August 20, 2010 in Nation/World

U.N. meets goal for flood aid

Donations come after Ban cajoles General Assembly
Edith M. Lederer Associated Press
 

UNITED NATIONS – The United Nations appeared to have met its target of $460 million in immediate aid for flood-stricken Pakistan on Thursday after the U.S. and other nations significantly upped their pledges.

The rush of promised help came after U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon, addressing a hastily called meeting of the General Assembly, urged governments and people to be even more generous than they were in the 2004 Indian Ocean tsunami and this year’s Haiti earthquake, because the floods were a bigger “global disaster” with the Pakistan government now saying more than 20 million people need shelter, food and clean water.

Before the meeting, donors had given half the sum the U.N. appealed for to provide food, shelter and clean water to up to 8 million flood victims over the next three months, Ban said, but insisted all the money was needed now – and much more will be needed later.

After listening to speeches by high-level representatives of some 20 countries, Pakistani Foreign Minister Shah Mahmood Qureshi said he was assured that the $460 million goal “is going to be easily met,” including “$100 million plus” from Saudi Arabia.

Richard Holbrooke, the U.S. special envoy to Pakistan and Afghanistan, told reporters before the meeting that he believed that where the tsunami and Haiti catastrophes happened suddenly, “for about 10 days people didn’t realize that this wasn’t just another flood.”

U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton announced that her government, already the biggest donor, would contribute an additional $60 million, bringing its total to more than $150 million, and that about $92 million would go into the U.N.’s relief coffers.

The European Union raised its pledge to more than $180 million. In addition, Britain said it would double its contribution to nearly $100 million, on top of $25 million public donations, and Germany raised its aid to $32 million.

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