The Canadian Autoworkers union (CAW) announced last Saturday it will be donating $40,000 to the Pakistan relief effort and is urging local unions across the country to ‘give generously to this important cause’.
The CAW Social Justice Fund will donate $25,000 and CAW Local 222 will donate $15,000 to Oxfam Canada, with more money expected to pour in from across the country.
The union has issued a call to all local unions and staff to donate to the relief effort.
CAW President Ken Lewenza expressed his condolences to those affected by this devastation and to Canadians with families suffering in Pakistan or who have lost loved ones.
‘In a region already facing so many challenges, this latest catastrophe is unimaginable,’ said Lewenza.
He expressed concern at the slow pace of donations coming in from the international community that is putting survivors at risk of perishing.
The CAW has a history of humanitarian and solidarity work around the world, through the union’s Social Justice Fund and membership to a number of global labour federations.
The SJF is comprised of monies negotiated at the bargaining table and this year celebrates its 20th anniversary.
The union raised more than $400,000 towards the relief efforts in Haiti, through the SJF and donations from local unions, members and staff.
Combined, the Canadian labour movement has already pledged more than $100,000 for the relief effort in Pakistan.
Pakistan is to plead for emergency concessions from the International Monetary Fund as the cost of rebuilding after the devastating floods has soared to almost £10bn.
A senior delegation of Pakistani officials was flying to Washington for a meeting with the IMF on Monday.
IMF officials have agreed to review Pakistan’s budget and economic prospects because of the magnitude of the disaster.
Following a United Nations appeal for aid, the world has so far given or pledged just £515m to help Pakistan cope with the crisis.
Disaster management authorities are now focused on southern Sindh province, where flood waters are continuing to rise and 200,000 people have been evacuated.
Officials expect the floodwaters will recede nationwide in the next few days as the last river torrents empty into the Arabian Sea.
But millions of Pakistanis want the government to quickly deliver homes and compensation for the loss of livestock and crops.
The government, which was already constrained by a fragile economy before the catastrophe, has been accused of moving too slowly.
In contrast, Islamist charities have moved quickly to provide relief.
Masood Ahmed, Director of the Middle East and Central Asia Department of the International Monetary Fund (IMF), issued the following statement last Friday on Pakistan: ‘The floods which have hit Pakistan in recent weeks and brought suffering to millions of people will also pose a massive economic challenge to the people and government of Pakistan.
‘The scale of the tragedy means that the country’s budget and macroeconomic prospects, which are being supported by an IMF financed programme, will also need to be reviewed.
‘In this context, we look forward to meeting with Pakistani government officials in Washington next week to evaluate the macroeconomic impact of the floods, assess the measures they are taking to address this impact, and discuss ways in which the IMF can assist Pakistan at this difficult juncture.
‘As highlighted by IMF Managing Director Dominique Strauss-Kahn in his letter to President Asif Ali Zardari at the outset of this disaster, the IMF stands with Pakistan at this difficult time and will do its part to help the country.’
Pakistani authorities on Sunday evacuated tens of thousands from flood-threatened areas in the south but insisted that the 2.5 million people of Hyderabad were safe from the nation’s worst-ever inundation.
The civilian government has faced an outpouring of fury over sluggish relief efforts, while officials are warning the country faces ruinous economic losses of up to $43 billion, ahead of IMF talks this week.
The month-long floods nationwide have killed 1,500 people and affected up to 20 million, according to official tallies, with the threat of disease ever-present in miserable camps sheltering penniless survivors.
‘We are right now trying to protect Shahdadkot town, which is threatened by the rising floodwaters,’ Sindh provincial irrigation minister Jam Saifullah Dharejo said.
He said an embankment built to protect the city was under immense water pressure and ‘we are trying to save the city from the unprecedented flood’.
Dharejo said the Sindh government had already escorted most of Shahdadkot’s 100,000 population to safety.
‘But there are still some people stranded in these villages (around Shahdadkot) and we are making efforts to rescue them,’ he added.
However the minister stressed there was no threat to Hyderabad, the second-largest city in Sindh and Pakistan’s sixth biggest overall.
‘There is nothing of the sort . . . Hyderabad is so far safe despite the growing pressure from floodwaters. We have strengthened embankments around the city,’ he said.
At least two levees along the river are potential trouble spots and are being strengthened, said Hadi Bakhsh Kalhoro, a Sindh province Disaster Management Authority official.
He said: ‘We are hopeful the flood will pass on to the delta without creating much trouble here.’
The floods began in late July in the northwest after exceptionally heavy monsoon rains, expanding rivers that have since swamped eastern Punjab province and Sindh province in the south.
The deluge has affected about one-fifth of Pakistan’s territory, straining the civilian government.
At least six million people have been made homeless and 20 million affected overall.
The floods have devastated the country’s southern agricultural breadbasket and its textiles industry.
Millions of flood survivors in desperate need of food, shelter and clean drinking water require humanitarian assistance to survive, as concerns grow over potential cholera, typhoid and hepatitis outbreaks.
UN chief Ban Ki-moon has praised the global community as emergency donations for Pakistan neared $500 million, but warned the country faces ‘years of need’.
The UN World Food Programme said it urgently needed helicopters to get food to millions of flood victims who remain cut off by the high waters, although weather forecasters say the monsoon systems are easing off.
The WFP warned that the floods have killed or are threatening millions of livestock, and launched an urgent appeal for animal feed.
