Death toll in Pakistan floods reaches 230, at least 300,000 displaced

[News_Editor]

Death toll in Pakistan floods reaches 230, at least 300,000 displaced

2011-09-15 10:07:49 GMT+7 (ICT)

ISLAMABAD, PAKISTAN (BNO NEWS) -- At least 230 people have died and over 300,000 others have been displaced as torrential rains and flooding continues in parts of Pakistan, official reports said on Wednesday.

According to the latest reports issued by the United Nations (UN), more than 1.1 million homes have been destroyed or seriously damaged as flooding has inundated more than 4.5 million acres (1.8 million hectares), cutting major roads and polluting water. At least 5.5 million people have been affected.

The alarming numbers have been increasing rapidly as only two days ago the death toll was put at 199 and 220,000 displaced, with nearly 1 million homes destroyed or damaged and 4.2 million acres (1.7 million hectares) flooded.

The UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) in its latest update also reported an increase in all indicators as the monsoon rains spread their damage outside Sindh province to Balochistan, threatening the area with flash flooding.

In addition, OCHA said that water sources were no longer considered safe, leaving the affected populations to rely on open pond waters, risking the threat of communicable diseases.

UN agencies have already increased their support, with the World Food Program (WFP) set to feed 500,000 people and the World Health Organization (WHO) which is distributing 18 emergency health kits, each covering 6,000 people with complete essential medical care drugs for a month, and 40 diarrhea kits, each for 1,000 people a month. WHO also has a pre-positioned stock of medications to cover the needs of 1.2 million people.

However, accessibility has been greatly hampered by the damage to roads, and many heath facilities are surrounded by water, making it difficult to provide health services. Severe accessibility problems on major roads are also hindering not only aid delivery but ongoing assessments of damage and needs, OCHA noted.

The Pakistani Government has prioritized shelter, with most of those displaced currently living along roadsides, embankments and other areas of higher ground, as well as in public buildings including schools. Resource mobilization is a major constraint, with aid organizations using contingency stocks and diverting resources from recovery programs to meet life-saving needs.

Nonetheless, local media reported that around 800,000 families remain without permanent shelter.

In early August, torrential rains also wrecked havoc in many parts of Sindh province, killing at least 18 people and leaving dozens more injured. Some areas saw the worst rainfall since at least 1936.

And in late July 2010, above-average heavy monsoon rains in Pakistan’s Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, Sindh, Punjab and Balochistan regions killed approximately 2,000 people and affected around 20 million others as floods covered about a fifth of the country. Torrential rains overflooded rivers, which went cascading across the country from the mountainous north, inundating successive regions until they reached the sea. It was the country's worst flooding in modern history.

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