Asia Times: Foreign aid advised for drought relief


	May 23, 2000	atimes.com

India/Pakistan

Foreign aid advised for drought relief
By Muddassir Rizvi

ISLAMABAD - The United Nations has described the drought situation in southern Pakistan as ''very critical'', and independent relief agencies have warned of mass starvation if timely steps are not taken to tackle the acute water distress there.

The nation's military government too has for the first time admitted the magnitude of the natural disaster. An official statement last week said that more than 3 million people in the Sindh and Balochistan provinces have been affected by the worst drought recorded in half a century.

However, the cash-strapped government is hard pressed for resources to provide relief and has appealed to business and citizens to contribute generously.

Military ruler Pervez Musharraf has urged Pakistanis, specially those living abroad, to ''generously donate'' for the relief work. ''I guarantee that whatever they donate will be used only on the rehabilitation of drought-hit people,'' he promised in a public appeal.

Musharraf found it necessary to say so after non-governmental groups and peasants in the Sindh and Balochistan countryside were reported complaining that government relief was being misused.

The worst hit is Balochistan, the country's largest but least populated province. Authorities have already declared 22 districts covering 80 percent of the province's area as calamity-hit.

Hundreds of thousands of cattle herders and marginal farmers in Balochistan and Sindh have fled their ancestral village homes after water sources dried up, parching their farms and grazing lands.

According to government estimates, some 1.2 million people in Sindh and another 2.1 million in the Balochistan countryside, most of them cattle-rearing peasants and subsistence farmers, are at risk.

The UN Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) said that hundreds of people and tens of thousands of heads of livestock have perished. The water scarcity is expected to worsen as the monsoon rains are several weeks away, FAO officials in Islamabad said. ''There is sufficient evidence so far for the UN to feel concerned and alarmed to be prepared to access emergency funds so that we can position ourselves much more efficiently (to tackle the situation),'' said UN resident coordinator in Pakistan, Onder Yucer.

''We feel that the period beyond mid-July is very critical,'' Yucer told reporters at a press conference here. He advised the Pakistani government to set up mechanisms for detailed monitoring of the drought.

The Britain-based international relief agency Oxfam, has estimated that 90 percent of cattle in the drought-hit areas have perished. A four-member Oxfam team that recently toured the drought-hit areas in Balochistan said in its report: ''We anticipate severe starvation as the people are left with only a one-month ration supply.''

Government officials pointed out that it would not be possible for authorities to fund relief operations for more than a couple of months because of the squeeze by international donors. ''We have already allocated 2 billion rupees (about $40 million) for relief work. But more and more people are coming and the government's own resources are fast exhausting,'' said a government spokesman.

The military government has set up a special Drought Relief Fund 2000 and instructed all state-owned banks to collect public funds for this. The banks are doing this through a massive media campaign. ''Let them know you care. Drought victims in Sindh and Balochistan need your urgent help,'' reads a typical spot in national newspapers placed by the state-owned United Bank Limited. ''The public response has so far been positive, if not overwhelming,'' said a bank official.

Independent reports from the drought-hit areas, however, said that official aid was not being efficiently used. Newspapers reported that hundreds of people blocked a main highway in Balochistan to protest non-availability of relief goods promised by the government. ''The government claims it is providing water, flour, milk and fodder for our surviving cattle, but actually we are not getting anything. Our cattle are dying,'' one of the protesters was quoted as saying.

Defending itself, the government said it was doing the best it could with its limited resources. ''We cannot do it alone. We need the support and cooperation of non-governmental organizations and voluntary groups to reach the drought victims,'' said Balochistan relief commissioner Syed Abbas Shah. Official relief agencies are providing food, temporary shelter, water, medicines, transportation and fodder for cattle, he said.

Several non-governmental groups and political parties too are raising funds for drought relief. ''The public response is overwhelming,'' said a worker of the Edhi Welfare Trust, the country's largest citizen's welfare group.

Some think that even such initiatives cannot make up for the expected shortfall of funds, and have advised the government to seek international assistance. ''The government must issue an international appeal before it's too late,'' said Faizan Shah, who heads a non-governmental welfare group in Balochistan.

(Inter Press Service)

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