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MULTIMEDIA
February 10, 2012
 
 
 
 
 
 

Millions of Pakistanis still without food aid

Sick flood victim Gulzar, 9, lies on his mother’s lap in a private hospital which was converted into a flood relief camp providing free medical treatment at Sukkur, in Pakistan’s Sindh province, on Sunday.
6 September 2010 / AP, DAIRA DINPANAH
Abdul Rehman and his family live under a tree next to a pile of rubble on a newly created island where his house used to be.
In the month since his home was destroyed in the raging floodwaters that inundated Pakistan, he has gotten no aid of any kind from the government or private aid groups to help him survive, he said. Frustrated and desperate, he joined a protest with dozens of other villagers that blocked the main road in this area 10 days ago. In response, police opened a criminal investigation against him, he said. And he still hasn’t gotten any food or even a tarp to shield his family of six from the blazing summer sun, he said. More than 3 million people have yet to receive desperately needed food aid, according to the UN, and the Pakistani government says nearly 1 million people have received no help of any sort.

“They need everything,” said Ahmad Kamal, spokesman for Pakistan’s disaster management agency, who appealed to international donors to send tents, ambulances, mobile clinics and hygiene kits. The lack of aid has led to anger against an already-fragile government that is seen as a key US ally in the battle against extremists along the frontier with Afghanistan.

The anger itself is hampering relief efforts, with the Red Cross twice halting distributions after being confronted by mobs of people upset they were not getting enough aid, the organization said Thursday.

Part of the problem is simply the scale of the crisis. The floods that began their slow wave of destruction across Pakistan at the end of July swamped as much as one-fifth of the country, leaving 8 million people dependent on aid, according to the UN And that number keeps growing as more areas are affected.

“This seems to be a never-ending disaster,” said Stacey Winston, a UN spokeswoman.

But many of those affected also blame the problem on corruption by local government officials, who steer aid to their supporters and withhold it from others.

Of the 32 families in Daira Dinpanah, about 90 miles (140 kilometers) west of the city of Multan, only seven who have ties to local political leaders have received aid of any kind, said Khalid Iqbal, 35, who stands on the side of the road clutching a list of all those needing assistance, waiting for an aid group to pass by. The remainder have survived by scrounging meals at the local mosque, or, like Rehman, temporarily bouncing between relatives’ houses before returning home.

 
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