The United Nations immediately needs $250 million to avert second imminent massive wave of deaths in the earthquake devastated areas of northern Pakistan and Azad Kashmir, UN Resident Representative and Humanitarian Co-ordinator in Pakistan Jan Vandemoortele said here on Friday.
Sending an SOS message to the international community for funds urgently needed for scaling up of UN life saving operations before winter fully engulfs the Himalayan hills, Jan said: "It's now or never. UN needs the funds today. Tomorrow it would be too late as thousands of people in the remote and difficult hilly areas would perish for want of shelter, food, water, medicines and fuel in the below freezing weather."
Briefing newsmen at UN Information Centre, Islamabad, about the gravity and complexity of the situation, he said that it was a race against time "and last chance" to save thousands of homeless and helpless people who "are on the verge of death" due to injuries, cold, malnutrition, hunger and many climatic diseases.
The UN Humanitarian Co-ordinator said: "Although the international community has pledged $580 million in Geneva conference but many of these pledges are not yet commitments in concrete form nor is it clear whether they are aimed at major reconstruction in Pakistan or supporting the current lifesaving relief operations."
He said that the UN needed $550 million in cash for the current 6-month life-saving phase. Therefore, the donors should start sending their contributions in cash, otherwise UN bodies like WHO, FAO, ILO, Unicef, UNHCR etc would be forced to scale down their vital operations.
He said that very little had been contributed "in real terms" of the pledged aid. He said that every dollar, euro or yen "committed today will save lives; every helicopter provided will rescue the injured, among them hundreds of children; every shelter erected will save a family from the ravages of winter".
The UN official said that the humanitarian community, Pakistan government and the Military have been working night and day to prevent unnecessary deaths from hypothermia and disease. "We must save babies from diarrheal diseases, keep mothers and grandmothers warm and avoid unnecessary amputation where people are still waiting for assistance," he added.
The UN, he said, was currently executing relief operation with borrowed money "with our six helicopters and 400 staffers and several partner organisations" and require urgent funds from donor countries to continue efforts in critical areas.
He said that as each day reveals more acute needs, it is clear that the response provided so far by the world is inadequate, as only 20 percent of the pledged money has been turned into commitments after three weeks of the earthquake, against 80 percent in case of tsunami calamity.
He said that the World Food Programme has only two months' food stock for 5,00,000 people and requires at least 1,10.000 tons wheat to ensure food supply for six months, which should be bought on priority basis from the countries who have extra wheat stocks.
He said that 200,000 'winterised tents' were still needed to provide shelter to three million people rendered homeless in the earthquake.
UN sources told Business Recorder that some 17 days after the earthquake the unfolding picture showed levels of human and economic devastation unprecedented in the history of the subcontinent.
The entire area of Azad Kashmir and northern parts of Pakistan are affected. Hundreds of towns, villages, individual hamlets and isolated settlements scattered over an area of 28,000 square kilometers had been completely wiped out, particularly around Muzaffarabad, Mansehra, Balakot and Batgram.
They said that till October 25, $68 million had been committed to the UN and its partners, and a further $35 million had been pledged.
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