Up to 4m children living near stagnant water, Unicef says
The United Nations International Children’s Emergency Fund (Unicef) has urged the international community to come to the rescue of 4 million children in Pakistan still living near stagnant and contaminated floodwaters. These children have been facing the worst living conditions and suffering from skyrocketing acute respiratory infections, a leading cause of child mortality worldwide, Unicef said in a press statement.
The number of children facing acute malnutrition in flood-affected areas between July and December last year “nearly doubled” as compared to 2021, Unicef said, adding that some 1.5 million children were still in need of life-saving nutrition interventions.
“Children living in Pakistan’s flood-affected areas have been pushed to the brink,” Abdullah Fadil, Unicef representative in Pakistan, said. The conditions have changed in the flood-affected areas, he said, adding that the rains may have ended, but the crisis for children has not. Now, it is freezing cold, and the chilly weather they have to face.
According to Pakistan’s Permanent Representative to the United Nations in Geneva, Khalil Hashmi, some 8 million people remain “acutely displaced,” since waters still have not receded in some areas.
Unicef and its partners have started providing warm clothing kits, jackets, blankets, and
quilts to nearly 200,000 children, women, and men, screened more than 800,000 children for malnutrition, 60,000 of which were identified as suffering from life-threatening conditions named severe acute malnutrition, and brought safe drinking water to more than a million people and hygiene kits to another million.
The Unicef has urged the international community to provide additional humanitarian assistance and ensure the timely release of funding to save lives before it is too late. The organisation’s current appeal of $173.5 million (Dh635.42 million) for this effort remains only 37 per cent funded, it added.