July 2007
Pakistani and international aid
workers just today reached some of the remote villages of Sindh and
Balochistan provinces flooded by a series of major storms in late June.
The deadly floods came at the beginning of South Asia's monsoon season.
An estimated 2.5 million people have been affected by flooding following
four days of heavy rains in the wake of cyclone Yemyin on June 23, which
killed some 300 people. Earlier in June, Cyclone Gonu also damaged the
region and claimed the lives of hundreds more.
Across the region, an estimated 770 people have lost their lives and over
three million people have been affected in Afghanistan, Bangladesh, India
and Pakistan.
Cyclonic storms in the Arabian Sea are rare, but weather officials say
that it is extremely rare to see so many storms within the space of a
month.
Rains and flash floods have washed away dams, bridges, and railways, and
marooned rural villages with little communications infrastructure.
This isolation has complicated efforts to gather information about the
extent of flood damage.
A woman in the Gadaab slum district, Karachi receives a food parcel
from the Pakistan Red Crescent Society
The Pakistan National Disaster Management Authority estimates that number
of people affected now stands at 2.5 million, and other estimates indicate
250,000 or more have been left homeless. The livelihood of 70 percent of
the population of Balochistan is affected, the disaster agency said.
Mubashir Fida arrived in the city of Turbat just after Cyclone Yemyin
struck the area in his capacity as information officer with the
International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent.
Still, weeks later, he says, conditions remain very difficult for the
estimated 250,000 people left homeless by the floods.
"Everything was washed away. People are using bed sheets for shelter
because it’s too hot to sleep indoors, even in a tent, and the usually
busy market is destroyed and empty," he says. "The city is just a heap of
mud."
The Pirbhat Women Development Society said Monday that displaced people
living in the open are facing multidimensional problems - unclean food and
drinking water, and unclean sleeping places on dry grass. "There is no
alternate way using the same roads for latrine-lavatory for the affected
people, and that will cause immense diseases in the area," the society
said.
People are attempting to form camps but they urgently need everything -
tents, chlorine to disinfect drinking water, sanitation facilities, and
food.
UNICEF says that three out of four people affected are children and women,
and at least 300,000 of affected children are under five years old.
Accessibility remains a concern, with many areas still cut off by rising
water, and many water distribution systems have been totally or partially
destroyed, leading to poor hygiene and unsanitary conditions that are
causing waterborne diseases, dehydration and infection, UNICEF said on
Wednesday.
"With hospitals and health clinics closed or only partially functioning,
humanitarian aid is desperately needed. The worst hit areas in Balochistan
and Sindh are among Pakistan's most disadvantaged, making children and
women there especially vulnerable to natural disasters," UNICEF said
Late Thursday, Mercy Corps relief trucks finally reached the washed-out
village of Jhal Magsi with the first 5,000 basic kits, which contain rice,
oil, sugar, bottled water, soap and other supplies.
The team "literally waded into water to register families" this week, said
Dee Goluba, a member of the agency's Global Emergency Operations team who
is coordinating the flood response.
Also on Thursday, aid workers finished a 36 hour distribution of roughly
3,000 kits to families in Shadad Kot in Sindh Province.
There's either too much water or too little. Mercy Corps says people in
this area are living along 15 kilometers of the main road, sleeping in
makeshift shelters and enduring daytime temperatures as high as 118
degrees Fahrenheit.
More than 50 Mercy Corps workers are now involved in efforts to reach
90,000 people in 151 villages. Eventually, the organization hopes that
11,000 households will receive the family emergency kits, which also
include lentils, tea, candles and matches, and a wash bucket. Partial
funding for the kits comes from a grant from USAID's Office of U.S.
Foreign Disaster Assistance.
The agency also has opened three health camps co-located at small rural
health facilities in the worst-hit areas.
Mercy Corps hopes to begin a cash-for-work program this weekend using part
of a $500,000 grant awarded by the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation to
bolster the flood response. The program will give local residents a way to
earn an income by clearing debris, repairing bridges and other
infrastructure and helping speed the recovery.
Muslim Aid now reports that further villages were flooded after the storms
had passed when the Nari and Mula rivers in Balochistan overflowed.
In addition, the Dadu district has been badly damaged by continuous
flooding from the Kirthar mountain ranges in Balochistan, and Muslim Aid
has found that more than 100,000 people in 300 villages are affected.
Vast torrents from Kambar - Shahdadkot district have also flowed into
Dadu, with the flow of water threatening an estimated 200,000 people in
the Dadu district.
Muslim Aid has been working in the worst affected villages for the last
two weeks, with a team consisting of Pakistan Country Director Khobaib
Ahmed Vahedy, two program managers, and 20 volunteers.
Muslim Aid is establishing a medical support distribution system to
clinics and basic health units in the area, distributing 3.25 million
aquatabs and 300,000 medicinal antibiotics that Canada-based Global Medic
donated.
"In villages across South Asia, it is the poorest and most vulnerable
people who are hardest hit by the monsoons," says Ian Heigh, who is
leading the International Federation’s Field Assessment and Coordination
Team in Pakistan.
"In an instant, homes, belongings and livelihoods are washed away, leaving
people with nothing," he says. "When you lose everything, it’s hard to
imagine how to start over and that’s why the presence of the Red Cross and
Red Crescent within communities is so important, because we’re there when
disasters strike and we’re there to help them recover."
All aid agencies have launched appeals for financial assistance to help
them offer basic supplies and health care.
The government of Japan has extended relief assistance to the flood and
rain survivors of Sindh and Balochistan. The relief goods worth about 13
million yen were handed over Thursday by the Consul General of Japan in
Karachi to the head of Pakistan's National Disaster Management Authority.
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