Huge scale of Pakistan floods impeding speed of relief efforts: UN

Pakistani flood survivors sit on ground and wait for relief goods in Dera Murad Jamali, Balochistan, southwest Pakistan, Sept. 2, 2010. The month-long devastating floods, the worst in Pakistan's history, have killed at least 1,710 people and affected over 20 million others. (Xinhua/Iqbal Hussain)
The staggering scale of the floods in Pakistan is hampering operations and making it impossible to supply aid at the required level of speed, a UN spokesman said here on Thursday.

"Procuring, handling and delivering relief supplies is enormously challenging," UN spokesman Farhan Haq told reporters.

To ensure effectiveness of assessments and response plans, the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) has set up five main inter-agency coordination hubs, he said.

Meanwhile, OCHA said that it is increasingly concerned about the humanitarian situation in Pakistan's south-western province of Balochistan, and will work to step up relief activities there.

Donations to the Emergency Response plan that the United Nations launched two weeks ago seeking 459.7 million U.S. dollars have halted since the beginning of last week, with contributions currently standing at 63.4 percent of the required amount, Haq said.

The month-long ravaging floods, the worst in Pakistan's history, have left at least 1,710 people dead, affected around 20 million people, caused a 43-billion-U.S.-dollar loss and damaged an area bigger than England.

Source: Xinhua