Situation in Pakistan's flood-hit areas to grow worse in winter unless aid is provided

Owais Jafri in the Express Tribune (Pakistan): Pakistan Humanitarian forum expressed their fears that an under resourced relief effort would leave several million people with little or no aid, and a situation about to grow worse with the winter season.

The Pakistan Humanitarian Forum (PHF), a network of the 41 largest international charities currently operating in the country, said more than five million people had been affected by the floods “about half of them children” they said.

Around 700,000 people remain displaced, and at least six million acres of ravaged land, PHF said in a new report. PHF urged donors to provide timely and adequate support for an expansion of the relief and recovery effort by rapidly and substantially increasing funds for the UN flood appeal.

Donors should place disaster risk reduction and climate change adaptation principles at the heart of their strategies for both relief and development, in line with the Global Platform on Risk Reduction, including allocating at least 10 per cent of humanitarian and recovery spending to DRR, it said....