Key Points
- Reparations should be paid by rich countries to those bearing the brunt of climate disasters
- Sherry Rehman said Pakistan was 'ground zero' but had "contributed less than one per cent to emissions."
Reparations should be paid by rich countries to those bearing the brunt of climate disasters, Pakistan's minister for climate change has said following unprecedented flooding which has left hundreds dead.
Sherry Rehman said Pakistan was "ground zero" but had "contributed less than one per cent to [greenhouse gas] emissions."
Speaking to the Guardian, she added: "There is so much loss and damage with so little reparations to countries that contributed so little to the world’s carbon footprint that obviously the bargain made between the global north and global south is not working."
Mahagun Baloch and her baby are barely surviving in the camps set up after the disaster Source: SBS News / Aaron Fernandes
Their village was destroyed by Pakistan’s floods and now they are taking shelter in a camp by the side of the road in Ghotki district.
"We have been forced to come here. Because water has flooded our area," Ms Baloch told SBS News.
Her five-month-old baby is desperately malnourished and her limbs are frail.
Many children have been displaced by the floods.
The young mother, desperately trying to give her baby water, told SBS News she has to beg to feed her four children.
But no-one has come here to check on her baby’s health, and she has no money to take her to see a doctor.
"I don’t have even ten rupees to take her for a check-up."
Record monsoon rains and melting glaciers in Pakistan's northern mountains have brought floods that have affected 33 million people. Source: SBS News / Aaron Fernandes
One of the women, living in the camp with her two daughters, says they don’t feel safe.
"How can we feel safe here? We’re sitting out in the open," Sonehari Bhayo said.
Flooding brought by record monsoon rains and melting glaciers in Pakistan's northern mountains have affected 33 million people and killed at least 1,325, including 466 children, national disaster officials have said.
Pakistanis were scrambling on Tuesday to widen a breach in the country's biggest lake and prevent the waters from overflowing to swamp nearby towns.
Already 100,000 people have been displaced from their homes in the effort to keep the lake from overflowing, an outcome that authorities fear could affect hundreds of thousands more.
"Till yesterday there was enormous pressure on the dikes of Johi and Mehar towns, but people are fighting it out by strengthening the dikes," district official Murtaza Shah said on Tuesday, adding that 80 to 90 per cent of townspeople had already fled.
Aid organisations estimate almost 6.5 million people are in need of shelter across Pakistan.
"They have lost literally everything. This is quite traumatising for the children," Save the Children Pakistan country director Muhammad Khuram Gondal said.
The United Nations has called for the international community to provide $160 million in aid.
Pakistan's neighbour China has committed $63.7 million, while the United States has promised $44.3 million and the United Kingdom $25.4 million.
So far, Australia has pledged $2 million, after sending $75 million to Pakistan when it last faced catastrophic floods in 2010.
Aid agencies are calling for Australia to more than double its efforts.
"Our sector is calling for an additional $5 million straight away to work with local communities to help those on the ground, but more assistance will be required after that as well," Australian Council for International Development's Natasha Chabbra says.
Source: SBS News
She rejected the idea that Australia was partly responsible for the disaster in Pakistan by not doing enough to stop climate change.
"I would make the point, as I made when I had the privilege of being Australia's Climate Minister, that pointing the finger at each other when it comes to resolving the global action on climate change was less productive than finding agreement about how we start to reduce emissions," Senator Wong said.
- With Reuters
