LAHORE MIRROR (Monitoring Desk) — Pakistan Monday secured $10.7 billion in flood pledges, well over a targetted $8 billion, as it scrambles to mobilise funds to rehabilitate the devastated 33 million population and repair damages worth billions.
The cash-strapped nation clinched the pledges at the one-day International Conference on Climate Resilient Pakistan in Geneva after Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif launched an $8 billion flood aid appeal, aimed at helping the country overcome the devastation caused due to the cataclysmic floods.
The country, with a $350 billion economy, secured commitments worth $8.57 billion by the end of the plenary session I, while it managed to secure over $2 billion in the second session.
Pakistan faces financial distress after the deadly floods wreaked havoc on the country, which killed at least 1,700 and caused damages worth over $16 billion — half of which Islamabad is financing through its resources.
World Bank and Islamic Development Bank (IsDB) pledged over $6 billion to Pakistan to aid its climate rebuilding effort in response to the country’s $8 billion flood appeal.
The IsDB has pledged $4.2 billion over the next three years to Pakistan and World Bank $2 billion, while the Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank, Saudi Arabia, China, the United States and other nations have also announced support.
Pakistan is in dire want of $8 billion from world donors during the next three years to shore up the country’s economy which was mostly laid to waste by extreme floods from June to October 2022, PM Shehbaz told the moot’s participants.
“We are racing against time,” he said, stressing that relief work needed to continue as some areas of Sindh needed drainage of water, while the education of millions of children remains affected.
Officials from some 40 countries as well as private donors and international financial institutions have gathered in Geneva as Islamabad seeks support in what is expected to be a major test case for who pays for climate disasters.
SOURCE: GEO NEWS
