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Floods in Pakistan: World Bank pledges US$2 billion

ISLAMABAD –

The World Bank said it would provide about $2 billion in aid to Pakistan, which has been devastated by floods that have killed more than 1,600 people this year, its largest pledge of assistance to date.

Monsoon rains and unprecedented flooding this year – which many experts attribute to climate change – have also injured about 13,000 people across the country since mid-June. Flooding has displaced millions of people and destroyed crops, half a million homes and thousands of kilometers (miles) of roads.

The World Bank’s vice president for South Asia, Martin Raiser, announced the pledge in an overnight statement after wrapping up his first official visit to the country on Saturday.

“We are deeply saddened by the loss of lives and livelihoods caused by the devastating floods and we are working with federal and provincial governments to provide immediate relief to those severely impacted,” he said. heaviest.

Raiser met with federal ministers and the chiefs of the southern province of Sindh, the hardest-hit area, where he toured the hard-hit Dadu district.

Thousands of makeshift health camps for flood survivors have been set up in the province, where the National Disaster Management Agency says outbreaks of typhoid, malaria and dengue fever have killed at least 300 people died.

The death toll prompted the World Health Organization to sound the alarm last week of a “second catastrophe”, with doctors on the ground racing to battle the outbreak.

“As an immediate response, we are redirecting funding from existing World Bank-funded projects to support urgent needs in health, food, shelter,” Raiser said. , rehabilitation and cash transfers.

Last week, the World Bank agreed in a meeting with Prime Minister Shahbaz Sharif on the sidelines of the United Nations General Assembly to provide $850 million in flood relief to Pakistan. The $2 billion figure includes that amount.

Raiser said the bank is working with the provincial government to start repairing housing and infrastructure as quickly as possible, while “reviving livelihoods while helping to strengthen Pakistan’s resilience to with climate-related risks. We are projecting about $2 billion in funding for that effect.”

Over the past two months, Pakistan has sent nearly 10,000 doctors, nurses and other medical personnel to care for survivors in Sindh province.

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