UNITED NATIONS: The UN General Assembly has adopted a resolution that expressed full solidarity with the flood-hit Pakistani people and urged the world community to scale up its humanitarian assistance to Pakistan.
“The people of Pakistan are the victims of a grim calculus of climate injustice,” UN chief Antonio Guterres said in his speech. “Pakistan is responsible for less than one per cent of global greenhouse gas emissions, yet it is paying a supersized price for man-made climate change.”
Pakistan, he warned, was on the verge of a public health disaster, saying that the risk of a cholera outbreak, malaria and dengue fever threatened to claim far more lives than the floods.
“Nearly 1,500 health facilities have been devastated, greatly hindering the ability to detect and respond to outbreaks. More than two million homes were damaged or destroyed,” the UN chief added.
The 193-member assembly, meeting in its iconic hall on Friday, adopted the Pakistan-sponsored resolution by consensus. The text was co-sponsored by a large number of countries – 159 – from all regions of the world. It called for supporting rehabilitation and reconstruction in the areas devastated by climate-induced monsoon rains
“Countries, like Pakistan, which confront such climate-induced disasters should not be left to fend for themselves, dependent on the generosity and charity of friends,” ambassador Munir Akram, Pakistan’s permanent representative to the UN, said while introducing the resolution, as he drew attention to the havoc wrought by the raging flood waters, and called for international support to help Pakistan cope with the calamity.
“We must construct mechanisms that can enable climate-struck countries to access resources to mitigate the impacts of the ever more frequent and more intense climate disasters and to recover quickly from such disasters,” the Pakistani envoy said.
He paid tributes to UN Secretary General Antonio Guterres for his timely visit to Pakistan to personally convey his solidarity, meet the victims, consult the country’s leadership and call for massive assistance to Pakistan, saying he had “explored the hearts” of the Pakistani people.
“If a referendum was held in Pakistan, the [UN] secretary general would receive, not 99 per cent, but 100 per cent support!”
Ambassador Akram added the toll taken had been tremendous. “Over 1,700 people lost their lives and 13,000 were injured. Thirty-three million, including 16 million children are estimated to be affected by heavy rainfall. Over a million homes, 13,000 kilometers of national highways, 410 bridges and 5.4 million acre crops were damaged.”
He said the floods had displaced at least 7.9 million people, of whom some 600,000 were living in relief camps. Nearly 800,000 refugees were estimated to be hosted in more than 40 calamity-notified districts.
“The total estimated damage caused by this calamity is $32 billion, 10 per cent of Pakistan’s GDP,” the Pakistani envoy said, “The World Bank estimates that as a direct consequence of the floods, the national poverty rate may increase by 4.5 to 7.0 percentage points, pushing between 9.9 to 15.4 million people into poverty and intensifying the depth and severity of poverty for already poor households.”
Under the terms of the resolution, the assembly stressed the need for continued cooperation between the Pakistani government and the relevant organizations throughout the ongoing relief operations, and rehabilitation and reconstruction efforts, in a manner that enhances resilience and reduces vulnerability to future natural hazards;
Emphasising adaptive capacity, the resolution urged strengthening resilience and reducing vulnerability to climate change and extreme weather events.
It called for full support and assistance to the Government of Pakistan in its efforts to mitigate the adverse impacts of the floods and to meet the medium- and long-term rehabilitation and reconstruction needs.
The resolution also called on the international community to “scale up its humanitarian assistance and rehabilitation of Pakistan, in order to repair and strengthen the country’s prospects for achieving sustainable development and encourages member states, the United Nations, and humanitarian organizations to continue to work together to address the different needs of affected populations, particularly the most vulnerable”.
The text “emphasizes the need for the international community to maintain its focus beyond the present emergency relief, in order to sustain the political will to support the medium- and long-term rehabilitation, reconstruction and risk reduction efforts as well as adaptation plan led by the Government of Pakistan at all levels.”
It welcomes the proposed convening of a pledging conference to generate assistance for long-term rehabilitation and reconstruction phases in the disaster-stricken areas.
The resolution requested the secretary general and the UN system entities to continue to support Pakistan in the preparation of a climate-resilient reconstruction plan responding to national priorities and development needs and to further intensify their efforts to sensitize the international community to the humanitarian, recovery, and reconstruction needs of Pakistan.
