Trump’s USAID freeze puts Jacobabad water project at risk

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Jacobabad: In the hottest city of Pakistan, access to fresh and filtered water is very important to counter the infinite effects of climate change.

However, an NGO has warned that the freezing of foreign aid from former US President Donald Trump is now threatening to significant supply.

Jacobabad, where the temperature sometimes increases more than 50 degrees Celsius (122 degrees Fahrenheit), during sharp heat views, facing severe health crises, which causes dehydration and heat. Including stroke.

In 2012, USAID committed a million grants to promote Sindh’s municipal services, which included the renovation of watering and cleaning water from the canal 22 km away.

But non -profit hands say that Trump’s aid Amjro has withheld $ 1.5 million allocated to make the scheme viable in the long run, and has put the project “in a few months”.

“He has changed our lives,” Tiffil Ahmed, 25, told AFP in Jacobabad, where the winter temperatures are already predicted to pass through 30 ° C next week.

“If the water supply is disconnected, it will be very difficult for us,” he added. “Survival will be difficult, because water is the most important thing for life.”

According to the Meteorological Department of Pakistan, between mid -September and January, Sindh saw an average of less than 52 % of rainfall, predicting “moderate drought” in the coming months.

Scientists say heatwaves are becoming hot, long and more often due to climate change.

Services were withdrawn

The pipes of the project are 1.5 million gallons (5.7 million liters) daily and serve about 350 350,000 people in Jacobabad, say hands – a city where poverty is common.

Hands said it has found Trump’s 90 -day frozen on foreign aid through media reports, with no prior warnings.

“Since everything is only suspended, we have to withdraw our staff and we have to withdraw all services for this water project,” CEO Sheikh Tanveer Ahmed told AFP.

Forty -seven staff, including experts who serve water and infrastructure, have been sent home.

Ahmed predicted that the service would potentially stop working “within the next few months”, and that the project would have a “complete failure” unless there was another funder.

The scheme is currently in the hands of the local government, which lacks technical or taxation skills, which is ready to provide funds for supply from bill payments rather than donations.

The international aid community is under the leadership of the US government to reduce or eliminate Trump’s campaign.

The most concentrated fire has been on Washington’s aid agency USAID, which represents a $ 42.8 billion budget of 42 % of humanitarian aid worldwide.

According to the Pew Research Center, but this is between only 0.7 and 1.4 percent of the US government’s total costs in the last quarter century.

Trump claims that USAID is “run by radical madmen”, while Musk describes it as a “criminal organization” that needs to be “via Wood Chapper”.

In Jacobabad, 47 -year -old local social worker Abdul Ghani requested to continue his work.

“If the supply is disconnected, it will have a serious impact on the people,” he said. “Poverty has spread here and we cannot tolerate alternatives.”

‘Supply cannot be stopped’

Residents have complained that the supply of Jacobabad is complicated, but still describes it as an invaluable service in the city where alternative private donkeys are buying water from tankers.

Eighteen -year -old student Noor Ahmed said that before our women had to walk for hours to collect water.

Hands says the monthly cost of private tankers is 10 times higher than their Rs 500 ($ 1.80) rate and often have pollution like arsenic.

“The dirty water we used to buy was harmful to our health, and we will get even more costing,” said Sadro -ud -din Lashari, 55, said 55 -year -old Sidrouddin Lashari.

“This water is clean, supply cannot be stopped,” he added.

According to the German Watch Climate Index, released this year, and analyzing the data from 2022, Pakistan-Pakistan is the most affected nation of the air change.

One -third of the country was drowned due to an extraordinary monsoon flood that killed more than 1,700 people and had an estimated $ 14.9 billion losses after summer heat sentences –

The 2010 floods also caused heavy damage to the Jacobabad water system, killing about 1,800 and 21 million.

Pakistan produces less than one percent of global greenhouse gas emissions, which scientists say they are pushing human -made climate change.

Islamabad has permanently demanded countries that contribute more and more to help to get into their population on the next line of climate change.

“This is amazingly warm here throughout the year,” Lashhari said. “We need constant water.”