UN gathering seeks aid for Pakistan after devastating floods

The United Nations hosted a conference to help Pakistan cope with the fallout of last summer's devastating flooding, which the UN chief called a “climate disaster of monumental scale” that killed more than 1,700 people in the immediate aftermath.

Millions are still living near contaminated and stagnant flood waters.

Pakistani Prime Minister Shahbaz Sharif was joining UN Secretary-General António Guterres in-person. 

World leaders, including French President Emmanuel Macron and Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, were taking part virtually as countries chip in to help Pakistan pull together an estimated $16.3 billion that's needed to help rebuild and recover.

Authorities in Pakistan hope about half of that funding need will come from the international community.

The conference has shaped up as a test case of just how much the rich world will pitch in to help developing-world nations like Pakistan manage the impact of climatic swoons, and brace for other disasters.

“We need to be honest about the brutal injustice of loss and damage suffered by developing countries because of climate change," Guterres told the gathering. 

“If there is any doubt about loss and damage - go to Pakistan. There is loss. There is damage. The devastation of climate change is real.”

Guterres said that people in South Asia are 15 times more likely to die from climate impacts than elsewhere, and his “heart broke” when he saw the devastation left behind from Pakistan's floods.

“No country deserves to endure what happened to Pakistan,” he said. "But it was especially bitter to watch that country’s generous spirit being repaid with a climate disaster of monumental scale."

Many scientists, policymakers and others say emissions of heat-trapping gases into the atmosphere, mostly by industrialized countries, over generations are largely to blame for a warming global climate.

Thousands of Pakistanis are still living in open areas in makeshift homes and tents near the stagnant water in southern Sindh and in some areas in southwestern Baluchistan, the two worst-flood hit provinces in Pakistan.

UNICEF warned on Monday that up to 4 million children are still living near contaminated and stagnant flood waters, risking their survival and well-being, more than four months after a national state of emergency was declared in Pakistan.

“Today’s meeting is an attempt to give my people another chance at getting back on their feet,” Sharif said. “We are racing again time” to help the victims amid a harsh winter, he said.

Organisers hope the conference will underpin a recovery and build resilience after the punishing floods between June and October, which also damaged 2 million houses and washed away 13,000 kilometers (8,000 miles) of roads.

At one point, a third of the country was submerged.

Pakistani authorities last week cited a UN-backed assessment that the total damage amounted to more than $30 billion.

The world body says funding raised so far for Pakistan’s flood victims will run out this month, and an emergency appeal launched in October has garnered only about a third of the $816 million sought for food, medicines and other supplies for Pakistanis.

Pakistan plays a negligible role in global warming and emits less than 1% of heat-trapping carbon dioxide, but like other developing countries, it has been vulnerable to climate-induced devastation, experts say.