Pakistan — U.S. Adds $60 Million for Pakistan Flood Relief

WASHINGTON, Aug. 19, 2010 — Sec­re­tary of State Hillary Rod­ham Clin­ton today pledged an addi­tion­al $60 mil­lion in U.S. fund­ing to help Pak­istan bat­tle record floods.

“With a new pledge that I am mak­ing today of $60 mil­lion, the Unit­ed States will be con­tribut­ing more than $150 mil­lion toward emer­gency flood relief” efforts in Pak­istan, Clin­ton told the U.N. Gen­er­al Assem­bly in New York City. 

Pak­istan was strick­en by mas­sive flood­ing more than two weeks ago. On Aug. 11, the Unit­ed Nations asked the world com­mu­ni­ty to share in a $459 mil­lion emer­gency flood relief plan for Pakistan. 

At that time the Unit­ed States made an ini­tial pledge of about $92 mil­lion for the U.N. flood relief plan for Pak­istan, Clin­ton said. 

“These funds are being used to pro­vide crit­i­cal sup­plies and sup­port oper­a­tions of the Pak­istan Nation­al Dis­as­ter Man­age­ment Author­i­ty and oth­er orga­ni­za­tions inside Pak­istan,” she said. “The Unit­ed States is pro­vid­ing tech­ni­cal assis­tance and mobi­liz­ing mil­i­tary and civil­ian resources as well.” 

Clin­ton also called on the Amer­i­can pub­lic and cor­po­ra­tions to sup­port Pak­istan flood relief efforts. 

“Beyond our imme­di­ate response, the Unit­ed States is com­mit­ted to the long-term goal of work­ing with Pak­istan to improve con­di­tions in the coun­try,” Clin­ton said. “We demon­strat­ed that com­mit­ment with a mul­ti-year $7.5 bil­lion non­mil­i­tary assis­tance pack­age autho­rized by the Con­gress and agreed to by the president. 

“We will now take some of those funds that were direct­ed to ini­tia­tives that I announced just last month in Islam­abad to sup­port Pak­istan in its recon­struc­tion efforts,” she added. 

Source:
U.S. Depart­ment of Defense
Office of the Assis­tant Sec­re­tary of Defense (Pub­lic Affairs) 

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