PAKISTAN: 800,000 ONLY REACHABLE BY AIR, MORE HELICOPTERS NEEDED

(New York / Geneva / Islamabad: 24 August 2010): As monsoon floods continue to displace millions in southern Pakistan, an estimated 800,000 people in need across the country are only accessible by air. More helicopters are urgently required.

"These unprecedented floods pose unprecedented logistical challenges, and this requires an extraordinary effort by the international community", said John Holmes, United Nations Under-Secretary-General for Humanitarian Affairs and Emergency Relief Coordinator, who visited Pakistan on 15 August together with United Nations Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon.

"We need at least 40 additional heavy-lift helicopters, working at full capacity, to reach the huge numbers of increasingly desperate people with life-saving relief", said Marcus Prior of the World Food Programme (WFP). Flood waters have washed away vital access roads and bridges. This is of particular concern in the Swat Valley of the north-western Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Province (KPK), as well as in the mountainous areas of Gilgit- Baltistan and Pakistani administered Kashmir, located further east. In parts of the country's central and southern provinces of Punjab and Sindh, where the Indus River is bursting its banks, several locations have also been surrounded by water and are currently unreachable by road.

"In northern areas that are cut off, markets are short of vital supplies, and prices are rising sharply. People are in need of food staples to survive", said Marcus Prior of WFP, "There is currently no other way to reach these flood victims, other than by helicopter".

On Saturday, WFP, which leads the logistics cluster within the humanitarian community, called on donors to fund or provide helicopters as soon as possible. As envisaged in the Pakistan Initial Floods Emergency Response Plan (PIFERP), the helicopters would be used to transport shelter materials, medical supplies, and other relief items, in addition to food.

The National Disaster Management Authority (NDMA) of Pakistan has already provided WFP with 12 helicopters for urgent life-saving operations. Yesterday, WFP has deployed to Pakistan three helicopters which are now part of the United Nations Humanitarian Air Service (UNHAS). "Last week, we were able to reach an isolated community in Mata Kabal, located in the remote Swat Valley, to deliver tents and essential household goods", said Billie Bierling of the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR), "These people were totally cut off from the rest of the world and in dire need".

Pakistan's floods have now affected an estimated 17.2 million people, of whom at least eight million are believed to be requiring life-saving humanitarian assistance. Over 1.2 million homes have been damaged or destroyed, leaving an estimated six million people in need of emergency shelter, of whom just over one million have already received tents or plastic tarpaulins.

For further information, please call: OCHA Islamabad: Maurizio Giuliano,+92 300 8502397 giuliano@un.org; Stacey Winston, +92 300 8502690, winston@un.org; OCHA New York: Nicholas Reader, +1 212 963 4961, mobile +1 646 752 3117, reader@un.org; OCHA Geneva: Elisabeth Byrs, +41 22 917 2653, mobile +41 79 473 4570, byrs@un.org

OCHA press releases are available at http://ochaonline.un.org or www.reliefweb.int