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Pakistan Flood Victims To Spend Winter in Camps

29 October 2010 20:55 (UTC +04:00)

Baku â€“ APA. The United Nations refugee agency says stagnant water from flooding in Pakistan earlier this year will force tens of thousands of victims to spend the winter in camps, contrary to what they had expected, APA reports quoting â€œThe Voice of Americaâ€.

U.N. High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) spokesman Adrian Edwards says problems with stagnant water persist in the southern provinces of Baluchistan and Sindh, more than three months after the disaster. He commented at a Friday briefing in Geneva.

Edwards says in the early days of the disaster, the expectation was that the camps would be short-lived. However, he says people affected by extreme poverty and others who have been hardest-hit by the flooding may need accommodations beyond winter.

Floodwaters triggered by monsoon rains that began sweeping through Pakistan in July have killed more than 1,700 people. More than 20 million people have been affected by what is the countryâ€™s worst flooding in history.

Edwards says large tracts of Sindh and Baluchistan remain under several feet of water. He says efforts to pump the stagnant water away from villages will be a massive undertaking that will take time.