Islamabad: Hollywood star Angelina Jolie on Wednesday asked the global community to come forward in providing aid for victims of Pakistan's historic flooding, which has ruined the country and affected around 33 million people. She has also given an alert that the children of the affected zones will be hard hit by this calamity.
The United Nations has mentioned that the devastating torrent started by very heavy rainfall has killed nearly 1,600 people, including 560 children. Since the monsoon rains began in June, an estimated 3.4 million children have been displaced from their homes and are struggling to survive.
Jolie has given an alert that "too many children" are malnourished and people require urgent aid to survive.
She said this during her visit to the National Flood Response Coordination Center in the Pakistani capital, Islamabad: "I am absolutely with you in pushing the international community to do more. If enough aid doesn't come, they won't be here in the next few weeks."
The Hollywood star, who is a goodwill ambassador for the U.N. High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR), commented the day after visiting flood-affected areas in Pakistan’s southern Sindh province.
She said, "I've never seen anything like this. … I am overwhelmed."
Pakistani and UN officials have mentioned that the monsoon rainfall has turned more devastating after global climate change. It later caused flash floods in the hilly areas of Pakistan and widespread flooding in the plains of the country.
This has left more than 40 per cent of Pakistan submerged. Officials have informed that it may take months to completely pass the floodwaters away.
Call for international community to help Pakistan
After this destructive flooding, the international community is receiving a call to come together and work toward climate change mitigation. Jolie said, "I think this is a real wake-up call to the world about where we are at and that climate change is not only real and it's not only coming, it's very much here."
On Wednesday, US President Joe Biden also mentioned Pakistan's floods while addressing climate change in his address to the U.N. General Assembly.
"We all know we’re already living in a climate crisis. No one seems to doubt it after this past year. As we meet, much of Pakistan is still underwater; it needs help," Biden said.
Pakistan is highly at the risk of climate crisis
Pakistan contributes not more than 1 per cent of the global carbon emissions, but the country is among the most exposed to the impacts of the climate crisis. Islamabad has requested rich countries to consider climate reparations.
In the meantime, dozens of countries from all over the globe have been providing relief supplies and medicine to Pakistan to help it recover rapidly.
Diarrhea, Malaria, Typhoid cases on the edge of coming
The United Nations has also given an alert that, as millions of flood victims stay in temporary shelters or in the open area next to stagnating water, various diseases, including diarrhea, typhoid, and malaria, are likely to spread as well.
This past week, over 1,34,000 diarrhea and 44,000 malaria cases were already noted in the area of Sindh that was worst hit by the floods, a U.N. statement claimed on Wednesday.
It also threatened that a second disaster which is on the edge of arriving is health, nutrition, water, sanitation, and hygiene are of critical concern.
UN officials claimed that a huge area covering Pakistan's flood-affected zone is still under water and thousands of families in the 82 affected districts are still away and have not received any aid.
According to Pakistani officials, the flooding has destroyed properties worth $30 billion, including houses, roads, and colonies. The flooding has devastated over 3.5 million acres of cultivable land, raising fears it will intensify food insecurity issues throughout the nation and around 220 million people may be affected by it.
The foreign ministry in Islamabad mentioned on Wednesday, after a bilateral meeting between Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif and French President Emmanuel Macron on the sidelines of the 77th Session of the U.N. General Assembly in New York, that France will host an international conference on "climate-resilient reconstruction" later this year of Pakistan’s flood-ravaged areas.
