Vast aid not reaching Pakistanis

Half a billion dollars promised and not a drop to drink… for nearly a quarter of Pakistan’s people.

Areas less shattered by the monsoon floods are easier to get help to, but some 20 million people are suffering the consequences.

The United States is putting the most money in, followed by Saudi Arabia. Islamist charities are providing fast assistance. The Pakistani government’s is so shaken it has even said it will accept money from archrival India.

Sindh province is facing new flood danger. A 32-year-old mother moved to a roadside there said: “ I gave birth to my child here. There is no doctor, no midwife. But by the grace of Allah my baby girl is well.”

Most of the children who can be brought for hospital care have gastric sickness. The peril of epidemic cholera, thyphoid and hepatitis grows with every day’s delay of medical help.

An exhausted mother’s testimony is common: “We managed to escape the flood but we haven’t received either food or water. We left with nothing. Our children got sick. They’re vomiting and have diarrhea.”

A plane from Uzbekistan delivered some of the latest trickle of flood aid.

The Financial Tracking Service of the United Nations has said that 490.7 million dollars in funding has been “collected”, with another 325 million dollars pledged.

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