SEHWAN: The UN chief of humanitarian affairs said on Friday that more than one million displaced people still need emergency aid in southern Pakistan, around four months after catastrophic floods.
Sindh was one of the worst-affected areas and large swaths of the territory are still submerged in flood waters. “Initially more than seven million people were affected by the floods in Sindh and still one million of them need emergency response,” Valerie Amos, the United Nations emergency relief coordinator, told AFP.
On Friday, she visited displaced families living in camps in Sehwan, where she reiterated warnings that the crisis could drag on well into 2011. “It could take about six to seven months until the water recedes and homeless people go to their native areas to rebuild their homes and plant their crops,” she said.
The UN launched a two-billion-dollar appeal in September to help Pakistani flood victims, of which foreign donors have stumped up 49 percent. “What we have is sufficient for the immediate future but we need to do more. We must work together to help people to get back on their feet as soon as possible,” Amos said.
“Most of people have returned to their villages and our effort is to help all of them to go back home. People increasingly want to go back to rebuild their homes. They want to plant crops so they can feed to their families next year,” she added.
She said the world body was making efforts to avert any future health crisis among the homeless people, warning that the situation remains very difficult.
“We don’t want people, especially children, to be victims of respiratory problems due to the cold as winter has arrived. For this, shelter is extremely important, which we are providing on priority.”
41pc IDPs want to return home soon
ISLAMABAD: Out of 2,000 families in upper and lower parts of districts Kohat and Hangu, 41 percent Internally Displaced Persons (IDPs) want to return home immediately while 32 percent say that they will return within six months.
According to United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) survey, some 93,000 IDPs hit by waves of conflicts in 2008 have started returning to Lower Orakzai in the Federally Administered Tribal Areas.
The first batch of at least 9,650 people began its journey to home on November 29, said a press release on Friday. APP
