Agence France Presse ISLAMABAD; The United
Nations warned today that up to 3.5 million children were at risk from
water-borne diseases in flood-hit Pakistan and said it was bracing to
deal with thousands of potential cholera cases.
Fresh rains threaten further anguish for millions of people that have
been affected by Pakistan’s worst floods for 80 years and UN chief Ban
Ki-moon has urged the world to speed up international aid urgently.
Described as the worst humanitarian crisis in the world today, the
three-week disaster has affected 20 million people, and has destroyed
crops, infrastructure, towns and villages, according to the Paksitani
government.
The United Nations has launched an aid appeal for 460 million dollars,
but charities say the response has been sluggish and flood survivors on
the ground have lashed out against the weak civilian government for
failing to help.
Maurizio Giuliano, spokesman for the UN Office for the Coordination of
Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA), feared that Pakistan was on the brink of a
“second wave of death” unless more donor funds materialised.
“Up to 3.5 million children are at high risk of deadly water-borne
diseases, including diarrhoea-related, such as watery diarrhoea and
dysentery,” he said, estimating the total number at risk from such
diseases at six million. Typhoid, hepatitis A and E are also concerns,
he said.
“WHO is preparing to assist up to 140,000 people in case there is any
cholera, but the government has not notified us of any confirmed cases,”
the spokesman told AFP. “We fear we’re getting close to the start of
seeing a second wave of death if not enough money comes through, due to
water-borne diseases along with lack of clean water and food shortages,”
he said.
The UN estimates that 1,600 people have died in the floods, while the government in Islamabad has confirmed 1,384 deaths.
Several hundred people today blocked the main highway linking the
breadbasket of Punjab province to the financial capital Karachi, calling
for assistance and holding up traffic for more than an hour, witnesses
said. “We have no food and no shelter. We need immediate help,” shouted
the protesters, who included women and children.
The bad weather was also hampering relief efforts, officials said. Bibi
Momal, 35, sat in dirty clothes and broken shoes on a roadside waiting
for relief, weak and exhausted. “We have no tents. We spent the night in
the rain. Our children are hungry and sick. We came here for relief but
we got nothing.”
A shocked Ban became the first world leader to visit the flood-affected
areas at the weekend, saying he would never forget the “heart wrenching”
scenes of destruction and suffering that he witnessed. |
