Pakistan seeks support with $16 bln flood reconstructing at UN summit
Key takeaways:
- Record monsoon showers and thawing glaciers last September displaced approximately 8 million people and killed at least 1,700 in a disaster that was blamed on climate change.
- Most of the water has now been reduced. Still, the rebuilding work, estimated at about $16.3 billion, to overhaul millions of houses and thousands of kilometres of routes and railway is just starting, and millions more people may slide into poverty.
Pakistan and the United Nations are having an important meeting in Geneva on Monday, seeking to marshal support to reconstruct the nation after devastating floods in what is anticipated to be a significant test case for who pays for climate catastrophes.
Record monsoon showers and thawing glaciers last September displaced approximately 8 million people and killed at least 1,700 in a disaster that was blamed on climate change.
Most of the water has now been reduced. Still, the rebuilding work, estimated at about $16.3 billion, to overhaul millions of houses and thousands of kilometres of highways and railway is just starting, and millions more people may slide into poverty.
Islamabad, whose board is led by Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif, will offer a recovery “framework” at the meeting where United Nations Secretary-General Antonio Guterres and French President Emmanuel Macron are due to speak.
Guterres, who visited Pakistan in September, has not yet described the nation’s ruin as “climate carnage”.
“This is a crucial moment for the international community to be with Pakistan and to save to a resilient and inclusive healing from these devastating floods,” said Knut Ostby, United Nations Development Programme’s Pakistan Representative.
An additional allowance is critical to Pakistan amid growing worries about its capacity to pay for imports such as energy and food and to meet sovereign debt commitments abroad.
