Old enmity is forgotten as India pledges aid to stricken neighbour

The Pakistani government yesterday accepted $5 million in aid from India for flood victims, a rare expression of goodwill between the feuding neighbours.

The floods have affected about one-fifth of Pakistan's territory, straining its civilian government as it also struggles against al-Qaida and Taleban violence. At least six million people have been made homeless and the economic cost is expected to run into the billions.

The head of the World Health Organization in Pakistan said yesterday that there had been "sporadic cases" of cholera among 20 million people affected by the disaster.

But Guido Sabatinelli said he was "optimistic that there is no immediate threat of a cholera epidemic."

Pakistani foreign minister Shah Mahmood Qureshi said the government had accepted the money from India. Such is the difficult relationship the two nations have that it took several days for Islamabad to reach the decision.

"It is highly appreciated in Pakistan and we have recognized it," he said in New York.

India's foreign office yesterday welcomed the decision to accept the aid. India also provided aid to Pakistan after the 2006 Kashmir earthquake that killed more than 70,000 people.

The floods began July 29 in the northwest of the country after exceptionally heavy monsoon rains and have since swamped thousands of towns and villages in Punjab and Sindh provinces. While rainfall has lessened, flooding is continuing in parts of Sindh province as water from the north courses down the Indus and other rivers.

Local aid groups, the Pakistani and US armies and international aid agencies have helped hundreds of thousands of people with food, shelter, water and medical care, but the distribution has been chaotic and has not come close to reaching everyone.

Mr Sabatinelli urged the world to extend generous financial assistance to Pakistan to ensure health facilities for survivors.

He said the WHO had sought $56 million to fund health projects, but less than half has been pledged.

However, he said the international response was now growing.

"We are receiving some good pledges but we cannot buy drugs with pledges, and we need to convert them into cheques," he told a news conference in Islamabad.

He said the WHO had provided drugs to 2 million survivors and it had the stocks to reach another 4 million people in the next three months.

But "this is not enough," he said. Massive flooding in Pakistan appears to be draining support for the already-weak civilian government, while boosting the powerful military.

Even before the deadly deluge that began nearly a month ago, the civilian administration faced growing discontent as power shortages, security problems and economic mismanagement plagued the country. A military coup is seen as unlikely, but flooding is so large-scale that some fear serious political instability in the nuclear-armed nation.

The initial civilian response appeared chaotic and confused as the flooding disaster unfolded. But symbolism seemed to matter more:

President Asif Ali Zardari's decision to visit France and the UK as people fled their infuriated many and burnished the image of an out-of-touch political elite.