PAKISTAN: Flood victims in relief camps wait for cash to rebuild their destroyed homes

Record ID: 345833

  • Title: PAKISTAN: Flood victims in relief camps wait for cash to rebuild their destroyed homes
  • Date: 24th September 2010
  • Summary: FAMILY UNDER TENT
  • Embargoed: 9th October 2010 13:00
  • Keywords:
  • Location: Pakistan
  • Country: Pakistan
  • Topics: Disasters / Accidents / Natural catastrophes,Environment / Natural World
  • Reuters ID: LVAE5R6D6QJAXNQZD582XUC3J0GA
  • Story Text: Nearly two months after being uprooted from their homes, survivors of Pakistan's worst floods are desperate for money to rebuild their houses, something that could further squeeze the beleaguered government struggling with the crisis.
    Failure to rehabilitate millions of people affected by the catastrophe has the potential of triggering political instability in the country which is fighting a full-blown Islamist insurgency and which is crucial for the United States in its efforts to stabilise Afghanistan.
    August's floods killed more than 1,750 people, forced at least 10 million from their homes, and caused up to $43 billion in damage, according to government estimates.
    Though authorities have promised to pay 100,000 rupees ($1,164) in compensation to each homeless family, the need for the cash-strapped government to raise much of the billions of dollars needed for reconstruction will bring the impoverished nation under strain for years.
    Compensation to displaced families alone would be about $2 billion.
    Some 40,000 families fled their homes in the northwestern town of Nowshera after the Kabul river burst its banks.
    The government says it will start handing out the first installment of the 20,000 rupees compensation to displaced families by the end of month to encourage them to return. But it has already missed one September 10 deadline for cash disbursement.
    Jan Pari, mother of three married sons, told senior U.N. officials who visited Kandaro Camp in Nowshera on Thursday (September 23) she was homeless with her entire extended family and needed money to return to her devastated home.
    "The government says it will give us 20,000 Rupees. If we get that then we will go home. Otherwise how can we go? There is no water there," Pari said, standing in the midst of scores of tents donated by UNHCR, U.N's refugee agency for displaced people.
    Louis-Georges Arsenault, director of UNICEF's Office of Emergency Programmes told Reuters he was happy to see an improvement in the conditions in relief camps.
    "I see there's been a lot of improvement here in many ways. Water is receding; there are much fewer people in the camps and the services that are being provided in the camps are of a good standards. I can see that very clearly," Arsenault said.
    However, he stressed that survivors should return under appropriate conditions that can help them sustain and resume their normal lives.
    "One of the issues that we need to address is the conditions of the returning of the population to their villages and that is what needs to be addressed with a sense of urgency while we are continuing to support the basic needs of these people in the camps and also outside the camps," Arsenault said.
    Additionally, the weak government led by President Asif Ali Zardari has come under increasing scrutiny to use funds responsibly and transparently.
    The United Nations this month announced an appeal of $2 billion for the poor nation to help it cope with one of the major catastrophes it faced. It has so far received $615.6 million, or 31 percent, of the amount requested.
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