While “the rains have stopped…to a great extent, so has the media attention,” UNICEF The representative in Pakistan, Abdullah Fadil, told reporters in Geneva, adding that, with homes destroyed, children are facing a “bitter winter, without a decent shelter.” .
Deadly floods hit Pakistan last summer and have only partially receded now. 33 million people affected in Sindh and Balochistan provinces, where it is believed to have occurred Pakistan’s biggest climate disaster. Villages are said to have been turned into islands, with many orphans and families living in conditions of freezing plastic debris.
In flood-affected districts, about 1.6 million children were severely malnourished, while another 6 million children suffered from stunting, a condition that can cause irreversible damage. Restore children’s brain, body and immune system.
Unfunded Recovery Effort
Mr. Fadil warned after the floods, the situation is expected to get exponentially worse.
“27,000 schools have been swept away,” he said, but “the current $173 million UNICEF call for funding has been less than half funded.”
The $9 billion total, pledged last week by international donors to help Pakistan recover from the disaster, was welcomed by Mr. Fadil, who stressed that “children must be at the heart of efforts” force of recovery, restoration and reconstruction”.
A UNICEF spokesperson stated that true economic recovery and sustainable growth can only be achieved if the investments necessary to meet children’s immediate and long-term needs are made, and at the same time calls for investment in building human capital and resilience, especially in rural Sindh and Balochistan where much of the devastation occurred.
“Pakistan is a known climate hotspot and it is only a matter of time before another large-scale climate disaster hits the country’s children,” he warned.
Solving Inequality
In the first day of this monthUN Secretary-General António Guterres reiterated the need to help developing countries like Pakistan become more resilient to the impacts of climate change.
The head of the United Nations stressed that the international banking system needs radical reform in favor of developing countries, in order to “correct fundamental mistakes”.
United Nations Development Agency, UNDP yes warning that an additional 9 million people are at risk of being pushed into poverty, in addition to the 33 million people affected by last summer’s devastating floods in Pakistan.
