Jakarta, 26 September 2022 (TDI): Indonesia has joined the world community in giving humanitarian aid to flood victims in Pakistan.
Joko Widodo, Indonesia’s President, despatched humanitarian aid through two special aircrafts today. The aid includes supplies of medicines, tents, clothes, blankets, sleeping bags, mosquito nets, and generators.
President Jokowi offered his and the Indonesian people’s sympathies to the Pakistani people for the loss of valuable human lives caused by massive floods and landslides in his words.
President Joko Widodo also promised USD 1 million in humanitarian aid and the dispatch of a medical team to Pakistan.
The Coordinating Minister for Human Development and Culture, Prof. Dr. Muhajir Effendi, led the Indonesian Humanitarian Assistance Team.
The team also includes the Chairperson of Commission 8 of the Indonesian House of Representatives, Ashabul Kahfi, and the Head of the Indonesian National Disaster Management Agency (BNPB), Lt. Gen. Suharyanto.
The Director of South Asia at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, as well as representatives from other relevant Ministries/Agenciesa also accompanied the team.
Indonesian non-cash grant aid to Pakistan totals USD 1.2 million and weighs around 90 tonnes. Currently, a team from the Indonesian NDMA is conducting a need assessment in flood-affected areas of Pakistan in close collaboration with the Indonesian Ministry of Foreign Affairs Coordinating Ministry for Human Development and Cultural Affairs.
These institutions have collaborated on multiple projects to raise humanitarian aid for Pakistan from various segments of the Indonesian community, including state companies, entrepreneurs, and civil society.
Separately, the Indonesian Embassy in Islamabad and the Indonesian Consulate General in Karachi have taken the lead in raising humanitarian help in partnership with Indonesian students and the Indonesian diaspora in Pakistan.
The Pakistan Red Crescent Society has sent 1.8 million PKR in relief. In addition, Indonesian volunteers from the Dompet Dhuafa group have built two houses in one of Sindh Province’s flooded districts.
In Pakistan, flash floods killed over 1,600 people and inundated one-third of the country’s area. The monsoon floods, which the UN Secretary-General described as “climate carnage,” devastated around 33 million people, including 650,000 pregnant women.
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The flood damage was projected to be USD 30 billion, with 2 million homes demolished and 23,900 schools, 1,460 health facilities, and a 13,000-kilometer road network devastated.
More than two million hectares of agricultural land were also washed away by the floods. In some regions, the water level remains high & has not retreated.
Moreover, flood refugees are at risk of contracting post-flood ailments such as dengue fever, malaria, & diarrhea.
