Relief efforts for displaced people in Pakistan barely coping, report says

Jun 17 2009

Despite significant efforts from Pakistani authorities and humanitarian organizations to respond to the world’s largest and fastest displacement of people in more than a decade, relief efforts are barely coping, according to an Oxfam report published on Monday, the International News reports.

The report finds that host communities have played a "vital role in preventing a catastrophe," but are struggling with "dwindling resources and insufficient help," the International News writes, adding, "The humanitarian situation remains highly volatile as the conflict spreads, triggering new displacements."

Oxfam said that many displaced people – especially those in unofficial camps and host communities, which house about 85 percent of people displaced by the situation – have not received adequate water, sanitation, food, healthcare and other basic needs. Neva Khan, country director Oxfam in Pakistan, said a lack of funds has undermined the relief effort. 

The U.N.'s "revised appeal for $543 million is barely a quarter-funded six weeks into the emergency and most of that was given to support the exodus of people fleeing clashes last year," according to Khan, who added that "[a]id agencies are struggling for funds just as the summer monsoons are approaching, which raises the risk of disease." Khan said that "rich states" have failed to adequately respond and that time is running out for "more than two million women, men and children" (International News, 6/16).