Pakistan races to save towns from floods

7 Sep 2010, 7:31 pm   -   Source: AAP
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Pakistan is bolstering river defences in the flood-hit south in a bid to save two towns even as the UN warned the world must help the militant-hit country.

River defences in Pakistan's flood-hit south were bolstered on Tuesday in a bid to save two towns from catastrophic flooding as the UN warned the world community must help the militant-hit nation recover.

Eight million people remain reliant on aid handouts to survive, six weeks after monsoons caused devastating floods in the country's worst disaster in living memory.

Advancing floodwaters continue to threaten the towns of Johi and Dadu in Sindh province, with 19 of its 23 districts deluged and 2.8 million people displaced, according to provincial authorities.

"Armed forces and irrigation officials are racing against time to save Johi and Dadu," said provincial irrigation minister Jam Saifullah Dharejo.

"Floodwaters are increasing pressure on Johi embankment, while the raging waters are just five kilometres away from Dadu city," Dharejo said.

He said residents had formed a human chain to help reinforce embankments securing the towns.

"It is very heartening to us that local people are being very courageous and helping authorities, picking up stones to reinforce the embankments," he said.

Dadu and Johi are about 320 kilometres north of the main southern port city of Karachi.

Meanwhile, the UN's development chief for Asia said the world must respond to Pakistan's crisis and help it rebuild to secure hearts and minds in the insurgency-wracked nation.

Global cash pledges have been slow coming to bolster rescue and relief efforts in Pakistan, where more than 21 million people have been affected by the floods.

Helping Pakistanis rebuild homes and businesses, reduced to rubble by the unprecedented deluge, will be even more important to long-term regional and global stability, said UN Assistant Secretary General Ajay Chhibber.

"Now that the water has receded in large parts ... what's clear from these visits is that the early recovery needs to start now," said Chhibber during a visit on Monday to the militant-hit northwest.

"If there's greater unrest in Pakistan it will have much greater regional and global implications.

"This is a country that is a very large, very important country in the region, a very large, very important country in the globe, so that battle for the hearts and minds of people here is very important."

Last week the UN said that despite an improvement in aid donations after a visit by Secretary General Ban Ki-moon in mid-August, extra pledges had "almost stalled" since a week earlier.

The UN has warned that the slow pace of pledges could impede relief operations and says Pakistan faces a triple threat to food supplies - with seeds, crops and incomes hit.

An initial relief appeal has been about two-thirds funded, and Chhibbers said a second appeal would be launched on September 17, seeking help for the next steps in Pakistan's recovery.

Hollywood star Angelina Jolie arrived in northwest Pakistan on Tuesday with the UN's refugee agency to draw world attention to the crisis.

"UNHCR goodwill ambassador Angelina Jolie arrived in Pakistan today to meet people affected by the floods and to highlight the continued urgent need for help," the agency said in a statement.

Jolie, the 34-year-old actress and roving envoy for the UN High Commissioner for Refugees, visited affected communities in the northwest, it said, where millions of long-term Afghan refugees reside.

The floods have ruined 3.6 million hectares of rich farmland, and the UN's Food and Agriculture Organisation said farmers urgently needed seeds to plant for next year's crops.

Prime Minister Yousuf Raza Gilani has warned that the country faces inflation of up to 20 per cent and slower growth because of the disaster.

The floods have killed 1760 people, but disaster officials have said the number of deaths is likely to rise "significantly" when the missing are accounted for.

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