Pakistan president: Flood recovery will take (at least 3) years

[Turborama]

Source: AP

By CHRIS BRUMMITT (AP) – 35 minutes ago -

ISLAMABAD — Recovering from the devastating floods still battering Pakistan will take at least three years, the president said, as the waters swept south after leaving millions homeless and submerging millions of acres of farmland.

The floods that began nearly a month ago with hammering monsoon rains in the northwest have affected more than 17 million people, the U.N. estimates. Most of the 1,500 deaths occurred early in the flooding, but the crisis still is growing.

President Asif Ali Zardari defended the government's much-criticized response to the unprecedented floods but acknowledged recovery would take a very long time.

"Three years is a minimum," Zardari said in an interview Monday with a small group of foreign reporters in the capital, Islamabad.

The widespread misery caused by the floods has triggered worries about social unrest, food riots or even a challenge to the government's rule before its term ends in 2013.

Read more: http://www.google.com/hostednews/ap/article/ALeqM5jX_KetVCMo64AOZxSMudPWArFrJgD9HPM3BO0

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More details and new pictures at the link.

Link to my Journal, to help keep up to date and to see what's been happening in Pakistan (the archives actually have recent news in them now): http://journals.democraticunderground.com/Turborama

[cosmicone]

1. Dupe n/t

[sabrina 1]

6. No, it is not a dupe. And writing 'dupe' at the top of every

thread dealing with Pakistan's floods, is spam at this point.

[Turborama]

8. Could that be classified as "Interfering with forum moderation"?

I can't read what he writes but if he's saying that all the time I'd say it's got to be the worst kind of disruptive trolling, when it's continuously in threads about developing humanitarian disasters.

[OhioChick]

10. That or spam n/t

[sabrina 1]

11. He writes the usual. Nothing new just resistance to

getting help to the people of Pakistan for the worst kind of reasons, politics.

Still, it's good to know why there has been such a different response to this disaster. I guess there are many people in this world who cannot put aside their own issues even in the face of a huge hunitarian crisis such as this one. And the sad thing is that those issues would probably be better served by reaching out even to those formerly considered to be adversaries. War certainly doesn't work.

[Turborama]

2. .

A malnourished Pakistani child lies on a bed on the roadside after being
forced to flee flooding from her village near the city of Shadad Kot, in
Sindh province, southern Pakistan.
Monday, Aug. 23, 2010. (AP Photo/ Kevin Frayer)

[Rhiannon12866]

3. K&R. Isn't this an optimistic projection?

There are still areas in Pakistan experiencing new devastation... and the US has yet to recover from Katrina. :(

[OhioChick]

4. I agree with you.

We still haven't recovered from Katrina here, so I can't imagine how long it'll take them to recover. :(

[Rhiannon12866]

12. I know. They have so few resources compared to us...

They certainly could have used aid long before their country was devastated by this terrible disaster. If we can't manage to help our own people, what chance does Pakistan have, especially since this is not even considered an important news story? :(

[sabrina 1]

5. I think it will probably take way more than three years

for recovery, but he did say 'at a minimum' and probably doesn't want to sound pessimistic at this point.

Their biggest worry is the potential fall of the government and its replacement by an extremist government. I believe that is why the U.S. is proceeding so carefully and sending people like John Kerry to assess the situation and show goodwill to the people there.

Thanks so much for staying on this story, Turborama. I think it is probably one of the most important stories in terms of what could happen in that part of the world, at this time.

[Name removed]

7. Deleted message

Message removed by moderator. Click here to review the message board rules.

[sabrina 1]

9. I think that is what the hope is regarding the new

secular government. It is very fragile and the people were angry at their slow response to the disaster in the beginning. But I believe that may be why Kerry and Lugar eg, are focusing on strengthing that government. Because if it collapses, then the Musharaff factions could easily take over and that would mean there is no hope of getting real cooperation to keep extremists under control.

It was the Musharaff government that maintained ties with the extremist elements.

So I agree with you, and I think those are the conditions for the help now being provided by the U.S.