NZ aid agencies join forces for Pakistan

New Zealand aid agencies have joined forces in urging New Zealanders to support relief efforts for Pakistan, hit by devastating flooding which is affecting an estimated 14 million people.

Chief executives of 11 major New Zealand aid agencies are jointly asking people to dig deep in the face of the huge humanitarian disaster unfolding, which has already claimed at least 1500 lives.

The United Nations has estimated six million children are among the 14 million affected by what are described as the worst floods in Pakistan's history.

The emergency is creating urgent needs for shelter, clean drinking water, sanitation facilities, food, and medicine. Millions of people are at increased risk of water-borne diseases such as cholera and diarrhoea.

At a meeting in Wellington today, the chief executives were united on the need for New Zealanders to respond generously to the disaster.

In terms of total numbers of people affected, the Pakistan emergency eclipses other disasters of recent times such as the Haiti earthquake and the Boxing Day tsunami.

"Pakistan is an extremely impoverished country, which places the population at increased vulnerability to the impact of natural disasters," said Dr Wren Green, director of the Council for International Development.

"The existing infrastructure and government resources are simply insufficient to cope with a humanitarian crisis of this scale. Pakistan needs help and it needs it now."

Dr Green said that non-government organisations were all working together on the ground with UN agencies to coordinate the relief effort and ensure that emergency supplies reach those who need them most.

"Kiwis responded generously to victims of the 2004 Asian tsunami -- the UN says this disaster is on a bigger scale than that," Dr Green said.

New Zealand humanitarian agencies responding in Pakistan are Caritas, Christian World Service, Oxfam New Zealand, Save the Children, Tear Fund, Unicef NZ (UN Children's Fund), and World Vision.

The other agencies supporting the appeal are the Child Fund, VSA (Volunteer Service Abroad), the Fred Hollows Foundation and CBM (Christian Blind Mission).

The United Nations says hundreds of millions of dollars of assistance will be needed, Associated Press reported.

The United States State Department announced an additional US$20 million ($27.27m) in flood relief, bringing the total US aid to US$55m.

The US is making big efforts in getting aid into the Swat Valley, which was under Taleban control until a Pakistani army offensive last year.

On Tuesday, four Chinook helicopters - which can carry 100 people or 5440kg of relief supplies - and two Blackhawks flew in from Bagram air base in Afghanistan, where nearly 100,000 US troops are battling a related Taleban insurgency.

Because of the general hostility in Pakistan to the United States, the mission was potentially sensitive for both countries. So far, there has been no backlash against the US mission.

Teresita Schaffer, director of the South Asia programme at the Centre for Strategic and International Studies, said the relief mission was "just the kind of thing the United States ought to be doing" because it showed Pakistanis that America cared.

- NZPA