Status: 09.01.2023 7:28 p.m
International donors have pledged nine billion US dollars in aid to Pakistan to repair the damage caused by last summer’s flood disaster. Germany is also involved with another million euros.
Pakistan has received billions in financial commitments for reconstruction after last year’s devastating floods. The country expects a need of around 16 billion US dollars (15 billion euros) over five to seven years.
Pakistan intends to raise half of this itself. At a UN conference to support the country, new commitments of more than nine billion US dollars were also collected, as the Pakistani government reported. The Islamic Development Bank (ISDB) alone pledged 4.2 billion US dollars.
Effects of climate change “demonstrated in a devastating way”
Germany had already promised aid of around 67 million euros in the past. The Development Ministry has now promised a further 84 million euros, for example for the construction of rainwater retention basins and drainage systems. It could be even more in the course of the year, said State Secretary Jochen Flasbarth.
The consequences of climate change were “devastating” in Pakistan last year, said Flasbarth: first through scorching heat and drought, then through severe flooding. “This is a crisis that Pakistan cannot deal with alone.”
A third of the country flooded
The country also wants to use the money to strengthen its precautions against the consequences of climate change. The floods that began in June 2022 were the worst disaster in Pakistan in decades, according to the UN. A third of the country was flooded, around 15,000 people died or were injured. Around eight million people had to leave their home region. In addition, more than two million houses, 13,000 kilometers of roads, 439 bridges and more than four million hectares of agricultural land were destroyed or damaged.
The highest-ranking German UN representative, Achim Steiner, said that the recovery of the Pakistani economy was “in all of our interests”. If despair and hopelessness spread, more people could flee. On the other hand, they could join radical forces.