WASHINGTON, DC - August 24, 2010
-- The massive floods in Pakistan have spread to the southern province
of Sindh, where hundreds of thousands of people are on the move after
evacuating their inundated villages, a United Nations official said
today, as humanitarian agencies continued to deliver relief supplies to
millions of those affected.
"The situation in Sindh is of high
concern. The water now is in Sindh and entire cities have been
evacuated," said Maurizio Giuliano, spokesperson for the UN Office for
the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA), in an interview with UN
Radio.
"We have hundreds of thousands of people on the move
[and] if we are not able to reach all those in need fast enough, there
may be a spread of waterborne diseases and, of course, food shortages
and lack of shelter will not contribute to improving the situation of
those in need," he added.
Evacuations have been reported from
low-lying areas of Hyderabad as the second wave of flooding moved
southwards, according to OCHA. Large parts of Jacobabad district were
also evacuated during the weekend, Mr. Giuliano said.
"We'll only be able to know in the coming days how many people have been affected [in Sindh]," Mr. Giuliano added.
The
floods, which began late last month in the wake of particularly heavy
monsoon rains, have so far claimed 1,200 lives and destroyed homes,
farmland and major infrastructure in large parts of the country.
According to Government estimates, 15.4 million people are affected,
with at least 6 million of them in need of food, shelter, clean water
and health care.
The UN World Food Programme (WFP) estimates
that it requires at least 40 more heavy-lift helicopters to boost its
efforts to deliver relief to large numbers of people who remain in
inaccessible areas as a result of roads and bridges being washed away by
the floods. The agency brought in three of an expected five additional
helicopters into the country yesterday.
"We need more of these
life-savers," said WFP Pakistan Country Director Wolfgang Herbinger.
"Helicopters are the only way to deliver supplies into many areas which
is why we're already using every aircraft currently available to us," he
added. WFP has to date reached about 1.3 million people with a
one-month emergency rations of food.
Meanwhile, the UN World
Health Organization (WHO) reported that the number of cases of diseases
was on the rise. The agency said that so far, more than 200,000 of acute
diarrhoea, at least 260,000 cases of skin diseases and more than
200,000 cases of acute respiratory diseases have been reported in
flood-affected provinces.
In a related development, the head of
the UN Telecommunications Union (ITU), Hamadoun Touré, today sent out an
appeal for contributions to assist those affected by the floods in
Pakistan.
Mr. Touré said ITU's emergency telecommunications team
is working with the Government of Pakistan to rehabilitate the
telecommunication infrastructure, which has been disabled by the floods.
"The whole world is in deep shock as this tragedy continues to
unfold," said Mr. Touré, the ITU Secretary-General. "ITU stands in
utmost solidarity with the people of Pakistan in their hour of need and I
join UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon in urging our stakeholders to
respond generously to meet the urgent demand for relief and
rehabilitation efforts."