As new waves of flooding affect Pakistan today, we learned from the UN on Friday that between 15 and 20 million Pakistanis are in need of shelter, food and emergency care. Despite this dire situation, US charitable giving lags far behind the rate seen for the earthquake in Haiti. In response to lagging private donations, governments are doubling the original commitment to Pakistan through the UN.

The latest news from Reuters on additional flooding in Pakistan is not good:

Saleh Farooqui, director general of the disaster management authority in Sindh, said floods have hit at least four districts, including urban areas, forcing about 200,000 people to flee for higher ground in the last 24 hours.

"The south part of Sindh is our focus. We have diverted our resources for rescue operations toward that area," he said.

In a news release on Friday, the UN described the extent of the crisis in Pakistan:

UN Member States on Thursday voiced their solidarity with Pakistan, as they adopted a resolution calling for international assistance in support of the Government’s efforts to address the crisis, which is believed to have left 15 to 20 million people in need of shelter, food and emergency care.

The head of the UN Children’s Fund (UNICEF) warned today that the humanitarian tragedy in Pakistan has reached “tragic proportions,” but that serious shortfalls in funding are limiting the agency’s ability to save lives as the crisis worsens.

“The consequences of the flooding for Pakistan’s poorest and most vulnerable people are very serious,” Executive Director Anthony Lake said in a statement, adding that the most vulnerable of all, the children, are at the greatest risk.

“Unless the world responds immediately, more and more of the 3.5 million children affected by the floods will be at risk of contracting deadly water-borne diseases like dysentery, diarrhoea and cholera,” he said.

The World Health Organization (WHO) also voiced concern about the increased risk of outbreaks of communicable diseases due to unsafe drinking water, poor sanitation and personal hygiene, food insecurity, lack of shelter, overcrowding and decreased access to health care.

The risks for many of the diseases could be reduced substantively by basic preventive measures, including access to clean water, appropriate sanitation and hygiene and ensuring food handling in a correct fashion as well as vaccinations, Daniel Lopez Acuña, WHO Acting Assistant Director-General for Health Action in Crises, told reporters in Geneva.

Sadly, despite the dire situation in Pakistan, charitable giving in the United States has been very low compared to previous international disasters:

…the U.S. Fund for Unicef has received $1.2 million, and the American Red Cross has brought in $670,000. Eleven U.S. charities surveyed by the Chronicle of Philanthropy have received around $5 million in total for the floods, compared to a total of $560 million raised by 39 aid groups in the two-and-a-half weeks following the earthquake in Haiti.

For those who wish to avoid this shortfall in charitable giving, ondelette provided us with a list of some of the leading aid groups (there are many more that could be found with a bit of searching):

American Red Cross

Doctors Without Borders (MSF)

UN World Food Programme

CARE International

Oxfam International

Governments around the world increased their funding pledges this week, perhaps in response to the slow trickle of private donations:

The response to UN appeal for rescue and relief operation in flood-affected areas of Pakistan rose dramatically to over 800 million dollars by Friday and more pledges were expected to come in, according to Foreign Minister Shah Mehmood Qureshi.

Over the last two days of the UN General Assembly’s special session on Pakistan, the funding in response to a UN appeal for $460 million doubled.

The foreign minister, who had come to New York to attend the special United Nations General Assembly session on Pakistan’s floods, noted that the ‘tremendous response’ to the appeal was led by the United States, which had doubled its contribution.

However, the Dawn article quoted above goes on to note that "needs may outstrip the contribution", so the need for private donations is still urgent.