Status: 09/13/2022 7:55 p.m
Weeks after the floods in Pakistan, many people are still unable to return to their villages. If the water recedes, they will continue to need help, warn UN aid workers – and appeal to the world community.
A woman, perhaps in her early 40s, stands outside a tent at a camp in southern Pakistan’s Balochistan province. An employee of the United Nations wants to know what her house looks like now. “I don’t have a house anymore,” she replies. “My children are now homeless. We have to move now.”
There are more than a hundred tents in this camp on the outskirts of the town of Usta Muhammad, each with a family. Hundreds of people have found refuge here – for the time being.
UN Secretary-General António Guterres visited the camp at the weekend, accompanied by Pakistani Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif and Foreign Minister Bilawal Bhutto Zardari. They were greeted with a song by the children of the camp school.
Next door, helpers have set up a stand to show visitors what they are doing. It is far from enough, says a helper from the Gulf state of Qatar: “People are just sitting on the side of the road. There is no room for them in the camp. The government now wants to send aid teams there. The people need tents, water and more in the hinterland. We just have to go further out.”
“A Matter of Justice”
The UN Secretary-General flew over the flooded areas of the provinces of Balochistan and Sindh in a helicopter. Water as far as the eye can see, many villages under water. Guterres was shocked afterwards: “I just can’t find words for what I saw today. A flooded area three times the size of my home country Portugal.”
The catastrophe had already begun in June: monsoon rains such as the country had never experienced before, floods of unprecedented proportions. More than 1,400 dead, almost 13,000 injured, millions homeless.
The infrastructure of large areas has been destroyed: roads, bridges, schools, hospitals. The Pakistani government estimates that reconstruction will cost ten to fifteen billion dollars. The country should not be left alone with this, said Guterres.
And it’s not just a question of solidarity or generosity. It’s a question of justice. Pakistan is paying the price of something caused by others.
Help needed even after the flood has ended
What is happening here is a drastic consequence of climate change. In order to deal with the consequences, his country urgently needs international help, said Pakistan’s Foreign Minister Bilarwal Bhutto Zardari: “It is now important to mobilize the international community to help in this crisis. Also because it is not our fault.”
The people in the camp hope to be able to return to their villages soon. If it doesn’t rain again, the water could recede in a few weeks. But even then they will need help.
“Please rebuild my house,” says a woman who says she has six children. “I’m so scared of the future. We don’t have anyone to help us anymore.”