Investment needed for Pakistan flood recovery: UN
The UN chief on Monday called for "massive investments" to help Pakistan recover from last year's devastating floods, saying it was "doubly victimised" by climate change and a "morally bankrupt global financial system". "No country deserves to endure what happened to Pakistan," UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres told an international conference in Geneva, which is seeking billions of US dollars to support recovery from the disaster. Guterres opened the one-day event appealing to the world to help Pakistan bounce back from floods which submerged a third of the country, killing more than 1,700 people and affecting more than 33 million others. Pakistan's Foreign Minister Bilawal Bhutto Zardari, who attended with Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif, called the floods "a climate disaster of monumental scale". Eight million people were displaced, millions of acres of agricultural land were ruined and around two million homes destroyed, while nine million more people were pushed to the brink of poverty. The UN chief hailed how Pakistan and its people had responded to "this epic tragedy with heroic humanity". "We must match the heroic response of the people of Pakistan with our own efforts and massive investments to strengthen their communities for the future," he told the conference. According to Pakistan's so-called Resilient Recovery, Rehabilitation and Reconstruction Framework, which it will officially present during Monday's conference, it will need US$16.3 billion. Pakistan's government has said the country should be able to cover half the cost, but is asking the international community to fund the rest. (AFP)