Colombo: Sri Lanka has sent a consignment of tea as a gesture of goodwill to Pakistan where train-triggered flash floods have killed nearly 1,300 people, displaced more than 33 million and caused economic loss to the tune of USD 12.5 billion, the foreign ministry here said on Monday. The cataclysmic floods have inundated a third of the country, as authorities step up efforts to contain the spread of water-borne diseases like diarrhoea and malaria in the affected areas.
Sri Lanka donated a consignment of Ceylon Tea as a gesture of solidarity and goodwill to the flood victims of Pakistan. Foreign minister Ali Sabry handed over the donation to the Pakistani High Commissioner Umar Farook Burky at the ministry of foreign affairs, the foreign ministry here said in a statement. President Ranil Wickremesinghe on Sunday called Pakistan Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif on the telephone to discuss the flood situation in Pakistan.
While the International Organisation for Migration (IOM) has called for an urgent international humanitarian emergency response following the massive devastation caused by unprecedented floods in one-third area of Pakistan, consignments of relief goods from Japan, the United Arab Emirates, Unicef and Qatar arrived and handed over to the federal and provincial authorities.
The first Unicef humanitarian flight with relief goods for the flood-affected people landed at Karachi's airport in the early hours of Sunday morning, while another aircraft carrying relief goods from Abu Dhabi landed at Lahore's airport in the afternoon. The consignments were handed over to the provincial ministers and National Disaster Management Authority representatives, the Dawn newspaper reported. Relief goods including tents and plastic sheets, donated by the Japanese government, have reached Karachi, it added.
UN chief Antonio Guterres will arrive in Pakistan on September 9 for a solidarity visit and inspect flood-hit regions, after a USD 160 million emergency plan was launched by the UN and the Pakistan government to provide relief to millions of people living in flood relief camps. On August 30, the United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA), a sexual and reproductive health agency, said that at least 650,000 pregnant women, of whom 73,000 were expected to deliver this month across the country, in the flood-affected areas were in dire need of maternal health service. The government on August 25 had officially declared a national emergency in light of the rain-induced floods which have killed nearly 1,300 people. (PTI)
