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Op-Ed
A. R. Malik: Pakistan Flood Demands More Serious Support
Wednesday, August 18, 2010
Malik
Pakistan has an agrarian economy, but now that agrarian economy is being destroyed by a massive flood - probably the worst flood in the nation's history. It will take many years to rebuild the infrastructure and to rehabilitate the population.
Over 20% of the fertile and cultivable land of Pakistan - an area roughly equal to the total size of England - has been hard hit.
It should be remembered that Pakistan is already an aid-dependent and debt-ridden economy linked tightly with the World Bank and the International Monetary Fund.
When one considers the vast challenges that lay before the Pakistani government in attempting to rebuild the economy, their task is Herculean.
The devastation created by this flood will prove to be much greater than the October 2005 earthquake that hit Kashmir and Balakot.
This tragic flood, which started in June, has taken the lives of as many as 1,700 people and made about 500,000 homeless. Over 895,000 houses have been destroyed. Initial estimates suggest that around 20 million people - or one out of ten Pakistanis - have been negatively affected by the flood.
UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-Moon has described the situation as "heart-wrenching." The UN General Assembly is convening a special session in New York today to brief the world about the magnitude of destruction and to raise emergency funds for Pakistan to cope with this natural calamity.
The United Nations has already established an initial fund of worth US$460 million.
But in light of the massive scale of the tragedy, however, this is far from adequate. The Washington Post rightly noted in its editorial of August 17 that, "the one thing that has not come flooding into Pakistan is international aid." UK International Development Secretary Andrew Mitchell went an extra mile by attacking the "woefully inadequate response from other nations."
The United States has emerged as the largest donor to the victims of the flood, donating as much as US$79 million so far.
The response from other Muslim nations has been rather pitiful to date, and desperate Pakistan has asked the Organization of the Islamic Conference to convene a special session to help.
Japan, regrettably, has also been quite stingy, offering only about US$13 million in spite of the fact that it remains one of the world's richest nations.
Japan's relatively small amount of assistance has disappointed Pakistanis, and it seems to be part of an overall political tilt toward India in recent months.
By offering prompt and reasonably substantial support, the United States has significantly enhanced its image within Pakistan. Unfortunately, Japan's reputation is now headed in the opposite direction.
Ahmad Rashid Malik is a Japan Foundation Fellow and author of an important volume on Pakistan-Japan relations.
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