Pakistan needs billions for reconstruction (daily newspaper Junge Welt)
Geneva. After the devastating floods last summer, Pakistan needs international help to rebuild. The government is presenting its plan in Geneva at a UN conference of donor countries. A total of several 16.3 billion dollars (15.5 billion euros) are to be spent over the years. It is hoped that half of this will come from donor countries, a government representative said in Geneva on Thursday. The disaster is a consequence of climate change to this extent, the restoration is also a global task, said the representative of the UN Emergency Relief Office (Ocha) in Pakistan, Knut Ostby.
Pakistan experienced its worst floods in centuries in 2022. A third of the country, which is more than twice the size of Germany in terms of area, was under water. Around 15,000 people were injured or died, eight million had to flee. More than two million homes, 13,000 kilometers of roads, 439 bridges and more than 1.6 million hectares of farmland were damaged or destroyed. (dpa/jW)