, which has arrived in Pakistan. The team comprises of Erik Breum-Christensen (team leader), Johan Theil Nielsen and Søren Larsen and seven other members.){kind=link}
Denmark has announced support for Pakistani flood victims and have pledged to set up a water purifying system in the flood affected regions to provide clean drinking water to the displaced families. The system will be set up by their disaster management team from the Danish Emergency Management Agency (DEMA), which has arrived in Pakistan. The team comprises of Erik Breum-Christensen (team leader), Johan Theil Nielsen and Søren Larsen and seven other members.
In a press briefing today, Maria Ana Petrera, Senior Counsellor, Embassy of Denmark, paid her condolences to the floods affectees all over Pakistan. “I would like to extend sincere condolences on behalf of Denmark to all the victims of flash flood in Pakistan. Our thoughts are with their relatives and the many affected and displaced here in Pakistan.”
She further quoted UN Secretary General Mr. Guterres, who described the situation in Pakistan as ‘monsoon on steroids’ and called it an unprecedented ‘climate catastrophe’.
Petrera said it was a key priority for Denmark to provide flexible and unearmarked funding to our humanitarian strategic partners to allow them to respond quickly in times of urgent need, such as in the case of the ongoing flooding in Pakistan. “Denmark has come forward in these testing times to offer a major drinking water facility that will provide up to 120,000 litres of clean water a day.”
She said Denmark has therefore supported the UN’s (humanitarian) flash appeal for Pakistan with 10 million Danish kroner to the UN Refugee Organisation, UNHCR. This funding, she added is provided in addition to Denmark’s core funding for Pakistan and the region of 50 million Danish kroner annually.
With this funding, UNHCR, that has already started their aid work, will be able to expand their efforts. Their focus remains particularly on emergency relief – providing tents and blankets and protection of vulnerable groups including women and children.
Expressing her concern, she further said that the Danish government have also extended an offer for immediate relief assistance to Pakistan who are going through this devastating crisis. “Diseases such as cholera, scabies, typhoid and ringworm are often spread in the wake of such floods, especially due to the lack of accessibility to clean drinking water,” said Petrera.
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Denmark is the sixth largest donor to the UN’s Central emergency Relief Fund (CERF), which has already provided $3.07 million two weeks ago (22.8 million DKK) for the relief work in Pakistan.
The team lead, Erik Breum-Christensen said as per the requirement, “we shall install these plants in Sindh’s flooded areas allocated by the government and will hopefully start operation from Monday. This will continue for one month and we have a target of providing 3 million litres of water during the next 30 days.”
DEMA’s Water Purification (WP) he said had the capacity to produce up to 120,000 litres of clean water per day for approximately 40,000 people. Since the works in an early emergency phase, all operational cost is covered by DEMA and doesn’t burden the affected country. According to another member of the team, Soren Larsen in total a 10-member team will carry out the water purification operation. So far, three of them have arrived. The remaining will join us in Sindh.
Last week, on the 31st August 2022, Denmark and Pakistan also signed a Green Framework Engagement. And on the 10th of August 2022, both countries signed an agreement for Danish-financing of sustainable infrastructure in Pakistan. These engagements will allow Denmark to cooperate even more closely when it comes to green transition, sustainable development and climate change mitigation. This will assist rehabilitation and reconstruction.