Govt sets up flood relief helpline

ISLAMABAD: The Ministry of Information and Technology (MOIT) Tuesday established an emergency helpline 911 for flood-hit people across the country, ARY News reported.

The flood victims have been asked to report needed assistance such as medicine or food through the national emergency helpline 911.

Tens of millions of people across swathes of Pakistan were battling the worst monsoon floods in a decade, with countless homes washed away, vital farmland destroyed, and the country’s main river threatening to burst its banks.

The United Nations (UN) issued a flash appeal for $160 million to help Pakistan cope with catastrophic floods that have killed more than 1,100 people and affected 33 million people.

“Pakistan is awash in suffering,” UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres said in a video message for the launch of the appeal in Islamabad and Geneva.

He further said: “The Pakistani people are facing a monsoon on steroids – the relentless impact of epochal levels of rain and flooding.”

Antonio Guterres said the scale of needs, with millions of people forced from their homes, schools and health facilities destroyed and livelihoods shattered by the climate catastrophe, required the world’s collective and prioritised attention.