning minister Ahsan Iqbal said a conservative estimate of the damage done was $10bn. “It is a preliminary estimate likely to be far greater,” he said.

Despite this, Pakistan and the United Nations (UN) put out an appeal on 30 August for just $160m, a figure roughly 60 times smaller than Iqbal’s estimate for damages.

Oxfam’s humanitarian lead Magnus Corfixen told Climate Home this figure was low because the UN’s assesment “didn’t include some of the worst affected districts as they were not hit by the first floods”.

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Climate Home News, 12 Oct 2022: Funds for Pakistan flood relief come too little, too late