The United Nation High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) has helped more than 1.4 million flood victims across Pakistan with tents, shelter and household items since late July, but needs remain high as many more face the winter in camps or without proper shelter.
Three months on, the scale of the crisis means the UNHCR is still distributing emergency relief and boosting camps in Sindh and Balochistan while building transitional shelters in the north for those who have returned home, says a press release here on Monday. "The emergency phase of this crisis is not over and many of the most vulnerable flood victims are yet to receive sufficient relief aid," said Mengesha Kebede, UNHCR's Country Representative in Pakistan.
Kebede said the situation in Sindh was of particular concern where large tracts of land were still under 3-4 feet of water, delaying return and recovery for the hundreds of thousands of people remaining in camps, schools or spontaneous sites along roadsides. UNHCR's latest monthly survey of camps and spontaneous sites in Sindh found almost 60 percent of the million people in more than 3,000 sites were children, with 21 percent under five-year old.
Twelve percent of the camp populations are people with disabilities. "As with most crises, it is the most vulnerable who live in camps as they have no other option. But the thousands of camps in Sindh are still pitifully under resource with many providing just the most basic services," said Kebede. UNHCR's latest survey of Sindh sites found that malnutrition may affect more than 56,000 displaced people but that only 9,600 currently receive any supplemental feeding.
The survey also found that water and sanitation remains one of the key concerns in displacement sites, as open defecation affects one-third of the total number of displaced people, and cleaning programmes exist for only 28 percent. Hygiene promotion has been conducted for only 21 percent, and only 20 percent of displaced people have soap. Nineteen percent do not receive sufficient drinking water and half the displaced people report a lack of water for cleaning, washing and feeding livestock.
In recent weeks, UNHCR has been boosting its response in camps in Sindh and Balochistan, training managers and installing new camps to cater largely to those vacating schools who can't yet return home and those yet to receive proper shelter. Thirty-three new camps have been set up in Sindh with more planned. With continued return over the last two weeks since the survey data was collected, UNHCR estimates there are currently some 700,000 people and various sites in Sindh.
The UNHCR is currently preparing a winter package and will distribute extra quilts, blankets and other warm items to vulnerable people. The agency is building transitional shelters for families to provide at least one warm room in time for winter. The project will also provide latrines, kitchen and boundary walls. Construction is already underway in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa and nation-wide some 40,000 shelters will be built to help the most vulnerable flood victims.
Across Pakistan, the UNHCR has distributed more than 100,000 tents, almost 190,000 plastic sheets, 510,000 sleeping mats, 200,000 mosquito nets and almost 1,500 metric tones of soap. The UNHCR's revised funding requirement for its Pakistan flood operation until June 2011 is $186 million, and remains only 41 percent funded.
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