The United Nations has called a special meeting of the General Assembly on Thursday to discuss the situation in flood-hit Pakistan and ask the member states to contribute expeditiously to help the affected people.
US secretary of states Hillary Clinton and Pakistan foreign minister Shah Mahmood Qureshi will attend the special meeting on Thursday in which UN secretary general Ban Ki-moon will ask the member states to make donations in order to provide humanitarian aid to the 15 million flood-affected Pakistanis.
At least 14,000 people have died so far. "The Thursday meeting is not a pledging conference," said Farhan Haq, UN associate spokesperson. "Although member states are welcome to take the opportunity to describe what they intend to contribute."
The UN has said that contributions have been slow. The world body has received only $161 million out of $460 million appeal made last week, which is about 35 per cent of the total needed.
The World Bank has pledged $900 million in assistance. According to latest situation report from the UN, a close to 900,000 houses were damaged or destroyed, and flood waters continued to swell in the provinces of Sindh and Balochistan.
By some accounts, the death toll stands at 2,000 while more than 20 million people have been hit by the floods. "This has been a heart-wrenching day for me," said UN secretary general Ban Ki-moon, after visiting the flooded regions, this week. "In the past, I have witnessed many natural disasters around the world but nothing like this."
The World Health Organisation said according to latest the leading causes of illness in affected communities were skin diseases, acute watery diarrhoea and respiratory tract infections.
UNICEF has found that more than three million children were at high risk of water-borne diseases. "We fear we are getting close to the start of seeing a second wave of death if not enough money comes through, due to water-borne diseases along with lack of clean water and food shortages," said Maurizio Giuliano, spokesperson for UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs.