ISLAMABAD // Ban Ki-moon, secretary general of the United Nations, yesterday appealed to the international community to step up aid to flood-stricken Pakistan amid reports that five children in an isolated northern area had died of starvation.
Mr Ban flew into Pakistan yesterday to express his sympathy for an estimated 20 million people affected by the floods.
"This has been a heart-wrenching day for me. In the past, I have visited many natural disasters, but I have never seen anything like this," he said during a press conference in Islamabad, looking visibly shaken.
Accompanied by Asif Ali Zardari, the Pakistani president, Mr Ban flew over devastated areas of central Punjab province and met refugees at an army relief camp in Muzaffargarh district.
"These unprecedented floods demand an unprecedented response from the international community. The flood waves must be met with waves of assistance," the UN chief said.
He said he would submit a report to a plenary session of the UN general assembly on Thursday to mobilise international support.
The UN appealed on Wednesday for US$460 million (Dh1.7billion) in emergency funding to meet immediate humanitarian needs in Pakistan, but to date has received donations equivalent to just 20 per cent of that.
Yousaf Raza Gilani, the Pakistani prime minister, earlier told Mr Ban that his country urgently needed supplies of food and clean drinking water, medicines and shelter for the millions affected by the floods, which first struck in late July.
The floods have inundated an area roughly the size of Italy, killing at least 1,600 and rendering millions homeless and penniless, without food or clean water, and in desperate need of medical care.
The UN secretary general's visit coincided with news that children, considered the most vulnerable group of flood victims, were beginning to starve to death.
Five children in the Kundian valley of the northern Kohistan region had died of starvation, Abdel-sattar Khan, a local member of the Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa provincial parliament, told Pakistani cable news channels yesterday.
Malnutrition takes a long time to kill, so it is likely that the children in Kohistan, one of Pakistan's poorest regions, were already severely ill before the onset of the floods.
The UN could not confirm the news because it has no relief workers in the area.
"This information is alarming, and may be true. What is true for certain is that if food supplies do not reach children in isolated areas in time, there could be many deaths," Maurizio Giuliano, a spokesman for the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs, said.
Kohistan is one of three areas of the northern Khyber-Pukhtunkhwa province where an estimated 660,000 people have been cut off from the rest of Pakistan since flash floods and landslides struck.
The UN had warned on Saturday that delays in the supply of food could have drastic consequences for 260,000 children. It said about 10,000 severely malnourished children with medical complications would be at risk, and more than 100,000 more under the age of five would be pushed towards malnutrition. A further 150,000 children currently being carried by pregnant mothers would be born underweight, it said.
Even more regions of Pakistan were inundated yesterday as waters from the flooded areas of central Punjab and southern Sindh provinces spread, and new waves of monsoon floods travelled along the Indus and Chenab rivers.
Waters from a breached canal chased, and threatened to surround, an exodus of an estimated 300,000 people from northern districts of Sindh into neighbouring Balochistan province in yesterday's early hours.
The refugees had fled Jacobabad district on Friday and sought refuge in Jafferabad, but were forced yesterday to flee farther west to Sibbi, an area of Balochistan already heavily flooded.
The spreading floods have blocked all eastern and northern road approaches into Balochistan, provincial authorities and the UN said on Saturday.
A second surge along the Indus River entered Sindh yesterday, flowing into previously spared eastern areas and destroying bridges, which threatened to separate the province in half.
A third flood wave from the Chenab River, a major Indus tributary, is expected to arrive in a few days, following one that arrived yesterday in the northern stretch of the Indus that divides Punjab and Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa provinces. The UN said on Saturday it was negotiating the launch of helicopter-based relief operations in the cut-off districts of Dera Ghazi Khan and Rajanpur with Pakistani authorities.
The UN has also upgraded its estimate for agricultural losses, saying 3.2 million hectares of standing crops, or some 17 per cent of Pakistan's cultivable area, and 925,000 heads of livestock had been destroyed.
It said damage to irrigation systems, and the loss of grain stocks, seed and farming machinery had rendered affected farming households "extremely vulnerable", and that their situation would worsen if they did not succeed in sowing the staple wheat crop in September and October.
"If this season is missed ? the impact on agricultural livelihoods and household food security will be catastrophic, resulting in long-term dependence on food assistance," the UN said in a report on Saturday.
thussain@thenational.ae
Formula Middle East Calendar (Formula Regional and Formula 4)
Round 1: January 17-19, Yas Marina Circuit – Abu Dhabi
Round 2: January 22-23, Yas Marina Circuit – Abu Dhabi
Round 3: February 7-9, Dubai Autodrome – Dubai
Round 4: February 14-16, Yas Marina Circuit – Abu Dhabi
Round 5: February 25-27, Jeddah Corniche Circuit – Saudi Arabia
Schedule for Asia Cup
Sept 15: Bangladesh v Sri Lanka (Dubai)
Sept 16: Pakistan v Qualifier (Dubai)
Sept 17: Sri Lanka v Afghanistan (Abu Dhabi)
Sept 18: India v Qualifier (Dubai)
Sept 19: India v Pakistan (Dubai)
Sept 20: Bangladesh v Afghanistan (Abu Dhabi) Super Four
Sept 21: Group A Winner v Group B Runner-up (Dubai)
Sept 21: Group B Winner v Group A Runner-up (Abu Dhabi)
Sept 23: Group A Winner v Group A Runner-up (Dubai)
Sept 23: Group B Winner v Group B Runner-up (Abu Dhabi)
Sept 25: Group A Winner v Group B Winner (Dubai)
Sept 26: Group A Runner-up v Group B Runner-up (Abu Dhabi)
Sept 28: Final (Dubai)
The specs: 2018 Maserati Ghibli
Price, base / as tested: Dh269,000 / Dh369,000
Engine: 3.0-litre twin-turbocharged V6
Transmission: Eight-speed automatic
Power: 355hp @ 5,500rpm
Torque: 500Nm @ 4,500rpm
Fuel economy, combined: 8.9L / 100km
The specs
Engine: 5.0-litre V8
Power: 480hp at 7,250rpm
Torque: 566Nm at 4,600rpm
Transmission: 10-speed auto
Fuel consumption: L/100km
Price: Dh306,495
On sale: now
Tell-tale signs of burnout
- loss of confidence and appetite
- irritability and emotional outbursts
- sadness
- persistent physical ailments such as headaches, frequent infections and fatigue
- substance abuse, such as smoking or drinking more
- impaired judgement
- excessive and continuous worrying
- irregular sleep patterns
Tips to help overcome burnout
Acknowledge how you are feeling by listening to your warning signs. Set boundaries and learn to say ‘no’
Do activities that you want to do as well as things you have to do
Undertake at least 30 minutes of exercise per day. It releases an abundance of feel-good hormones
Find your form of relaxation and make time for it each day e.g. soothing music, reading or mindful meditation
Sleep and wake at the same time every day, even if your sleep pattern was disrupted. Without enough sleep condition such as stress, anxiety and depression can thrive.
Mercer, the investment consulting arm of US services company Marsh & McLennan, expects its wealth division to at least double its assets under management (AUM) in the Middle East as wealth in the region continues to grow despite economic headwinds, a company official said.
Mercer Wealth, which globally has $160 billion in AUM, plans to boost its AUM in the region to $2-$3bn in the next 2-3 years from the present $1bn, said Yasir AbuShaban, a Dubai-based principal with Mercer Wealth.
“Within the next two to three years, we are looking at reaching $2 to $3 billion as a conservative estimate and we do see an opportunity to do so,” said Mr AbuShaban.
Mercer does not directly make investments, but allocates clients’ money they have discretion to, to professional asset managers. They also provide advice to clients.
“We have buying power. We can negotiate on their (client’s) behalf with asset managers to provide them lower fees than they otherwise would have to get on their own,” he added.
Mercer Wealth’s clients include sovereign wealth funds, family offices, and insurance companies among others.
From its office in Dubai, Mercer also looks after Africa, India and Turkey, where they also see opportunity for growth.
Wealth creation in Middle East and Africa (MEA) grew 8.5 per cent to $8.1 trillion last year from $7.5tn in 2015, higher than last year’s global average of 6 per cent and the second-highest growth in a region after Asia-Pacific which grew 9.9 per cent, according to consultancy Boston Consulting Group (BCG). In the region, where wealth grew just 1.9 per cent in 2015 compared with 2014, a pickup in oil prices has helped in wealth generation.
BCG is forecasting MEA wealth will rise to $12tn by 2021, growing at an annual average of 8 per cent.
Drivers of wealth generation in the region will be split evenly between new wealth creation and growth of performance of existing assets, according to BCG.
Another general trend in the region is clients’ looking for a comprehensive approach to investing, according to Mr AbuShaban.
“Institutional investors or some of the families are seeing a slowdown in the available capital they have to invest and in that sense they are looking at optimizing the way they manage their portfolios and making sure they are not investing haphazardly and different parts of their investment are working together,” said Mr AbuShaban.
Some clients also have a higher appetite for risk, given the low interest-rate environment that does not provide enough yield for some institutional investors. These clients are keen to invest in illiquid assets, such as private equity and infrastructure.
“What we have seen is a desire for higher returns in what has been a low-return environment specifically in various fixed income or bonds,” he said.
“In this environment, we have seen a de facto increase in the risk that clients are taking in things like illiquid investments, private equity investments, infrastructure and private debt, those kind of investments were higher illiquidity results in incrementally higher returns.”
The Abu Dhabi Investment Authority, one of the largest sovereign wealth funds, said in its 2016 report that has gradually increased its exposure in direct private equity and private credit transactions, mainly in Asian markets and especially in China and India. The authority’s private equity department focused on structured equities owing to “their defensive characteristics.”
Abu Dhabi racecard
5pm: Maiden (Purebred Arabians); Dh80,000; 1,400m.
5.30pm: Maiden (PA); Dh80,00; 1,400m.
6pm: Sheikh Zayed bin Sultan Al Nahyan National Day Cup (PA); Group 3; Dh500,000; 1,600m.
6.30pm: Sheikh Zayed bin Sultan Al Nahyan National Day Cup (Thoroughbred); Listed; Dh380,000; 1,600m
7pm: Wathba Stallions Cup for Private Owners Handicap (PA); Dh70,000; 1,400m.
7.30pm: Handicap (PA); Dh80,000; 1,600m
Emergency
Director: Kangana Ranaut
Stars: Kangana Ranaut, Anupam Kher, Shreyas Talpade, Milind Soman, Mahima Chaudhry
Rating: 2/5
Europe’s rearming plan
- Suspend strict budget rules to allow member countries to step up defence spending
- Create new "instrument" providing €150 billion of loans to member countries for defence investment
- Use the existing EU budget to direct more funds towards defence-related investment
- Engage the bloc's European Investment Bank to drop limits on lending to defence firms
- Create a savings and investments union to help companies access capital
The specs: 2018 Maxus T60
Price, base / as tested: Dh48,000
Engine: 2.4-litre four-cylinder
Power: 136hp @ 1,600rpm
Torque: 360Nm @ 1,600 rpm
Transmission: Five-speed manual
Fuel consumption, combined: 9.1L / 100km
The specs: 2018 Chevrolet Trailblazer
Price, base / as tested Dh99,000 / Dh132,000
Engine 3.6L V6
Transmission: Six-speed automatic
Power 275hp @ 6,000rpm
Torque 350Nm @ 3,700rpm
Fuel economy combined 12.2L / 100km
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UPI facts
More than 2.2 million Indian tourists arrived in UAE in 2023
More than 3.5 million Indians reside in UAE
Indian tourists can make purchases in UAE using rupee accounts in India through QR-code-based UPI real-time payment systems
Indian residents in UAE can use their non-resident NRO and NRE accounts held in Indian banks linked to a UAE mobile number for UPI transactions
