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Pakistan

Pakistan floods: Government calls on WFP to support emergency response

The World Food Programme is working with the National Disaster Management Authority and partners to expand food assistance

29 August 2022, Staff Writers

The World Food Programme is rapidly expanding its food assistance support in Pakistan as the Government takes stock of floods which have killed nearly 1,000 people and displaced 33 million.

Through its National Disaster Management Authority, the Government – which has declared a national emergency – is leading the response in coordinating assessments and directing humanitarian relief to flood-affected people.

Julien Harneis, UN Resident Coordinator and Humanitarian Coordinator in the country, has called for “burden-sharing and solidarity” internationally in the wake of a “climate-change driven catastrophe.”

WFP aims to reach nearly half a million people in the badly hit provinces of Balochistan – where it already supports nearly 42,000 people in five districts – and Sindh.

However, distributions are currently on hold as floodwaters – which destroyed an iconic hotel in seconds, in Kalam, in the north-west – create access constraints across the country.

Waters have also disrupted lives and livelihoods for people in the provinces of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa and Punjab.

More than 100 bridges and 3,000km of roads have been damaged or destroyed; nearly 800,000 farm animals have perished, and 2 million acres of crops and orchards have been hit.

The humanitarian situation is expected to worsen, warned Harneis, with diseases and malnutrition expected to rise along with the number of districts reporting that they have been affected.

Since June, flooding and landslides caused by heavy monsoon rainfall have brought widespread destruction across Pakistan, creating its “biggest challenge” in decades, according to Harneis.

On Tuesday (30 August) the UN will launch a US$161 million UN Flash Appeal to provide critical food and cash assistance to nearly 1 million people in districts in Balochistan, Sindh, Punjab and Khyber Pakhtunkhwa provinces; US$34.28 million is urgently needed to enable the scale-up.

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