PESHAWAR, Pakistan — Needing cash, not food, refugees in Pakistan’s flood-ravaged northwest do not have to look far for buyers for their rations. Outside an aid warehouse, middlemen buy U.S.-branded cooking oil, flour and biscuits, then supply shops across the city.
The trade is not illegal, but it appears to strengthen arguments by aid groups that say giving money to those recovering from disasters or war is often cheaper, more effective and more efficient than doling out food or other assistance such as housing materials, seeds or agricultural tools.
Some large charities already have begun handing out money to victims of this summer’s devastating floods, and others say they have plans to, continuing a trend that began in earnest after the 2004 Indian Ocean tsunami and has picked up pace ever since.
But some in the humanitarian community remain resistant to the idea, especially those in the larger U.N. agencies, where there are fears that cash can cause inflation and fuel corruption.
Many Pakistanis apparently share the same concern. They have preferred to give food, clothing and medicine to flood victims instead of money because of worries it could be misused.
The floods started about a month ago in the northwest after heavy monsoon rains and have slowly surged south along the Indus River, devastating towns and farmland. More than 1,600 people have died and 17 million have been affected by the flooding.
Water levels are beginning to drop in southern Pakistan as the floodwaters flow down the Indus into the Arabian Sea.
While giving money in environments where there is no food to buy in the market and where banks and distribution networks have been damaged is clearly wrong, in many parts of Pakistan — even those affected by the floods — those conditions do not apply, aid groups say.
“We have other needs too,” said Paenda Mohammad, who sold part of his rations from a World Food Programme warehouse in the northwestern city of Peshawar last week to one of several middlemen waiting outside. “Each time, we get just flour and oil, and this bunch of tasteless biscuits.”
Mohammad and others received a sack of flour along with cooking oil, beans, sugar and high-energy biscuits from the warehouse every month. The goods are clearly marked “Not to be Sold or Exchanged.”
