3m Sindh children at risk due to floods

Their families simply can’t feed them or themselves.

MULTAN: The lives of at least three million children in Pakistan are at risk from malnutrition and disease because of a huge shortage in emergency funding needed to help families left destitute by the flooding in Sindh, Save the Children has said.

Only 9% of the $233 million required by the UN’s emergency appeal has so far been raised, prompting fears that millions of people will be left without food and water if more money is not found. The UN says that food and water supplies could run out in within weeks and is warning that a third of those affected could be without medical care in a month’s time.

Emergency shelter supplies will run out in the next few weeks, according to the UN. At least 5.5 million people have been affected by the flooding after torrential rains caused riverbanks to burst and overflow in late August.

The disaster left 1.8 million people displaced and forced many to flee to roadsides, railway tracks and schools in search of shelter. The downpour left three-year-old Mushtaq’s village in Badin under water. Mushtaq and his family of seven found refuge in a relief camp set up in a government-run school near Badin city.

“Mushtaq has been very weak since he was born,” his father Hanif said. “Ever since we moved to the camp he has lost even more weight and has become lethargic as well. He does not talk or play like other children of his age.” According to him there are no health facilities at the camp and they do not have sufficient food to feed the entire family. When they arrived, Hanif took him to a clinic but the medicines prescribed by the doctor were too expensive.

David Wright, who is the country director for Save the Children Pakistan, provided this assessment. “Children are distressed and are living in desperate conditions with families barely able to feed themselves. Their stocks of food have been wiped out by flooding and they don’t have the money to buy food. Some people are still completely cut off from help.” While the charity is on the ground trying to save children’s lives, the need is huge. “The world has to face up to what is happening here and fill the funding gap so aid agencies can reach millions more people.”

Save the Children is one of a few international agencies currently delivering aid in Sindh. The children’s aid agency is reaching almost 250,000 people with food, healthcare, shelter and basic household goods, as well as establishing safe play areas to help children recover from the distress caused by the disaster.

With most aid agencies focusing on the delivery of supplies to the districts of Badin and Mirpurkhas, Save the Children is also the first to start reaching out to communities in new areas such as Sanghar where 900,000 people have been affected, according to local authorities.

The children’s charity has delivered food rations to 5,000 families in the district of Sanghar. Only 145,000 people of those affected in this district are receiving assistance in camps and the rest are fending for themselves. “In Sanghar, people are living in makeshift shelters made from rushes and sticks and most families are surviving on small portions of rice, bread and vegetables,” Wright added. “Children and families are drinking from floodwater contaminated with sewage.”

The charity has launched a $20 million flood response for lower Sindh. Save the Children aims to provide support to one million people, including 600,000 children in four of the worst hit districts: Badin, Mirpurkhas, Sanghar and Tando Allahyar.

Published in The Express Tribune, October 6^th, 2011.