The Government will match public donations pound for pound up to £5 million for a Pakistan flood appeal.
Ministers today announced a further £15 million of aid - which includes the £5 million match funding - after Pakistan was devastated by record-breaking flooding which has affected 33 million people and killed almost 1,200, including 399 children.
Today Southern Pakistan is braced for more flooding as a surge of water flows down the Indus river.
Record monsoon rains and melting glaciers in northern mountains is expected to create a flow of some 600,000 cubic feet per second.
The United Nations has appealed for £138 million to help with what it has called an “unprecedented climate catastrophe”.
The chief executive of the human rights body, Antonio Guterres, said: “Let’s stop sleepwalking towards the destruction of our planet by climate change. Today, it’s Pakistan. Tomorrow, it could be your country.”
Fifteen UK charities, including the British Red Cross and Oxfam, are asking the public for donations to protect lives as waters carry on rising.
Our government said £10 million will go to international aid agencies on the ground, to provide water, sanitation, shelter, protection for women and girls, home maintenance and help people maintain their livelihoods.
Pakistan has received nearly 190% more rain than the 30-year average from June to August, totalling 15.38 inches. Sindh province, with a population of 50 million, has been hardest hit, getting 466% more rain than the 30-year average.
Some parts of the province look like an inland sea with only occasional patches of trees or raised roads breaking the surface of the flood waters.
Hundreds of families have taken refugee on roads, the only dry land in sight.
Many headed for urban centres, like the port city of Karachi, which has for now escaped the flooding.
“We lost our house to the rain and floods, we’re going to Karachi to our relatives, no one has came to help us,” said Allah Bakash, 50, leaving with his family and belongings loaded on a truck.
The floods have swept away homes, businesses, infrastructure and roads. Standing and stored crops have been destroyed and some two million acres of farm land inundated.
The government says 33 million people, or 15% of the 220 million population, have been affected.
Almost half a million people have been displaced and are being looked after in camps.
“*More than three million children are in need of humanitarian assistance and at increased risk of waterborne diseases, drowning and malnutrition due to the most severe flooding in Pakistan’s recent history,” the U.N. children’s agency warned.
The World Health Organization said that more than 6.4 million people were in dire need of humanitarian aid.
Aid has started to arrive on planes loaded with food, tents and medicines, mostly from China, Turkey and United Arab Emirates.
