UN says 10 million without drinking water in flood-hit Pakistan

Families living in flood-affected areas “have no alternative but to drink and use water potentially contaminated by disease,” says UNICEF.

about six months later catastrophic floods in pakistanMore than 10 million people still lack access to safe drinking water in areas affected by record rains, according to a United Nations report.

Families living in flood-affected areas “have no alternative but to drink and use water potentially contaminated by disease,” the UN children’s agency, or UNICEF, said in Tuesday’s report.

“Every day, millions of girls and boys in Pakistan fight a losing battle against preventable waterborne diseases and resulting malnutrition,” said Abdullah Fadil, UNICEF Representative in Pakistan.

Pakistan’s worst floods began in June due to heavy rains. They killed at least 1,739 people, including 647 children, and affected 33 million people.

At their height, the floods, triggered by a “monsoon on steroids,” as UN chief Antonio Guterres described it, submerged more than a third of the country.

According to the UNICEF report, the majority of the country’s population did not have access to safe drinking water even before the floods. The disaster then caused damage to most water systems in the affected areas and forced more than 5.4 million people, including 2.5 million children, to “rely solely on polluted water from ponds and wells.” .

“Only 36 percent of the country’s water was deemed safe for consumption despite the fact that the country’s drinking water supply system covers 92 percent of the population,” the report says.

Six months after floods ravaged Pakistan, 9.6 million children are still in need of life support. We need the continued support of our donors to provide safe drinking water, build flush toilets, and provide vital sanitation services to these children and families who need it most. pic.twitter.com/Yfi90CxYgO

— UNICEF Pakistan (@UNICEF_Pakistan) March 21, 2023

The report highlighted the dire situation faced by families living near stagnant bodies of water formed after floods, making them vulnerable to waterborne diseases such as cholera, diarrhoea, dengue fever and malaria. These diseases prevent children from getting the vital nutrients they need and plunge them into a “vicious cycle of malnutrition and infection”.

UNICEF said malnutrition is associated with half of all child deaths in Pakistan. More than 1.5 million children are already severely malnourished, he said, and those numbers are expected to rise in the absence of clean water and proper sanitation.

“Open defecation has increased by more than 14 percent in flood-affected regions,” the report says. “The lack of adequate bathrooms is disproportionately affecting children, adolescents girls and women who are at greater risk of embarrassment and harm by defecating in the open.”

The agency said less than half of its $173 million aid request has been met so far.

Pakistan was affected by financial losses of at least $30 billion due to flooding. In January, the country managed to secure more than $10 billion in pledges of the international community to rebuild itself.

But it is also in the midst of economic turbulence waiting for $1.1 billion of the International Monetary Fund.

“We need the continued support of our donors to provide clean water, build toilets and provide vital sanitation services to these children and families who need it most,” Fadil said.