Tuesday, July 26, 2011

Pakistan floods - one year on

As Pakistan marks the one-year anniversary of the worst floods in living memory, the aid agency, Oxfam, has warned that country is still unprepared for the monsoon season.

In a new report “ Ready or not? Pakistan’s resilience to disasters, one year on from the floods”, Oxfam said that families had not fully recovered from last year’s disaster and were likely to fall even deeper into poverty if hit by floods again. Oxfam is calling on the Pakistan government and donors to invest more in more in measures to reduce the impact of disasters.

This could include flood resistant housing, and effective early warning systems – especially at the village level. The cost of reconstruction for last year’s floods is estimated at more than ten billion dollars; but investing an initial 27 million dollars, backed up with yearly top ups, to improve disaster management would make a huge difference in making Pakistan better-prepared for future emergencies.






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