Red Cross appeals for Pakistan aid

The Red Cross is calling on New Zealanders to support its operation in flood-hit Pakistan.

Red Cross international programmes manager Glenn Rose said it had raised $350,000 for the relief effort but urgently needed to collect more to aid the millions of people devastated by the disaster.

"This mega flood has caused unprecedented damage to roads, infrastructure, homes and livelihoods, which is testing the ability of agencies to get aid to those who are most in need.

"We're looking at the entire population of greater Auckland, completely destitute without food, shelter or water and we're looking at an area the size of Italy."

Floods were not as visual and immediate as natural disasters such as earthquakes, so it sometimes took people longer to give donations, he said. But people urgently needed to realise the devastating magnitude of this flood.

The New Zealand government had initially pledged $2 million in aid, but had decided to increase that to support what the United Nations has called a spiralling humanitarian catastrophe, Foreign Minister Murray McCully announced today.

It is giving $500,000 of this to the international Red Cross Red Crescent operation through New Zealand Red Cross.

The Government's announcement follows a United Nations warning that up to 3.5 million children could be in danger of contracting deadly diseases carried through contaminated water and insects in a crisis that has disrupted the lives of at least a tenth of Pakistan's 170 million people.

"It is now estimated that over 20 million people have been affected by the floods. Close to 1500 people have died, and more than a million homes have been destroyed," Mr McCully said.

New Zealanders wanting to donate or to find out more about New Zealand aid operations in Pakistan should visit the Red Cross website or the New Zealand Aid Programme website, where a list of the current Pakistan emergency appeals is located.

- NZPA