The lives of 2 million people – more than half of them children – are at severe risk from disease as devastating flooding continues in southern Pakistan.
Friday 16 September 2011
As the rains continue to fall, children in the flooded areas of Sindh province are at an increased risk from malaria, which is reaching its seasonal peak.
They are also at risk from diarrhoea and other waterborne diseases, with a major sewage canal in danger of overflowing.
We’ve launched a major emergency response to get life-saving help to children. We’ve already reached 16,200 people with vital aid supplies. We’re scaling up our efforts to reach 1 million people.
Our response
“Save the Children is distributing mosquito nets, soap and other hygiene items – aid that could mean the difference between life and death for hundreds of thousands of children,” said David Wright.
We’re also providing food, emergency healthcare and shelter to families affected by the flooding.
- We're concentrating our response in the four worst-hit areas. So far the response has been concentrated in Badin district, where damage has been greatest.
- We've reached more than 16,200 people so far with food, emergency healthcare and shelter equipement.
- This week alone we've has reached more than 2,100 children with child protection support in the Badin.
- Eight child friendly spaces have been established and a mobile version has visited two camps and is providing psychosocial support to 441 children.
- More than 86 tonnes of food have been distributed to 1,000 households.
Massive rainfall
The rains in the Sindh region are the worst in the 300 years, with some towns getting as much rain in a day as they usually do in a year.
The resultant flooding is as intense as last year’s. Families who were badly hit by that last disaster are struggling to cope with the current one.
Families’ homes have been swept away and they have been forced to live by the side of the main roads, the only raised, dry ground available. Parents are struggling to find food for their children and materials for temporary shelters.
Desperate
“This is a desperately serious situation,” said David Wright, Save the Children’s Pakistan country director. “The lives of children in Sindh are at risk from both malaria and new floodwaters contaminated by the sewage from several major towns.”
“Families made homeless by the current flooding are already living in filthy conditions,” he said. “At several camps a hundred people are sharing a single toilet. Many children in Sindh are already weak and malnourished – malaria or waterborne diseases could kill them within days.
Health threats
Sindh’s usual peak season for malaria is October, but the vast expanses of standing water are a breeding ground for mosquitoes, so the mosquito season could start early and be much more intense than usual.
In addition a major sewage canal, known as the LBOD canal, is at risk of bursting its banks. It takes most of the province’s sewage, and if it floods then tens of thousands of people will have to be evacuated.