World Bank offers Pakistan $900m loan

[TriWooOx]

Quote:The United Nations is forecasting that thousands more people will die from cholera and other diseases even if monsoon rains ease as it warned that many of the 20 million people affected by the disaster have yet to receive any emergency aid.

So far, however, the UN has raised only a third of the $460m (£305m) it says it needs to help the flood victims with officials admitting that the country’s “image deficit” had hampered fund-raising.

In a statement, the World Bank said it would be reallocating unspent cash to buy items essential for rapid reconstruction, such as fuel, steel and cement, as well as releasing fresh funds.

It will also work with the government to ensure disaster funding is not misused.

“We are reprioritising to make the funds immediately available,” said Mariam Altaf, a spokesman for the World Bank.

Some 1,600 people have died and two million made homeless by Pakistan’s worst floods in living memory.

Aid officials say 3.5m children are at risk from deadly disease spread in the sewage-tainted water.

They are also distributing hundreds of antivenom kits after a surge in snake bites as humans and wildlife compete for high ground.

Yet so far donor fatigue, fears of corruption and Pakistan’s poor reputation abroad appear to have deterred governments and individuals from donating cash.

Elizabeth Byrs, spokesman for the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs, said: “We note often an image deficit with regards to Pakistan among Western public opinion.” Melanie Brooks, Care International spokesman, called on the UN to explain to donors that money was not going into “the hands of the Taliban”.

“The victims are the mothers, the farmers, children,” she said.

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnew...-loan.html

[h3rm35]

If they take it, the first thing that they'll demand be privatized and sold off to a CIA shell company will be their nukes... I don't know if that makes me feel better or worse about global safety.

[FastTadpole]

900 Million from the World Bank..

That's a fraction relative to the IMF loan. Pakistan has outstanding loans of 5,233,017,010 SDRs ($8,239,725,802 USD) since 1984.

Sources:
http://www.imf.org/external/np/fin/tad/e...n_flag=YES
http://www.xe.com/ict/?basecur=XDR&histo...age=Submit
http://www.imf.org/external/np/fin/tad/e...2010-10-31

Supplemental: The IMF on Corporate Governance and $75,681,430,091 in Interest + Charges since 1984
http://concen.org/forum/showthread.php?tid=35276