New York, NY (BBN)– The United Nations World Food Program (WFP) has begun distributing food to more than 35,000 families affected by the worst floods northwest Pakistan has seen in decades, which have affected some one million people in the area.
More than 1,000 people have died in the flooding, unleashed by torrential monsoons which are said to be the worst in living memory, according to media reports.
The first emergency rations for flood victims reached some 3,000 families on Sunday in Peshawar, Nowshera and Charsadda, three of the hardest-hit areas.
The parts of Pakistan affected most by the flooding are also among the poorest in the country, where WFP is already helping nearly 3.0 million people uprooted by violence along the border with Afghanistan.
The agency plans to scale up its assistance to feed up to 150,000 more families who lost what little they had to the raging floodwaters over the next two to three months.
The floods have caused major damage to infrastructure, including roads and dozens of bridges, isolating some heavily affected areas, in addition to thousands of homes.
The UN World Health Organization (WHO) reported some 27,000 people are still waiting to be evacuated from flooded areas in the province of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa (KPK), formerly known as the North-West Frontier Province.
BBN/SS/SI/AD-03Aug10-1:11 pm (BST)
