Floods hit Pakistan
CHRISTIAN AID PROVIDES AN INITIAL £50,000 FOR PAKISTAN FLOOD RELIEF
In the fourth consecutive year of heavy flooding to hit the country, thousands of acres of crops ready for harvest have been destroyed, and fruit orchards damaged.
Communications are disrupted, and roads and bridges, along with electricity and fresh water supply schemes, have been washed away.
The government says at least 86 people have died and more than 500,000 people been affected as glacial melt from the Himalayas has flowed into rivers already swollen with monsoon rains which have then joined the River Indus.
Neill Garvie, Christian Aid’s Emergency Programme Manager for Pakistan, said today: “The Pakistan Meteorological Department has warned that with heavy rains expected over the next five days, the situation will worsen.
“The authorities have established relief camps on various embankments, but a large number of people remain stranded in flooded areas.
“The communities affected will have lost almost all of their belongings including homes, food stocks, crops and livestock. Priority needs at present include fresh water, emergency shelter, food and medical supplies.”
The worst hit area is Khyber Pakhtunkhwa in the North West and Sindh Province in the South of the country where some 1,000,000 people overall are affected. Hundreds of houses, dozens of link roads and suspension bridges connecting valleys and villages have been swept away.
In Gilgit-Baltistan, the northernmost province, flash floods have cut off at least three valleys, while in Punjab, further south, at least 244 villages have been flooded.
Christian Aid will distribute aid through its partners in the Act Alliance, a coalition of more than 140 churches and affiliated organisations working together in over 140 countries to alleviate poverty.
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