UN Secretary General Visits Calamity Flood Refugees in Pakistan

Islamabad, MINA – UN Secretary General Antonio Guterres will visit Pakistan on Friday to express solidarity with the South Asian country which was hit by the calamity floods recently.

Guterres will visit flood-hit areas and interact with refugees and oversee the work of the UN’s humanitarian response in the rescue effort for the millions of people affected.

“This visit will contribute to enhancing a commensurate and coordinated international response to the humanitarian and other needs of the 33 million Pakistanis affected,” the Pakistani Ministry of Foreign Affairs said in a statement as quoted by Anadolu Agency.

Pakistan’s foreign ministry said Guterres would meet with Pakistani leaders to exchange views on national and global responses to disasters caused by climate change.

So far, Pakistan has received more than 50 humanitarian aid flights from Turkey, United Arab Emirates, China, Qatar, Uzbekistan, France, Turkmenistan, Jordan, UNHCR, UNICEF and the World Food Programme.

On August 30, the United Nations and the Pakistani government also issued a swift call for $160 million to address the devastation caused by unprecedented rains and floods.

The death toll from the floods also stood at 1,355 people, while 12,722 people were injured in rain and flood-related incidents across the country since mid-June.

More than 33 million of the country’s roughly 220 million people were affected by the massive floods, causing $10 billion in damage to already weakened infrastructure.

Nearly 45 percent of the country’s agricultural land has been inundated by floods, posing a serious threat to food security and adding to already skyrocketing inflation.

Hundreds of thousands of people face the threat of outbreaks of water-borne, skin and eye-borne diseases, for which health experts warn of a higher death toll from diarrhea, typhoid, malaria, dengue fever, gastrointestinal and other infections than from rain and flooding. (T/RE1)

Mi’raj News Agency (MINA)