UN dedicates $5.5m for flood victims

Money to be sent on emergency nutrition, food security interventions in Balochistan and Sindh

The United Nations has dedicated $5.5 million towards emergency nutrition and food security interventions in the “most vulnerable communities of Balochistan and Sindh” impacted by the 2022 floods.

In a press release issued on Monday, the UN said the number of children suffering from wasting in flood-affected areas had greatly increased compared to the pre-flood situation, which was already reaching emergency levels it pointed out.

“Nearly one-third of children aged six to 23 months suffer from moderate acute malnutrition and 14 per cent from severe acute malnutrition” it said, referring to a rapid survey conducted in 15 flood-affected districts.

It said the number of children suffering from severe acute malnutrition with medical complications admitted for hospital treatment had also gradually increased since the floods as food prices soared globally.

In view of the crisis, UN Resident Coordinator in Pakistan Julien Harneis announced that he would dedicate $5.5m out of the $6.5m allocation received from the Central Emergency Response Fund towards emergency nutrition and food security interventions.

“This additional $5.5m will help Unicef, WFP (World Food Programme), WHO and NGOs provide emergency nutrition interventions as part of the government-led flood response in the most vulnerable communities of Balochistan and Sindh, with OCHA (UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs) coordinating and ensuring that the funds are used in an efficient manner,” the statement read.

Harneis said child wasting had already reached “emergency levels” even before the floods but what he was witnessing now in villages was “very worrying”.

 “We are grateful for the global community’s support so far, but much more is needed to help the government provide the increasing numbers of children who are at risk of death with immediate therapeutic food and care.

“We must help the government avert a nutrition crisis which would have dangerous and irreversible consequences for millions of children, and for the future of Pakistan,” he said, according to the press release.

It said additional funding was “urgently required” to implement early identification, integrated prevention and treatment of malnutrition in a greater number of villages and healthcare facilities since only one-third of the nutrition interventions included in the Floods Response Plan were funded so far.

 “There is also a need to increase the number of interventions that improve availability, affordability and accessibility to nutritious foods that protect children from wasting,” the UN said.

The floods of 2022 were the tenth most expensive climate disaster to  be experienced by any nation over the last decade. The floods inflicted an estimated loss of $3 billion to the country, caused over 1,700 deaths and displaced eight million people.