Seven million still lack shelter after Pakistan floods: UN

At least 7m people still without shelter months after catastrophic floods devastated huge parts of the country.

ISLAMABAD: At least seven million people are still without shelter in Pakistan nearly three months after catastrophic floods devastated huge parts of the country, the United Nations said Tuesday.

Torrential monsoon rains began falling in northwestern Pakistan in July, causing floods that moved steadily south, wiping out villages and farmland and affecting an area roughly the size of England.

"At least seven million people are currently without shelter in the flood-affected areas," UN spokeswoman Stacey Winston told a news conference in Islamabad.

She said that the floods destroyed and damaged over 1.9 million homes.

The United Nations has issued a record two-billion-dollar appeal for funds to cope with the disaster, which UN agencies say affected 21 million people. Only around 35 percent of the appeal has already been funded.

Winston estimated that 14 million people were in need of immediate humanitarian assistance, saying that the United Nations distributed food rations among 2.5 million people this month in 39 flood-affected districts.