Maurizio Giuliano, a spokesman for the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs, has described flood-hit Pakistan as going through an experience that was far worse than the December 26, 2004 Indian Ocean tsunami, the October 8, 2005 Kashmir earthquake and the January 13, 2010 Haiti earthquake.
''It looks like the number of people affected in this crisis is higher than the Haiti earthquake, the tsunami or the Pakistan earthquake, and if the toll is as high as the one given by the government, it's higher than the three of them combined,'' a foreign news agency quoted Giuliano, as saying on Monday.
On Sunday, UN special envoy for the disaster, Jean-Maurice Ripert, said Pakistan would need billions of dollars more from international donors to recover from the floods. The death toll in Pakistan is said to be between 1500 and 1700. The Pakistan government estimates that over 13 million people have been affected.
The scale of the crisis has overwhelmed Islamabad and generated widespread anger among flood victims about aid not reaching them quickly enough or at all. According to reports, rescue workers have been unable to reach up to 600,000 people marooned in the Swat Valley.
Hundreds of thousands of people have also had to flee rising floodwaters in Punjab and Sindh as heavy rains continue to pound parts of the country. The government is already struggling with a faltering economy and a brutal war against Taliban militants that has killed thousands of people.
The US and other international partners have stepped in to support the government by donating tens of millions of dollars and providing relief supplies and assistance.
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