16 million children affected by flooding
Devastating floods in Pakistan triggered by heavy monsoon rains have affected about 16 million children, according to Unicef.
Flood waters that washed away homes, roads, crops, livestock and people will take at least three to six months to recede.
The floods killed more than 1,500 people, including 528 children, and at least 3.4 million girls and boys remain in need of immediate, life-saving support.
Abdullah Fadil, Unicef’s Pakistan representative, said: “The situation for Pakistani families is beyond bleak, and malnourished children are battling diarrhoea and malaria, dengue fever, and many are suffering from painful skin conditions.”
Pakistan’s climate change minister, Sherry Rehman, has blamed the unusually severe monsoon on global warming.
Earlier this month, she said: “Global warming is the existential crisis facing the world and Pakistan is ground zero.”
The floods have also brought water-borne diseases.
Dr Faiq Ali, who runs a medical camp in a village in Qambar Shahdadkot, one of the most affected districts, said he saw more than 300 children on Sunday and all had conditions such as malaria, diarrhoea and skin diseases.
“These all are water-borne. You see standing water in the flooded areas where mosquitoes are rampant. People don’t have clean drinking water and they walk in the contaminated water and drink the same water. Everything is so bleak.”