UN claims aid for flood-hit Pak has come to standstill

Thatta, Sept 3 027(ANI): The United Nations office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) has claimed that worldwide response to the flood disaster in Pakistan has almost come to a standstill.

The fund contributions, which were initially slow, had increased after UN Secretary General Ban-Ki-moon visited Pakistan. But since last week, the aid has been 'almost stalled', rising from 274 million dollars to 291 million dollars which constitute about two thirds of funding needs.

"Given the number of those in need, this is a humanitarian operation of unprecedented scale," the Daily Times quoted Manuel Bessler, the head of OCHA as saying.

"We need to reach at least eight million people, from the Karakoram Mountain Range in the north to the Arabian Sea in the south," Bessler added.

The floods, triggered by torrential monsoon downpours last month, have claimed the lives of over 1,600 people and ruined 8.9 million acres of fertile land.he floods first struck the western province of Baluchistan on July 22 before inundating the worst-hit Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province and then entering Punjab and Sindh. (ANI)