ISLAMABAD: UNICEF Pakistan Chief of Field Office in Balochistan, Gerida Birukila, has regretted that the body’s funding appeal for $39 million was still less than a third funded while the needs of children hit by devastating floods in Pakistan were continuing to grow.
The flooding has affected 33 million people, 16 million of which are children. Over 3 million of those children need immediate life-saving support, the United Nations refugee agency has said. Total deaths are close to hitting 1,600, with nearly a third of them children.
“The world needs to come together and help the children in Pakistan,” Birukila said at a press briefing at the Palais des Nations in Geneva on Tuesday.
“Our funding appeal for $39 million is still less than a third funded, and the needs of children will only continue to grow. Together we can save lives by delivering lifesaving health, nutrition, WASH [water, sanitation and hygiene], protection, and education services to every child in Pakistan who needs them the most.”
“Even after three weeks, large parts of the flood-affected areas are still submerged under water. Many of the roads and bridges have either been washed away or damaged. Thousands of families in the 81 calamity-hit districts are still cut off and desperately need support. Families have no food, safe water or medicines.
“Lack of food means a lot of the mothers are now anaemic and malnourished and have very low-weight babies.”
UNICEF has set up 71 mobile health camps, and temporary learning centers to help children cope with trauma.
Officials are warning they now risk losing control of the spread of infections in a dire situation UNICEF has described as “beyond bleak.”
Hundreds of thousands of people displaced by the floods are living in the open and as flood waters spread over hundreds of kilometers (miles) start to recede — which officials say may take two to six months — stagnant waters have led to diseases like malaria, dengue fever, skin and eye infections and acute diarrhea.
