3.2m hectares of crops destroyed in floods

SUKKUR: Over 1,600 people have died while 15.4 million have been affected by the floods in Pakistan, said chief of United Nations’ Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO), Daniele Donati on Wednesday.

Addressing a press conference along with the country representative FAO Luigi Damiani and Dr Faizul Bari, the project director of Food Facility Pakistan, Donati said millions of livestock have been affected by the floods. Hundreds of thousands of them need emergency assistance, and if immediate action is not taken then tens of thousands of them will die.

According to Donati, over 200,000 cattle have been killed in Sindh and Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa alone. Approximately 80 per cent of the population in the affected areas depends on agriculture and 3.2 million hectares of standing crops have been destroyed.

Rice, maize, cotton, sugar, tobacco and vegetables have also been damaged. Seeds saved by households for the coming seasons have been ruined or lost, he said, adding that livestock is “the poor people’s mobile ATM”.

“Every animal we save is a productive asset that poor families can use to rebuild their lives after the floods,” said Donati.

Sindh and Punjab provinces are part of the country’s breadbasket and if the fields are still flooded in the next few months, there is a serious risk that the wheat-planting season in October will be affected.

One more test for flood survivors

PESHAWAR: Hundreds of thousands of Pakistanis will be spending this Ramazan in relief camps instead of their homes that they had to abandon to survive the country’s worst floods in living memory.

According to the World Food Programme, an estimated four million people face food shortages and the United Nations says that six million Pakistanis need ‘survival’ aid. The international community has pledged tens of millions of dollars – but much more will be needed to set Pakistan back on track. Citizens have remained just as active in collecting funds and relief goods. In unaffected areas, Pakistanis have even started organising their own relief campaigns.

“There isn’t enough food and at the onset of Ramazan, we really want to make sure that the flood survivors have enough to eat. They have no homes and all the supply routes have been disrupted so the first priority is to make sure that food is available to them,” volunteer Shoaib Khalil told The Express Tribune.

Floods have affected 4.5m people: UN

Devastating floods have affected an estimated 4.5 million people across Pakistan, United Nations officials said on Friday, as relief workers warned that aid needs were “absolutely daunting”.

“The UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs estimates globally that 4.5 million people have been affected by the flooding,” said UN spokeswoman Elena Ponomareva, marking an increase of some 300,000 in a day.

Citing estimates from Pakistani authorities, UN relief agencies said an estimated 252,000 homes have been destroyed as relentless monsoon rains continue and flood water roll southwards through some of the poorest parts of the country. “As we’re hearing, the scale of the needs is absolutely daunting,” said Melissa Fleming, a spokeswoman for the office of the UN High Commissioner for Refugees.

Floods continue to destroy villages and important facilities in Punjab, while people are not happy with rehabilitation efforts in Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa.

Rainfall last night caused the water level in Kot Addu to rise. Thousands of people have been stranded, many of them are homeless and waiting for government aid.

Hundreds of thousands of wheat bags were ruined due to floods at the PASCO center in Kot Adu. Authorities have starting erecting protective embankments around PARCO oil refinery, which is under threat of being submerged as well.

UK says Iran gas pipeline Pakistan’s internal matter

British Foreign Sec @WilliamJHague is in Pakistan. Send your questions on the region with tag #fsinpak. Answers here tmrw http://ht.ly/223vzISLAMABAD: Iran continued to dominate the political and diplomatic scene on Wednesday as Pakistan cautioned British Foreign Secretary William Hague that sanctions against the Gulf country beyond the ones mandated by the United Nations could have serious repercussions for Afghanistan and the Middle East.

The warning, Dawn has learnt, was conveyed by Pakistani diplomats during their talks with Mr Hague, who is in Pakistan on his first visit as foreign secretary.

According to Foreign Office sources, a significant part of the talks focussed on the latest UN sanctions on Iran and the subsequent efforts by the US and EU to take punitive measures against Tehran’s oil and gas sector.

Pakistan had on June 14 finalised a $7.6 billion gas pipeline deal with Iran, which is considered crucial for averting the energy crisis Pakistan is currently confronting. “Mr Hague was told that the US and EU sanctions could prove counter-productive and may force Iran to react,” a senior foreign ministry official informed Dawn.

UN to slap fresh sanctions on Iran

UNITED NATIONS: For the fourth time in as many years, the UN Security Council readied fresh sanctions against Iran on Wednesday for refusing to come clean on its nuclear program, but Tehran remains defiant.

Adoption of a US-drafted sanctions resolution, co-sponsored by Britain and France with the backing of Russia and China, was a foregone conclusion despite efforts by Brazil and Turkey to head off the measures and promote a nuclear fuel swap deal they reached with Tehran last month.

Western powers say they were confident that they have more than the nine votes needed to adopt the text at a meeting scheduled to begin at 10:00 am (1400 GMT). Only Brazil, Turkey and Lebanon

Israel recoils as US backs nuclear move

An Israeli newspaper reported that the government of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu was “furious with the Obama administration for having failed to prevent the resolution from passing.” -File Photo

JERUSALEM: Washington’s unprecedented backing for a UN resolution for a nuclear-free Middle East that singles out Israel has both angered and deeply worried the Jewish state although officials are cagey about openly criticising their biggest ally.

The resolution adopted by the United Nations on Friday calls on Israel to join the Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT) and urges it to open its facilities to inspection.

It also calls for a regional conference in 2012 to advance the goal of a nuclear-free Middle East.

Israel is widely believed to be the only nuclear power in the Middle East, with around 200 warheads, but has maintained a policy of deliberate ambiguity about its capabilities since the mid-1960s.