Pakistan floods: countless numbers still at risk
Updated on 29 August 2010
A month after flooding began in Pakistan, waters are beginning to recede in parts of the country - but as Medecins Sans Frontieres writes for Channel 4 News, the humanitarian crisis continues, as the UN estimates 72,000 children are at high risk.
At least 1,643 people have died in the disaster, which has forced more than six million people from their homes.
Although water levels have begun to recede, fears are now increasing about the long-term impact of the flooding, Pakistan's worst natural disaster on record.
Millions of people also remain at risk of disease in the short-term, caused by poor supplies and dirty water. It is believed the death toll could rise significantly as a result of disease and acute malnutrition - and as the bodies of the many thousands of missing people are found.
The United Nations (UN) has estimated that 72,000 children are at high risk of death due to severe malnutrition.
Some towns also remain at risk: officials said they were battling to protect the delta town of Thatta, near Karachi in the southern province of Sindh.
Water has broken the banks of the nearby Indus river and almost all of the town's 300,000 residents have fled as relief workers attempt to fill in breaches and strengthen embankments to save the town.
However, no rain is expected for the next few days and water levels are now receding in most areas.
"We believe that it will take another 10 to 12 days for rivers in Sindh to come to normal flow. Therefore, we still need to be watchful," said Qamar-uz-Zaman Chaudhry, the government's top weather official.
Medecins Sans Frontieres' country representative in Pakistan, Pierluigi Testa, told Channel 4 News: "In our daily consultations in Sindh and Balochistan, around 15-20 per cent of them are dealing with cases of acute watery diarrhoea. In an effort to prevent more cases we are distributing hygiene kits and non-food-items in order to give families a chance to build shelter and improve their own hygiene conditions."
He said that malnutrition is also becoming a major problem - and is set to remain so.
Around 14 per cent of Pakistan's cultivated land - 7.9 million hectares - has been damaged by the flood, losing almost $3bn of crops.
Mr Testa said: "After nearly three weeks of running mobile clinics in Balochistan we already treated 400 severely malnourished children.
"Unfortunately, I expect to see rates of malnutrition to increase across Sindh and Balochistan because crops have been destroyed by flood waters and humanitarian actors are not here because of security and authorisations required to operate on the ground."
Desperate need for water in flood-hit Pakistan
The biggest humanitarian need at the moment is access to medical care and clean, safe water for the flood affected population, Pierluigi Testa, country representative for MSF in Pakistan, writes for Channel 4 News.
Only two days ago I took a helicopter from Sukkur in Sindh all the way to Balochistan - and all I could see was an inland sea.
Only water was visible for 300 kilometres and village after submerged village with people still stuck on rooftops.
This is a particularly isolated region and one that seems to be not gaining the attention it deserves. It is a region that is normally characterised by its dry desert landscape and now there is only water as far as the eye can see – this area alone is roughly the same size of my home country, Italy.
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