They pledge 9,000 million aid to Pakistan for the floods

GENEVA (AP) — At a UN-backed conference, dozens of countries and international institutions pledged more than $9 billion on Monday to help Pakistan recover from devastating summer floods.

The floods killed more than 1,700 people, destroyed more than 2 million homes and covered up to a third of the country at one point, causing more than $30 billion in damage, authorities said. Vast swathes of the country remain under water and millions of people live near polluted or stagnant water, according to the UN.

It was a “climatic disaster of monumental scale”, according to United Nations Secretary General António Guterres.

After the lunch break, Pakistan’s Information Minister Marriyum Aurangzeb tweeted that $8.57 billion had been offered so far, exceeding the original target of covering half of the government’s estimated needs of around 16 .3 billion to respond to flooding. The other half should come from the government itself.

The main donors are the Islamic Development Bank, with $4,200 million; the World Bank, with 2,000 million; and the Asian Development Bank, with 1,500. Aurangzeb reported that the European Union has pledged $93 million, Germany 88, China 100 and Japan 77 million. The United States doubled its allocation, announcing an additional $100 million on top of a similar amount already pledged to Pakistan.

Aurangzeb’s provisional tally did not include, for example, a $1 billion pledge from Saudi Arabia. Wealthy and traditionally generous Nordic countries, among others, were still announcing their pledges on Monday afternoon.

The conference promises to be a test of the extent to which rich countries will contribute to helping developing countries manage the impact of climate disasters and prepare for other disasters.

Guterres and Pakistani Prime Minister Shahbaz Sharif attended the photo in person, while other world leaders including French President Emmanuel Macron and Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan participated virtually.

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Munir Ahmed reported from Islamabad.

Theodore Davis

"Entrepreneur. Amateur gamer. Zombie advocate. Infuriatingly humble communicator. Proud reader."

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