: Pakistan: More than 6.4 million in ‘dire need’ after unprecedented floods #IndiaNEWS #International The scale of the humanitarian crisis in Pakistan is unprecedented, with a third of the country

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Pakistan: More than 6.4 million in ‘dire need’ after unprecedented floods #IndiaNEWS #International
The scale of the humanitarian crisis in Pakistan is unprecedented, with a third of the country under water, UN humanitarians warned on Friday.

With more than 33 million people impacted, that represents 15 per cent of the total Pakistani population, said Dr. Palitha MAHIPALA, World Health Organization (WHO) Representative in the country.
Some “6. 4 plus million people are in dire need of humanitarian aid�?, he said, speaking from Islamabad to journalists in Geneva.
In the past few weeks, record monsoon rains dumped more than five times the 30-year average for rainfall in some provinces, killing more than 1,200 people and injuring over 6,000 since June. Nearly 400 children are among the fatalities.

Due to ongoing severe floods in #Pakistan , over 1460 health facilities have been affected of which 432 were fully damaged. @WHOs leading the health response and operating on the ground in over 4500 medical camps. pic. twitter. com/XQKxkeUtZJ
— WHO Pakistan (@WHOPakistan) September 2, 2022

More than a million homes lost
With 1. 1 million houses washed away and vital infrastructure destroyed such as schools, UNICEF’s Representative in Pakistan, Abdullah Fadil, explained that “18,000 schools have been destroyed and thousands of schools are now fully shuttered… So that means children who have lost education for two years are also losing learning opportunities now. �?
Besides the massive disruption to the education system, health facilities have been heavily impacted too, leaving the most vulnerable at risk.
The timing couldn’t be worse, as aid agencies have warned of an uptick in waterborne and deadly diseases, such as diarrhoea, cholera, dengue, or malaria.
Disease risk grows
Pakistan already had a high level of stunting, and the areas where that’s a major health issue, “are the same areas that are now flooded,�? said Mr. Fadil. “The anticipation list of waterborne diseases diarrhea, cholera, all the diseases you can imagine will hit, and quite soon, so we need to be in place to respond to those as well. �?
As rains continue and flooding likely worsens over the coming days, there is an urgent need to scale up disease surveillance, restore damaged health facilities, ensure sufficient medicines and health supplies to affected communities.
“Affected people have told our staff on the ground about their traumatic and scarring experiences as rain and floodwaters swept away their possessions in minutes,�? said Matthew Saltmarsh, spokesperson for the UN Refugee Agency.
“Those who could, rushed to safety on higher ground without being able to rescue their belongings.