Pakistanis block highways to protest slow flood aid
Pakistani flood
victims, burning straw and waving sticks, blocked a highway on Monday
to demand government help as aid agencies warned relief was too slow to
arrive for millions without clean water, food and homes.
Public anger has
grown in the two weeks of floods, highlighting potential political
troubles for an unpopular government overwhelmed by a disaster that has
disrupted the lives of at least a tenth of its 170 million people.
Hundreds of
villages across Pakistan in an area roughly the size of Italy have been
marooned, highways have been cut in half and thousands of homeless
people have been forced to set up tarpaulin tents along the side of
roads.
But aid has failed to keep pace with the rising river waters.
“The speed with
which the situation is deteriorating is frightening,” Neva Khan,
Oxfam’s country director in Pakistan, said in a statement.
“Communities
desperately need clean water, latrines and hygiene supplies, but the
resources currently available cover only a fraction of what is
required.” The United Nations warned on Monday that up to 3-1/2 million
children could be at risk of contracting deadly diseases carried
through contaminated water and insects.
Dozens of
stick-wielding men and a few women tried to block five lanes of traffic
outside Sukkur, a major town in the southern province of Sindh.
Villagers set fire to straw and threatened to hit approaching cars with
sticks.
“We left our homes
with nothing and now we’re here with no clothes, no food and our
children are living beside the road,” said protester Gul Hasan,
clutching a large stick.
Hasan, like fellow
protesters, has been forced from his village and sought refuge in
Sukkur. He and others were camped under tattered plastic in muddy
wasteland beside the road.
On Sunday night, hundreds of villagers burned tires and chanted “down with the government” in Punjab province.
“We are dying of hunger here. No one has showed up to comfort us,” said Hafiz Shabbir, a protester in Kot Addu.
Only a quarter of aid arrives
The damage caused
by the floods and the cost of recovery could bring long-term economic
pain to Pakistan and shave more than one percentage point off economic
growth, analysts say.
Pakistani stocks
ended down 2.9 percent on fears the impact on growth may be more
damaging than estimated after Sunday’s warnings.
Up to 1,600 people have been killed and two million made homeless in Pakistan’s worst floods in decades.
Only a quarter of
the $459 million aid needed for initial relief has arrived, according
to the United Nations. That contrasts with the United States giving at
least $1 billion in military aid last year to its regional ally to
battle militants.
Authorities forecast on Monday a brief respite in rains.
Water levels in the
Indus River feeding Pakistan’s plains have fallen in Punjab, the
country’s most populous and worst hit province, although flooding would
stay high where embankments were breached. In Sindh province, flooding
could get worse.
“In the next 4-5
days … there will be scattered rains, but they are not
flood-producing,” Qamar-uz-Zaman Chaudhry, director general of the
meteorological department, told Reuters.
On Sunday, U.N.
Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon urged donors to quicken up aid and Prime
Minister Yusuf Raza Gilani warned of a second and third wave of floods.
Despite a possible break in heavy rains, many families had little hope of returning to their homes.
“We only hear that
the water is receding but there is still more and more water in our
village,” said Mansha Bozdar, 45, whose village borders the Sanawan
town in southern Punjab.
“It seems if it
will never stop.” The U.N. has reported the first case of cholera. In a
statement issued in New York, it said the greatest threat was from
acute watery diarrhea and dysentery, but that hepatitis A and E and
typhoid fever were also significant risks.
“The lack of clean
water and the unavailability of medication is a deadly combination,”
said Guido Sabatinelli of the World Health Organization. “When added to
the poor living conditions and the lack of food … the picture is
alarming.” The government has been accused of being too slow to respond
to the crisis with victims relying mostly on the military — the most
powerful institution in Pakistan — and foreign aid agencies for help.
Nevertheless, a
military coup is considered unlikely. The army’s priority is fighting
Taliban insurgents, and seizing power during a disaster would make no
sense, analysts say.
In Sukkur, hundreds
of people set up camp along a sliver of dry land between the swollen
Indus and a low concrete wall by a road running alongside the river.
But their sanctuary
has been getting ever narrower as the river rises. On Monday, the muddy
bank was just a few feet wide in some places and the water was still
coming up.
“Where can we go?” asked Faiz Mohammad as he squatted on the concrete wall. “Everywhere is flooded.”
