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Businesses move to aid flood-hit Pakistanis as funds dry up

by Nita Bhalla | @nitabhalla | Thomson Reuters Foundation
Wednesday, 10 November 2010 11:58 GMT

NEW DELHI (AlertNet) - Aid workers and disaster management officials in Pakistan are forging partnerships with big corporations to help millions of flood survivors who still need emergency aid more than 100 days after the disaster struck.

The floods, which began in July and decimated entire villages from the far north to the deep south, have left an estimated 14 million people in urgent need of clean drinking water, food, health care and shelter - especially as the harsh winter season begins and temperatures plummet in the north of Pakistan.

Traditional foreign donors have so far contributed only 40 percent of the $1.9 billion the United Nations needs to support flood-hit communities this year. As a result, aid workers are turning to PakistanÂ?s private sector for help.

Â?We are just trying to fundraise in as many ways as possible,Â? Stacey Winston, a spokeswoman for the U.N. Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA), said after a meeting of companies, philanthropists, charitable foundations and the humanitarian community aimed at coordinating efforts to help flood survivors.

Â?This is one way that the private sector, which wants to get involved and do more in terms of humanitarian work, can help.Â?

The floods, sparked by monsoon rains, caused PakistanÂ?s mighty Indus river to burst its banks, inundating one-fifth of the country and triggering the worldÂ?s biggest humanitarian crisis in recent years.

FAR FROM OVER

Aid workers say that in scale and magnitude PakistanÂ?s crisis is bigger than JanuaryÂ?s earthquake in Haiti or the Indian Ocean tsunami in 2004, and warn that the emergency is far from over.

In the southern Sindh province, hundreds of thousands are displaced as villages remain submerged. Meanwhile, in the northern Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province, people are returning to ruined homes and livelihoods and facing a severe winter.

The private sector is keen to come to the rescue.

Â?A lot of companies want to get involved, but given the massive scale of the disaster and the numerous players, most donÂ?t know where to route their funds,Â? said Nabeela Darugar of JS Bank and its Mahvash and Jahangir Siddiqui Foundation (MJSF) which organised the Â?United for a CauseÂ? conference on Monday.

Â?There is no independent body where a corporate can go to ensure its donations are monitored and get to the people, which is why this collaboration with the U.N. and provincial disaster management authorities (emerged).Â?

CORPORATE AID

The conference brought together various companies including Unilever Pakistan, British Petroleum, Standard Chartered Pakistan, GlaxoSmithKline, Dir Hydro Power and the Federation of Commerce and Industry.

Some companies have already expressed an interest in providing their warehouses to store relief materials, while others say they can supply trucks and lorries for delivering aid.

Construction firms want to take part in rebuilding numerous homes and schools ravaged by flood waters, either through contributing materials such as cement and concrete or by providing construction engineers.

Companies interested in donating are given a briefing about what the priority needs are by the Corporate Secretariat set up by the MJSF, which will also help them liaise with the government and the United Nations.

Aid agencies and authorities will arrange trips to the devastated areas so that private-sector organisations can see where their money will be spent.

Government officials say the collaboration will help manage disparate private-sector donations and ensure aid is distributed equally among those in need.

Â?We are appealing for everyone to work together to ensure effective management of resources at a government and a non-government level for the benefit of the flood-affected people,Â? said Saleh Farooqui, Director General of the Provincial Disaster Management Authority of Sindh.

Our Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.

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