Pakistan: One Month On, Fresh Flooding Displaces One More Million

(New York / Geneva / Islamabad: 27 August 2010): As Pakistanis mark one month from the gradual onset of floods that have devastated the country since late July, more areas are being freshly flooded. Over the last two days, an estimated one million people have been displaced in Sindh Province by new flooding.

"We are working day and night to bring relief to millions of women, men, and children, but the floods appear determined to outrun our efforts", said Martin Mogwanja, Humanitarian Coordinator for Pakistan, "We have been scaling up, but must scale up even further".

The Indus River is raging at 40 times its normal volume, with the largest sea surge of water now in the Thatta District of Pakistan's southern Sindh Province. Since Wednesday, an estimated one million people were forced to leave their homes by the advancement of raging waters.

"People had been warned. But only after the river broke its banks and the water started to inundate their villages, they escaped", said Andro Shilakadze, head of the United Nations Children's Fund (UNICEF) in Sindh's provincial capital Karachi, "It was very sudden. People had to leave in a rush, many of them during the night, taking almost nothing with them. Many are still stranded, and are now being rescued by the national authorities".

Most of those newly displaced need shelter, food, water, and medical care.

The United Nations and its partners are providing assistance to millions of people in all flood-affected areas of the country. In Sindh, Pakistan's southernmost province and the last one to be affected by floods, emergency shelter has reached approximately 120,000 persons, out of 1.1 million reached nationwide, while clean water is provided on a daily basis to only 50,000 people, out of 2.5 million receiving it across Pakistan. Yesterday, high-energy biscuits were dispatched to the evacuees in Thatta District.

"We are scaling up response to reach all those in need", said Manuel Bessler, head of the Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) in the flood-torn South Asian nation, "But with one million more displaced people in Sindh over the past two days, and thousands more people being affected almost every day, needs quickly outplace our capacity, our supplies, and our resources".

The estimated number of flood-affected people in Sindh has risen sharply over the past weeks. On 13 August it stood at 1.5 million. It then rose to 2.3 million by 16 August, and is now estimated at 3.7 million - without counting those newly displaced. An estimated 17.2 million people have been affected across the country, from the Himalaya mountains in the north, to the Arabian Sea in the south. "The closer we get to our targets in terms of beneficiaries to be reached, the more these targets increase", said Mr. Bessler.

In terms of surface area, Sindh is now the worst-affected province of the country. Out of its 23 districts, 19 have so far been ravaged by floods.

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