Despite international organizations sending in millions of dollars for Pakistan in recent weeks, this level of foreign assistance hasn’t been nearly enough to cope with the impact of the devastating floods faced by the South Asian nation.
In an interview with CNBC, Finance Minister Miftah Ismail cautioned that Pakistan will have to do much of the heavy lifting in its rebuilding effort and would require several thousand billion rupees, the majority of which will come from extensive budget cuts and taxes.
Pakistan's Finance Minister @MiftahIsmail tells @CNBCi international aid hasn't been nearly enough to cope with the impact of the devastating #pakistanfloods. @willkoulouris @streetsignscnbc pic.twitter.com/jZyhBjtg9g
— CNBC's Street Signs (@StreetSignsCNBC) September 5, 2022
Miftah stated, “Between a third and a half of Pakistan is actually underwater. If you look at Google Maps, one of our provinces [Sindh], the second most populous province, actually looks like a lake. That’s how much water is actually borne into the provinces, into Pakistan, and that’s how much water is still standing on the ground”.
The finance minister detailed that the entire crop of cotton and date palm has been wiped off of the southern province of Sindh. He said, “Roughly 20 percent of the country’s sugarcane crop grown in the province has gone. Additionally, more than a million heads of livestock have perished, and at least a million homes have been destroyed”.
Miftah lamented that entire districts and cities have depopulated and have lost everything. He remarked, “People say 3.3 million. In fact, more than 40 million people have been affected. People have lost everything that they own, their homes, their livestock, their farms”. He also said, “the prime minister was telling me about one of his trips that he couldn’t tell where the river entered and the city began. The entire city just looked like a river. So it’s a really sad human tragedy because of climate change”.
In response to a query regarding any relief on the flooding front, the top finance official quickly summarized that the government has restored electricity in 99 percent of the flood-hit areas. He disclosed that telecommunication services had already been restored, and mobile phones were working normally.
Miftah further mentioned, “The Government of Pakistan has decided and in fact has started giving Rs. 25,000 to each family, and to the head of every household. We’re talking about 4.6 million recipients, [who are] the poorest 60 percent of the families in all the flood-affected districts. So [yes], we’re giving away money right now”.
In terms of regulatory relief for streamlining immediate assistance for flood victims, the minister maintained, “We’ve taken away duties imported from food, so the food prices [have] come down. And then the provinces, of course, they’re setting up tents. The federal government is also giving tenants medicines, mobile health clinics, and all that. The provinces are doing it, but it’s actually at a scale that is beyond our capability, but we’re trying to do the best we can”.
Regarding how much the country has received at this present time and whether it is enough or not, Miftah reiterated an earlier assessment that “the total damage is close to $10 billion, perhaps more”. He said, “In fact, the Chief Minister of Sindh last night was telling me it’s going to be a lot more and he was saying that a lot of mud houses, about 3 million or so in Sindh have been destroyed”.
Miftah underscored the importance of receiving timely assistance from partner countries and crisis lenders. Up till now, Pakistan has received a UN flash appeal of $160,000,000, the World Bank has repurposed loans to the tune of $350 million from other areas into immediate relief, he added.
The minister also mentioned that the Asian Development Bank has so chalked out $25 million, the USAID has pledged $30 million, while the European Union is doing a few million dollars, including Great Britain. Miftah also noted that Australia has given a few million dollars through the UN flood appeal for Pakistan, but the overall assistance clearly not enough to cope with the devastating floods, he asserted.
In his concluding remarks, Miftah admitted that he expected the government to cut the budget even more. The finance minister said, “I mean, clearly it’s neither to the scale of what has happened in Pakistan. And of course, Pakistan will have to do, in spite of bigger resources, much of the heavy lifting in this rebuilding effort. [It] would probably require at least a couple of thousand billion rupees in Pakistan. And most of that money will come from our budget elsewhere”.
