ISLAMABAD – Six months after the 2010 monsoon floods hit large parts of Pakistan, the humanitarian aid agents face another huge challenge following new survey results from Sindh province that reveal critical levels of malnutrition among flood-affected children.
The data released by the Sindh Department of Health on Friday indicate a nutrition crisis, recording a Global Acute Malnutrition (GAM) rate of 23.1 per cent in children aged between 6-59 months in flood-affected areas of Northern Sindh and 21.2 per cent in Southern Sindh. This rate is well above the World Health Organization’s (WHO) 15 per cent emergency threshold level which triggers a humanitarian response.
Furthermore, records from Northern Sindh reveal a Severe Acute Malnutrition (SAM) rate of 6.1. The Sindh government estimates about 90,000 children aged 6-59 months are malnourished. Global Acute Malnutrition (GAM) reveals how many children in a given population are moderately and severely malnourished, and have not gained the required weight for their height.
To date, the NGOs have received US$198 million in donations and pledges out of the US$251 million required. A funding gap of 21 per cent or US$52 million is still required to ensure response to the ongoing needs. UNICEF’s acting representative in Pakistan Pascal Villeneuve said, “We are extremely concerned about this finding and is working with the federal and provincial government authorities concerned to reach and treat these children.
The floods may have uncovered the hidden face of child malnutrition in Pakistan, but we see this as an opportunity to scale up a sustained response that will benefit children in the short- and long term.” The Flood Affected Nutrition Survey (FANS) was conducted in flood-affected areas in all four provinces of Sindh, Punjab, Khyber Pakhtunkhwa and Balochistan.
It aims to provide updated information on the nutritional status of children aged between 6-59 months in flood-affected communities. Results are expected from the Punjab Government shortly.
