DUSHANBE, September 16, 2010, Asia-Plus — A Tajik humanitarian aid convoy carrying food products, children’s clothing and other supplies arrived in the Pakistani city of Peshawar on September 15.
According to the Tajik Ambassador to Pakistan Zubaydullo Zubaydov, the assistance provided to the disaster-hit people in Pakistan included rice, wheat flour, drinking water, sugar, condensed milk, tents, blankets and children’s clothing.
Mr. Zubaydov said that the same day, he met with Information Minister of Pakistan Mian Iftikhar Hussian and Speaker of Local Council of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Province Kiramatulla Khan. According to him, they expressed gratitude to the government and the people of Tajikistan for assistance provided to the Pakistani people. “They stressed that the people of Pakistan is well aware that Tajikistan itself has gone through natural disasters in recent years and expressed readiness to take efforts to promote further expansion of bilateral mutually beneficial cooperation between our countries,” Zubaydov said.
The humanitarian aid provided by Tajikistan to Pakistan included 80 tons of food products, 100 tents, 1,000 clothing kits for children, 1,300 blankets and other necessary domestic utensils.
The 2010 Pakistan floods began in July 2010 following heavy monsoon rains in the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, Sindh, Punjab and Balochistan
regions of Pakistan. Present estimates indicate that over two thousand people have died and over a million homes have been destroyed since the flooding began. The United Nations estimates that more than 21 million people are injured or homeless as a result of the flooding, exceeding the combined total of individuals affected by the 2004 Indian Ocean tsunami, the 2005 Kashmir earthquake and the 2010 Haiti earthquake. At one point, approximately one-fifth of Pakistan”s total land area was underwater due to the flooding.
According to the data from Pakistani official sources, damage caused by the floods to the country’s economy has amounted to US$23 billion.
