Geneva, Switzerland (BBN) – United Nations agencies are scaling up their assistance to flood-affected people in Pakistan, where more than five million people are urgent need of food, shelter, safe water and access to health services.
According to the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA), some 5.5 million people have been affected so far by the flooding, which has also resulted in over 230 deaths, damage or destruction to 1.1 million homes and inundation of 4.5 million acres of land.
Elisabeth Byrs, OCHA’s spokesperson has told reporters in Geneva that resource mobilization is currently a major constraint and organizations are using contingency stocks and diverting resources from early recovery programs to meet life-saving needs.
The UN is currently finalizing its emergency response plan, to be launched early next week and reviewed against evolving needs and more in-depth evaluations in a month’s time, she added.
Meanwhile, the World Food Programme (WFP), which is providing food aid to 1.4 million people still recovering from last year’s devastating floods, is increasing life-saving food assistance to parts of Sindh province that have been hit the worst by the latest floods.
WFP has distributed food to 15,300 people in the most-affected districts, notably Badin, the agency’s spokesperson in Geneva, Christiane Berthiaume, told reporters. The one-month rations include high-energy biscuits and specialised nutritious food for children such as Wawa Mum, a chick-pea paste made in Pakistan.
The agency is aiming to provide emergency assistance to about half a million people by the end of the month and planned to scale up deliveries to reach 2.2 million by October. In addition to food distributions, WFP is providing logistical support to the humanitarian community amid the considerable damage to infrastructure caused by heavy rains.
The UN Population Fund (UNFPA) is rushing reproductive health supplies to Sindh given the disruption to services in various health facilities. The agency estimates that at least 1.2 million women of reproductive age are among the 5 million people affected by the heavy monsoon rains and floods. At least 115,000 are pregnant.
BBN/SSR/AD-18Sept11-10:49 am (BST)
