UK response to the Pakistan floods
Deputy Prime Minister Nick Clegg has praised the British public's generosity as donations to the Pakistan aid effort reached £35 million
Deputy Prime Minister Nick Clegg has praised the generosity of the British public as donations to the Pakistan aid effort reached £35 million.
On a visit to the Disasters Emergency Committee headquarters in central London he said the response to the floods “really does show Britain at its best”.
Earlier in the day, Mr Clegg chaired a meeting of the National Security Council (NSC) where discussions focused on Afghanistan and the Pakistan floods.
Following the meeting a Downing Street spokesperson said:
Deputy Prime Minister Nick Clegg chaired a meeting of the National Security Council (NSC) this morning.
The meeting included an update on operations in Afghanistan. There was then a substantial discussion of the Pakistan floods.
On Pakistan, the International Development Secretary updated the NSC on his visit there last week, describing the immense scale of the floods and the UK Government’s lead role in responding to it.
There was agreement at the meeting that the British people had responded magnificently to the Disaster Emergency Committee’s appeal, which had now raised £35m. The Government would continue working as quickly as possible to allocate and distribute its £64m programme of humanitarian aid. Ten UK-made road bridges were being dispatched in the coming days, and would arrive in Karachi in September.
The areas most in need of assistance now were Sindh and Punjab provinces in the south of Pakistan: that would be where the bulk of the UK’s additional money, announced last week, would be targeted, alongside helping those in the north rebuild their lives.
Galvanising the wider international community would also be vital going forward. The Deputy PM was clear that the Government would keep up the pace on these efforts in the weeks ahead, starting with his own visit to the Disaster’s Emergency Committee’s co-ordination centre today.
You can donate to the Pakistan flood appeal on the DEC website.