ISLAMABAD: The death toll from massive floods in Pakistan has reached 1,545 after another 37 deaths, authorities said on Friday, with a United Nations (UN) agency saying the deluges had impacted around 1.6 million children across the South Asian country.
Diseases like malaria, dengue, diarrhea and skin problems, are on the rise in flood-hit areas, particularly in the country’s southern Sindh province, where floodwater as started to recede.
More than 90,000 people were treated for different diseases in the province on Thursday alone, the provincial government said in a report. which has been the hardest hit by the cataclysmic floods.
Pakistan’s National Disaster Management Authority (NDMA) said the deceased included at least 552 children, while the United Nations International Children’s Emergency Fund (UNICEF) said the deluges impacted about 16 million others.
“Each and every one of these deaths is a tragedy that could have been averted,” UNICEF Pakistan Representative Abdullah Fadil said in a statement.
“An estimated 16 million children have been impacted by these ‘super floods’ and at least 3.4 million girls and boys remain in need of immediate, lifesaving support.”
He said a lot of the mothers were anaemic and malnourished themselves, and with very low-weight babies, being exhausted or ill and unable to breastfeed.
The floods were triggered by unprecedented rains and glacier melt in the north that have submerged a third of Pakistan, sweeping away homes, crops, roads and key infrastructure since mid-June.
Officials say the floodwater may take two to six months to recede completely, estimating the losses from the deluges could go above $30 billion.
On Thursday, scientists said the torrential monsoon was a one in a hundred-year event likely made more intense by climate change.
