ISLAMABAD — The water-borne diseases and
malnutrition that are plaguing swathes of Pakistan after record monsoon floods
threaten to be more deadly than the initial deluge,
UN officials warned on
Wednesday.
اضافة اعلان
Pakistan has been lashed by unprecedented monsoon
downpours flooding a third of the country — an area the size of the UK — and
killing nearly 1,600 people, according to the latest government figures.
More than 7 million people have been displaced, many
living in makeshift tents without protection from mosquitoes, and often with
little access to clean drinking water or washing facilities.
UN humanitarian coordinator Julien Harneis said
Pakistan faced a cascading “second disaster” from diseases such as dengue,
malaria, cholera and diarrhea, as well as malnutrition.
“My personal concern is that mortality from the
water-borne diseases, from malnutrition will be higher than what we’ve seen so
far,” he told a press conference in the capital Islamabad.
“That’s a sober but realistic understanding.”
Around 33 million people have been affected by the
floods, which have destroyed around two million homes and business premises,
washed away 7,000km of roads and collapsed 500 bridges.
Swathes of farm land — mostly in the southern
province of Sindh — still remain under water.
Dengue cases there have soared to more than 6,000
since the start of the year — half in September alone — and are already
approaching the total figures for 2021.
But the devastation is so widespread and ongoing —
with some communities still cut off — that a full picture of the tragedy has
yet to emerge.
“Five hundred children died because of the direct
impact of the floods,” said
UNICEF field operations chief Scott Whoolery.
“We’re not worried about hundreds. We’re worried
about thousands,” he said of the health crisis.
“Many of them we probably will never know, they
won’t be counted.”
The UN has already received pledges surpassing its
initial campaign to raise $160 million for flood relief, but now plans to up
that goal.
“The absolute priority is to deal with the health
crisis that is striking the flood-affected districts right now,” said Harneis.
Pakistan was already ravaged by extreme weather once
before this year, with extreme heat waves scorching the country in spring.
Scientists have linked both events to human-caused
climate change.
The South Asian nation — home to more than 220
million — is responsible for less than one percent of global greenhouse gas
emissions.
But it ranks eighth on a list compiled by the NGO
Germanwatch of countries most vulnerable to extreme weather caused by climate
change.
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