Cholera in Pakistan as 20 million affected by floods

[yield]

Pakistan's Prime Minister Yousuf Raza Gilani said that 20 million people had been affected by the worst floods in the country's history, as the UN confirmed the first cholera case.

Telegraph 14 Aug 2010.

Can't seem to find another thread on this?

Apparently the UN and charities are struggling to raise aid?

 

[Fisher_Gate]

Appeal for aid by the Labour Party Pakistan, a revolutionary marxist organisation:
http://www.laborpakistan.org/news60.htm

 

[DogorKat?]

A lot of Pakistanis are very mistrustful of the big charities (including Islamic relief) after monies, bedding and clothing donated after the earthquake failed to reach their intended targets. A lot of it was stolen in-transit, people donating had to rip blankets and roughly stitch them back up to make them less attractive to thieves.
People i have spoke to are sending money directly to their families over there so they can buy food, bedding, etc to distribute to homeless.

eta: David Cameron's recent remarks about Pakistan haven't helped either.

 

[Illyrian]

Apparently the UN and charities are struggling to raise aid?

Aid is overstretched apparently. Willing to bet that so-called donor's fatigue (after the Haiti/Chile disasters) may also be one reason charities are struggling.

 

[fela fan]

Can't seem to find another thread on this?

Apparently the UN and charities are struggling to raise aid?

You won't find another thread on this. Pakistan is below the radar for urban. This thread will rapidly nosedive into oblivion!

However i did read a few days ago that british people had at that time raised over 3 million pounds, something akin for normal for the british people who do seem to put their hands in their pockets to help others who get affected by natural disasters, way more than other nations. Kudos.

 

[fela fan]

Aid is overstretched apparently. Willing to bet that so-called donor's fatigue (after the Haiti/Chile disasters) may also be one reason charities are struggling.

It's a pity nations like pakistan have to rely upon aid from charities, which in effect is donations from citizens in other countries. British people though are not living under any donor's fatigue, whatever this actually means. What we really need is for western governments to stop robbing and pillaging such nations under the guise of free trade.

 

[ferrelhadley]

Pakistan's Prime Minister Yousuf Raza Gilani said that 20 million people had been affected by the worst floods in the country's history, as the UN confirmed the first cholera case.

Telegraph 14 Aug 2010.

Can't seem to find another thread on this?

Apparently the UN and charities are struggling to raise aid?

However i did read a few days ago that british people had at that time raised over 3 million pounds, something akin for normal for the british people who do seem to put their hands in their pockets to help others who get affected by natural disasters, way more than other nations. Kudos.

I do believe that the UK has already put up £30 000 000 for this effort. It is horrifically pitifully to little but its there.

The figures getting trotted out at the minute are about 1600 dead, 6 million displaced and 20 million affected.

 

[ferrelhadley]

Teleconnected is getting a lot of abuse from the usual trodygilites and anti science scum but this is an increadible and clear example of teleconnectedness of weather systems. The same atmospheric pattern that created the savage Russian summer also has caused this event. The polar jet stream is being guided by rossby waves into a very stable pattern that created the self perpetuating high pressure system in Russia and blocked the movement for the Monsoon rains over Pakistan.

The ever eloquent Jeff Masters weighs in with an opinion...

What caused this unusual jet stream pattern?
The unusual jet stream pattern that led to the 2010 Russian heat wave and Pakistani floods began during the last week of June, and remained locked in place all of July and for the first half of August. Long-lived "blocking" episodes like this are usually caused by unusual sea surface temperature patterns, according to recent research done using climate models. For example, Feudale and Shukla (2010) found that during the summer of 2003, exceptionally high sea surface temperatures of 4°C (7°F) above average over the Mediterranean Sea, combined with unusually warm SSTs in the northern portion of the North Atlantic Ocean near the Arctic, combined to shift the jet stream to the north over Western Europe and create the heat wave of 2003. I expect that the current SST pattern over the ocean regions surrounding Europe played a key role in shifting the jet stream to create the heat wave of 2010. Note that the SST anomaly pattern is quite different this year compared to 2003, which may be why this year's heat wave hit Eastern Europe, and the 2003 heat wave hit Western Europe. Human-caused climate change also may have played a role; using climate models, Stott et al. (2004) found it very likely (>90% chance) that human-caused climate change has at least doubled the risk of severe heat waves like the great 2003 European heat wave.

However many are paying a great deal of attention to Mike Lockwood. Together with the likes of Judith Leane Mikes name has been quite loud in the debate over the relative strengths of solar forcing of climate especailly countering some of the more vocal supporters of Friis Christiansen\ Svennsmark.

Earlier this year he brought out a paper that recieved a great deal of media attention (which means it got a short write up on new scientists and probibly a mention on Alok Jahs podcast), the basic idea being that solar output modulates the jet stream indirectly and increases the likelyhood of staionary weather patterns. Interestingly this places the just past British winter in the catagory of events that are related to this phenomina.

Still leaving the science behind for a moment this is a horrible human tragidy. It may yet get a lot worse as disease and hunger do what the rain and mud could not. Clearly, as others have said, this is off the radar for the left and I am thinking the world in general is just tired of the bad news from earthquakes and floods. But we need to begin to adjust our mental image of these events. Just as weather extremes around the world are connected so is our national security, national interest and response to these events. These floods have ravaged prime support areas for the Taliban and various millitant Islamist groups. A few billion dollars\ pounds in aid to this area could do more than 10 times that money ever could to support 'our troops'. But even beyond that helping those in this kind of trouble builds up a store of goodwill that we will all need to have as this kind of event becomes more regular and people start looking for where to lay the blame.


Going back to the science now some words from Mike Tobis.

But a short version occurs to me. Remember when I tried to explain that "global warming" and "anthropogenic climate change" don't mean exactly the same thing? Well, the fact that we now have situations like this one, and last year's in Australia, allows for making the point clear with some examples.

See, what we are worried about is not global warming. Global warming itself causes relatively little damage, at least at first. What we are worried about is climate change.

Anthropogenic global warming does not cause climate change.

Anthropogenic climate change causes global warming,.

Global warming (at the surface, just like global cooling in the stratosphere) is one of the more predictable symptoms of anthropogenic climate change. But if you change the forcing, you change the response. That's not a very deep scientific result, is it?

Nail head moment there. I will admit that I never quite got it till now. I have always focussed on the warming, I guess a myopia.

Climate change means just that, changing climate. More wet, more dry, more hot and sometimes more cold.

Welcome to the Anthropocene. Have a nice stay, its the rest of your life.

(adding some more bad news for Pakistan)

Pakistan warned yesterday of a new flood wave making its way south along the Indus River and more heavy monsoon rains, threatening to add to the 20 million people who have lost homes, farms and livelihoods.

The government's Flood Forecasting Division said in its latest forecast that more flood waters may swamp low-lying parts of Sukkur, Larkana and Hyderabad. Heavy rains are also likely to fall in Punjab, where river levels had fallen slightly.

The forecast came after United Nations Secretary-General Ban Ki Moon said the devastation was the worst he had ever seen and promised more emergency funding for relief operations.

More flooding due

 

[Illyrian]

It's a pity nations like pakistan have to rely upon aid from charities, which in effect is donations from citizens in other countries.

According to you it may be but not every nation is as efficient and self-reliant as your nation is and people around the world aren't accustomed to sumptuous living that you are.

British people though are not living under any donor's fatigue, whatever this actually means.

Yes, British people mainly of Pakistani descent.

What we really need is for western governments to stop robbing and pillaging such nations under the guise of free trade.

What a load of Leftist crap. You have SAFTA and western governments are actually nothing but observers.

 

[fela fan]

According to you it may be but not every nation is as efficient and self-reliant as your nation is and people around the world aren't accustomed to sumptuous living that you are.





Yes, British people mainly of Pakistani descent.



What a load of Leftist crap. You have SAFTA and western governments are actually nothing but observers.

I don't live in britain any more, but are you aware of what you're saying here? That living in britain equates to sumptuous living? Have you ever tried living there? It's anything but sumptuous. And the idea that britain is 'efficient' is comical!

I mentioned that british people are good at donating because of past disasters around the world, not just this one. But the fact remains that british people put up a lot of money to help the pakistani people in their hour of need. They did the same for the asian tsunami a few years back. They always do. Back in the 70s they did the same for cambodia. For whatever reason the british people are very generous when it comes to natural disasters.

The british government on the other hand are pillagers and barons.

Your idea that western governments are observers simply displays naivety on your part.

 

[yield]

BBC News 23 August 2010

The DEC's Pakistan Floods Appeal has now raised more than £30m.

Amazing! Though as Illyrian said probably disproportionately British people of Pakistani descent.

BBC News 24 August 2010

Officials from Pakistan are holding talks with the International Monetary Fund to discuss its $11bn loan package in the wake of the devastating floods.

We all know the *price* of "loan restructuring."

 

[ferrelhadley]

Flood waters peak in southern Pakistan
Flooding on Pakistan's largest river, the Indus, has peaked at the 2nd highest flow rates on record today at the Indus River gauge station nearest to the coast, at Kotri. Today's flow rate was 938,000 cubic feet/sec, and the record, set in 1956, was 980,000 cubic feet/sec. The new flooding has forced new evacuations of hundreds of thousands of people in southern Pakistan over the past four days. Flood heights at every monitoring station along the Indus have been the highest or almost the highest since records began in 1947. Flooding has slowly eased along the upper and middle stretches of the Indus where most of the heavy monsoon rains fell in late July and early August, though most of the flooded regions remain underwater and 800,000 people are still cut off from receiving aid.

More rain is in the forecast, and flood waters will only gradually subside in coming weeks. The monsoon is currently in an active phase, and is being enhanced by a low pressure system passing over the northern portion of the country. Rainfall will be moderate to heavy in some of the flooded regions over the next two days, according to the Pakistan Meteorological Department.

The toll in Pakistan is staggering: 1,600 dead, 1.2 million homes destroyed, 800,000 stranded and cut off from supplies, 4 million homeless, and 1.6 million already affected by water-borne diseases such as cholera and dysentery. Some aid agencies helping with humanitarian crisis in Pakistan:

 

[fredfelt]

A really simple way to help is through the Disasters Emergency Committee - http://www.dec.org.uk/donate_now/

Text 70707 with the word GIVE to donate £5.

 

[ferrelhadley]