United Nations Secretary General Antonio Guterres, who is here to express solidarity with Pakistan, said that he saw no loss of hope in the country after taking into account the damages during a visit to flood-hit Sukkur on Saturday.
“But that hope to materialise needs the international community to recognise three basic facts,” he said after Sindh Chief Minister Murad Ali Shah gave a presentation on the flood damages. “It is difficult not to feel deeply moved when we hear such detailed description of tragedies, of the loss of life, destruction, of the loss of property, of the loss of livelihood.”
Guterres, along with Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif and Foreign Minister Bilawal Bhutto Zardari, landed in Sukkur earlier the day to review the situation as part of his two-day visit.
Sindh needed financial support to uplift its education, irrigation and housing infrastructure in the wake of the flood damages, Chief Minister Murad Ali Shah said.
“It is in fact what is owed by the developed world. Pakistan needs help,” he said.
The UN chief supported the Sindh CM’s viewpoint that humanity has been waging war on nature and nature strikes back. “There is a very unfair in relation to the level of destruction that we are seeing in Sindh,” he said and stressed that the international community has to understand three things and join institutions to help Pakistan.
Pakistan, including Sindh, needs today massive financial support to overcome this crisis. This is not a matter of generosity. It is a matter of justice.
We need to stop this madness with which we are treating nature. We need to review emissions now. Now is the time to reduce [carbon] emissions and this will be essential in the Cairo talks of COP. The fact we are living in a world where climate change is acting in such a devastating way. There must be massive support for adaptation, which means building resilient infrastructure. Pakistan is one of 15 hotspots of climate change and these countries need huge increase in finances to build resilient infrastructure. There has not been now until a serious discussion on loss and damage. I hope that we will have a serious discussion in Cairo on loss and damage.
What the UN is doing in Pakistan is a drop in the ocean of what is needed. We are aware of our limited resources and capacity and we are in total solidarity with the Pakistani people. We will do what we can and do to support Pakistan and request those who have the capacity to support Pakistan, to do it now and do it massively to face the future challenges when it is coming. Our commitment and emotional solidarity are what you can count on.
More to follow
