Floods affect 4.5 million people: UN

GENEVA: Pakistan’s worst floods in living memory have so far affected an estimated 4.5 million people, United Nations officials said on Friday.

“The UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (Ocha) estimates globally that 4.5 million people have been affected by the flooding,” said UN spokesperson Elena Ponomareva, marking an increase of some 300,000 in a day.

Citing estimates from Pakistani authorities, UN relief agencies said that 252,000 homes have been destroyed as relentless monsoon rains continue and flood water rolls southwards through some of the poorest parts of the country.

“Basically, as we’re hearing, the scale of the needs is absolutely daunting,” said Melissa Fleming, a spokesperson for the office of the UN High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR).

The UN’s World Food Programme (WFP) said that it was preparing to provide food aid to some 2.5 million flood victims for three months, after delivering rations to 237,000 people in the worst hit areas.

“It’s a rolling emergency, this is something that’s not over, the rains are continuing,” said WFP spokesperson Emilia Casella. “That means that the people who are already affected are being further affected and the people who weren’t affected yet are now at risk of being hit by damage to their homes, their crops and their businesses.”

UN agencies, however, were unable to say how many people were displaced or homeless.

The WFP said that it was likely to ask donors for about $63 million to finance emergency aid in Pakistan, while the UN Children’s Fund (UNICEF) appealed for $47.3 million to fund its relief operations in Pakistan.

About 1.8 million children are among those hit by the flooding, according to the agency, and are especially vulnerable to the risk of disease. “They need water, medicine, food and shelter urgently,” Martin Mogwanja, Unicef’s spokesperson in Pakistan said in a statement.

Published in The Express Tribune, August 7^th, 2010.