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Iran's aid convoy arrives in Pakistan

Other News Materials 11 August 2010 09:02 (UTC +04:00)
Amid UN frustration to deal with the ongoing humanitarian crisis in Pakistan, an Iranian aid convoy has arrived in Islamabad to help out with relief operations in the country, Press TV reported.
Iran's aid convoy arrives in Pakistan

An Iranian aid convoy has arrived in Islamabad to help out with relief operations in the Pakistan, Press TV reported.

The Iranian convoy includes 58 tons of food, shelter and medical supplies.

Head of Iran's Rescue and Relief Organization, Mahmoud Mozaffar, said that Iran's second convoy, comprised of 83 tons of bread, canned food and rescue tents, is planned to be sent to the flood-ravaged country in the near future.

Mozaffar, who had gone to the country a day prior to the convoy's arrival, has met with officials from the Red Crescent Society of Pakistan.

The UN says it is unable to control the disaster where super floods and rains continue to wreak havoc through villages and towns.

According to a Press TV correspondent, the United Nations in its initial assessment has reported that Pakistan needs hundreds of million of dollar in short term and billions of dollars in the long run to rehabilitate the flood affected population from the northwest to the south of the country.

Saying that the disaster had now affected nearly 15 million people, UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon issued an urgent plea for donors to come forward with generous support at this difficult time for Pakistan.

The UN assessment indicates that the scale of the floods is worse than the 2004 tsunami in Asia and the recent Haiti earthquake.

The report added that thousands of villages have been wiped out. Hundreds of kilometer of roads, hundreds of bridges as well as many power stations and lines and water irrigation systems destroyed.

The UN points out that many areas, including parts of the mountainous Swat valley of northwest Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province, are still inaccessible because of continuing rains and rising water levels.

The UN also reported that 2.6 million acres of farmland have submerged much of it in Pakistan's agricultural heartland in the province of Punjab, the food basket of the country.

Meanwhile Pakistan's President Asif Ali Zardari has returned home after a foreign tour which has prompted widespread criticism.

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