PAKISTAN: UN FUND PROVIDES US$27 MILLION FOR FLOODS RESPONSE

(Islamabad/New York, 17 August 2010): Millions of people affected by severe flooding in Pakistan will receive urgently needed life-saving humanitarian assistance, following a $27 million allocation from the United Nations Central Emergency Response Fund (CERF).

"The CERF is enabling humanitarian organizations to respond rapidly to the most urgent, life-saving needs in Pakistan", said John Holmes, United Nations Under-Secretary-General for Humanitarian Affairs and Emergency Relief Coordinator. "The death toll has so far been relatively low compared to other major natural disasters, but the numbers affected are extraordinarily high. If we don't act fast enough, many more people could die".

Pakistan's worst floods in nearly a century have affected more than 15.4 million people across Pakistan, and at least 1,200 people have been killed. Eight million people are believed to be in desperate need of emergency aid, and millions more are expected to suffer as torrential rains and unprecedented river levels continue moving southward.

The World Food Programme (WFP) is using CERF funds in order to provide emergency food assistance for up to four million people in the worst affected areas. The United Nations Refugee Agency (UNHCR), the International Organization for Migration (IOM) and UN-Habitat will use CERF funds to supply emergency shelter materials and household items to those who have lost their homes. The CERF is enabling the World Health Organization (WHO), the United Nations Children's Fund (UNICEF), the United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA) and non-governmental organizations (NGOs) to provide emergency health services for some three million people. UNICEF and UNHabitat are also using the CERF to provide safe water supplies and sanitation facilities for the most vulnerable.

CERF was established in 2006 to make funding for humanitarian emergencies faster and more equitable. Since the Fund's inception, 120 governments, together with other public and private donors, have contributed nearly $2 billion to CERF, which is managed by the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA). Humanitarian agencies in Pakistan have received the tenth-most CERF funding of any country in the world, with some $59.9 million allocated for programmes there since 2006.

For further information, please call: OCHA Islamabad: Maurizio Giuliano, +92 300 8502397, giuliano@un.org; OCHA-New York: Stephanie Bunker, +1 917 367 5126, mobile +1 347 244 2106, bunker@un.org; Nicholas Reader, +1 212 963 4961, mobile +1 646 752 3117, reader@un.org, OCHA-Geneva: Elisabeth Byrs, +41 22 917 2653, mobile +41 79 473 4570, byrs@un.org

OCHA press releases are available at http://ochaonline.un.org or www.reliefweb.int