500 women, children hit by water-borne illnesses

QUETTA: Around 500 women and children are suffering from various diseases in a relief camp set up in Quetta for Balochistan’s flood survivors.

“They are suffering from illnesses such as gastroenteritis, diarrhoea and skin scabies,” Dr Lubna Adnan of the Bolan Medical Complex Teaching Hospital told The Express Tribune at a relief camp on the Eastern Bypass of Quetta.

The camp, set up four days ago by the Balochistan Rural Support Programme (BRSP) and the local administration, houses more than 150 affected families that were previously living out on the road without any relief or medical aid. As many as 1,400 people, including 500 children, live in the camp.

“Three children and three girls are suffering from gastroenteritis. One of them is in serious condition,” Dr Adnan said. She said that there were a number of people with water-borne and skin diseases and proper medical care was being provided to them.

Dr Adnan said that a lack of awareness on the part of both children and parents was causing problems. “The children drank polluted water because of which they contracted gastroenteritis and other diseases,” she said.

BRSP representative Naseer Shah said that they had notified the provincial government of their need of medicine and other necessities. “The BRSP had conducted an assessment survey within the camp about diseases that are spreading and procured the medicines themselves,” he said, adding that the BRSP was collecting more data on the problems of flood survivors.

Shah said that more than 30 pregnant women were living at the camp, who could go into labour within a month, but assured that they will be provided proper treatment and medical care.

According to an NGO active in the area, more than 200,000 survivors are currently living in Quetta. Many flood-affected people can be seen living along the roads.

The local administration has so far registered 1,521 families who they say have come from Jacobabad and Naseerabad divisions. The administration has established three relief camps in Quetta and, according to the city’s commissioner Naseem Ahmed Lehri, officials are trying to locate people who have come to Quetta to flee flooding in their regions. He said that three separate relief camps have been set up especially for minorities.

Published in The Express Tribune, August 21^st, 2010.