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Official estimates suggest up to 20 million people have been affected in flood-ravaged Pakistan. Aid is slow to arrive, and the United Nations says it has yet to raise even half of the $460 million it has asked of the international community.
All the while, the U.N. is warning more than 3.5 million children are at risk of contracting extreme diarrhea, cholera, and upper respiratory diseases in the aftermath of the flood-ravaged nation.
A reporter on the ground for Sky News describes the desperation across the country.
“The land here is now sea, farm houses are now islands, where cows once grazed, they now bathe, hungry. We approached with caution. Looting is a real concern, and westerners in this remote rural area can also be viewed with suspicion. ... It’s not the loss of life families mourn; it’s the loss of livelihood.”
Aid groups say they’re puzzled at the international community’s slow response to the disaster. The National Post offers an explanation.
“There appears to be a deeper reason that the global community is not responding...: that country’s rampant corruption and links to Islamic terrorism. Quite simply, there is grave suspicion that aid will end up in the wrong hands: those of the Taliban.”
But for some, the concern isn’t about where the aid ends up, but rather where it doesn’t. An article in the Hindustan Times suggests an Islamic religious minority known as the Ahmadiyyas are among the most ignored.
“Ahmadiyyas are ostracized by Pakistan's mainstream Muslim community who consider them to be non-believers. ... not only were their community members not rescued but in some instances ejected from relief camps when their identity was disclosed.”
But Al Jazeera reports the biggest obstacle to aid distribution is that hungry crowds fight over what little aid they get, driving aid trucks away.
REPORTER: “This is the reality of private aid distribution. Concerned citizens want to help their fellow countrymen, but the flood disaster has left too many people injured.”
MAN: “Any time a truck comes we end up chasing it away ourselves. But what can we do? We are desperate.”
Analysts on Pakistan’s Express News take a different angle, pointing blame at Pakistan’s government.
“Most of the country is without petrol. You’ve got 2-3 days reserve in the areas. And the point you rightly mention-- black marketers, traders, smugglers, hoarders, none of them can function without the active participation of law enforcing agencies, and the backing of political elite.”
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WRITER: Newsy Staff
PRODUCER: Newsy Staff
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