World Bank to lend Pakistan $900m
The World Bank is to loan $900 million to Pakistan to help it recover from its worst ever flooding. A World Bank spokesman said the funds will be channelled through the reprogramming of planned projects and the reallocation of money. He told a press conference: "We are reprioritising to make the funds immediately available."
But the UN said international aid has been slow and that it has raised only a third of the $460m needed for emergency relief. spokeswoman for Care International said the UN had to do more to convince donors that the money was "not going to go to the hands of the Taliban". Pakistan's High Commissioner to Britain, Wajid Shamsul Hasan, said it could take five years and $15bn for the country to recover.
He warned that a failure to provide sufficient relief and rebuilding assistance could lead to an increase in extremism and instability in the wider region. He called for a new Marshall Plan, referring to the extensive US development programme in Europe after World War II.
The devastating floods have affected up to 20 million people and left some 2,000 dead. Health officials have warned that disease could spread quickly among the millions of displaced people and that 3.5m children are at risk.
Maurizio Giuliano, of the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA), warned that Pakistan would face "a second wave of deaths" from water-borne diseases and food shortages unless more aid arrived soon. He estimated the number of people at risk from such diseases was six million.
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