ISLAMABAD: The UK announced £15 million in humanitarian aid for Pakistan on Thursday as flood relief items from UAE and Turkey continued to arrive, as the South Asian country’s death toll from floods since mid-June soared to 1,208.
Unusually heavy monsoon rains in Pakistan have triggered floods in many parts of the country. Already reeling from an economic crisis, Pakistan has suffered heavy losses as flash floods have destroyed thousands of homes, crops, livestock, and infrastructure and inflicted heavy casualties since June 14.
Earlier this week, UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres and Pakistani Foreign Minister Bilawal Bhutto Zardari simultaneously launched a flash appeal for $160 million to cope with the devastation.
“The UK is providing further urgent life-saving support to Pakistan following devastating floods that have left a third of the country underwater,” the British High Commission in Islamabad said in a press release.
It said humanitarian support totaling £15 million from the UK will help provide shelter and essential supplies to people across the South Asian country. This amount is in addition to the £1.5 million that the UK announced for Pakistan last weekend, bringing the total flood assistance amount to £16.5 million.
Search engine giant Google announced on Thursday it will donate US$500,000 (Rs110 million) to the Center for Disaster Philanthropy, which will be made to the sub-grants to the local organisations actively engaged in crisis response and recovery. It said that in addition to this, Google said its employees have already contributed more than Rs72 million in personal donations and company matches.
Relief flights from Pakistan’s allies Turkey and UAE continued to arrive in the country on Thursday with tents, food parcels, baby food, blankets and other relief goods. The ninth relief flight from the UAE arrived in Pakistan at the Nur Khan Base in Rawalpindi while the 10th relief flight from Turkey arrived at the Jinnah International Airport in Karachi.
Uzbekistan’s first flight with relief items arrived in Pakistan on Thursday.
