agencies report a worsening crisis in Pakistan, as an
estimated 800,000 people are unable to be reached from the floods except
through the use of helicopters.
The United Nations has issued a
plea for an additional 40 helicopters to meet the burgeoning crowds of
people needing to be rescued from flood-ravaged areas where rivers have
overflowed banks, inundating homes and land.
“These unprecedented floods pose unprecedented logistical challenges,
and this requires an extraordinary effort by the international
community,” said John Holmes, United Nations Under-Secretary-General for
Humanitarian Affairs and Emergency Relief Coordinator.
Bridges have been washed away by flood waters, isolating people from the rest of the country.
Humanitarian
agencies say they are particularly concerned over the inability to
reach people in the Swat Valley of the north-western Khyber Pakhtunkhwa
province, as well as in some of the more mountainous areas of
Gilgit-Baltistan and Pakistani-administered Kashmir further east.
agencies say they are particularly concerned over the inability to
reach people in the Swat Valley of the north-western Khyber Pakhtunkhwa
province, as well as in some of the more mountainous areas of
Gilgit-Baltistan and Pakistani-administered Kashmir further east.
“In northern areas that are cut off, markets are short of vital
supplies, and prices are rising sharply,” said Marcus Prior,
spokesperson for the UN World Food Programme (WFP).
“People are in need of food staples to survive [and] there is currently
no other way to reach these flood victims, other than by helicopter,”
he added.
It is estimated now the floods have affected more than 17 million
people with 8 million of those affected to be in serious need of
humanitarian assistance. More than 1.2 million homes have been
destroyed or damaged. The country has also received serious damage to
its agriculture, with millions of hectares of crops destroyed and
thousands of livestock killed. This poses a threat to food security in
the country.
In just one area of the country, Sindh, authorities estimate 3.6 million people have been rendered homeless.
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