Daily Times

The United Nations agencies on Wednesday vowed to scale up rehabilitation process in the flood-hit areas of Pakistan to meet the growing challenges of health, food, nutrition, clean water and shelter while seeking further financial assistance from international community. During a joint press talk in Islamabad, the UN Humanitarian Coordinator Julien Harneis said the revised flash appeal launched to respond to the needs of people affected by unprecedented climate-induced floods had increased fivefold symbolising the growing magnitude of the devastation, moving from $160 million to $816 million. He was flanked by UN Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) Deputy Representative Farrukh Toirov, Dr Farah Naureen of Mercy Corporation representing the Pakistan Humanitarian Forum, and UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) Senior Humanitarian Officer Felix Omunu. Harneis said the UN agencies were making all-out efforts to tackle the situation in the most-affected 84 districts, adding that they were facing alarming situation after multiple diseases were on the rise, especially malaria, diarrhea and skin infections. “Pakistan may see 2.7 million malaria cases in 32 districts by January 2023, while 5.74 million are in phase 3 & 4 of malnutrition (phase 5 is famine).” He said 8.2 million people were in dire need of health facilities in those areas and it required 114.5 million dollars. Farrukh Toirov said the agricultural sector of Pakistan had been devastated, resulting in the loss of critical infrastructure, standing crops, grain storage and livestock rearing. Appealing to the world to “please speed up the response,” the FAO representative said livestock were important assets for people in the affected areas.