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Millions of women, children in Pakistan floods need help: UN humanitarian body

26 November 2011 00:27 (UTC +04:00)

Baku-APA. The UN humanitarian arm has issued a call for help for over five million Pakistani people, many of whom are women and children, who have been displaced from their homes and livelihoods of flooding in Pakistan, UN spokesman Martin Nesirky said here on Friday, APA reports quoting Xinhua.

"The Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) reports that a quarter of the more than five million people in need of humanitarian assistance following floods in Pakistan’s Sindh and Balochistan provinces are women, and half are children, according to a recently completed joint UN-Government Needs Assessment," Nesirky said at a daily news briefing.

Some of those displaced by floods, which had the heaviest impact in Sindh and Balochistan provinces, are now seeking to return to their homes and communities but are finding that houses and infrastructure are severely damaged.

"Around 660,000 people in Sindh and more than 83,800 in Balochistan remain displaced," Nesirky said. "With 797,000 homes either destroyed or damaged, many of the estimated 1.2 million returnees had gone back to homes that either needed to be repaired or entirely rebuilt."

According to OCHA, the change of seasons will pose additional challenges to the displaced, as they may be in even greater need of shelter and winterization for their homes. The danger of diseases like respiratory infections also seems imminent with the coming of winter.

OCHA has asked the international community to contribute to the efforts to help Pakistan.

"OCHA continues to call for full funding of its humanitarian appeal as soon as possible," said Nesirky. "To date, only 129 million (U.S.) dollars of the 357 million dollars requested, or 36 percent, has been received."