Pakistani, UN Officials Report Rise in Infectious Disease Due to Flood

Ayaz Gul | Islamabad 24 August 2010

Photo: AP

Pakistan villagers are rescued by volunteers from a heavy flooding area of Shahdad Kot, in southern Pakistan. Pakistan’s medical system has been badly hit by weeks of flooding, with hundreds of health facilities damaged and tens of thousands of medical workers displaced, the prime minister said as the country braced for the spread of disease, 24 Aug 2010.

Pakistani and U.N. officials say that deadly waterborne and a number of other infectious diseases are on the rise among victims of the country’s worst floods in history. As the country’s president puts it, Pakistan could take years to recover from the natural disaster that has displaced millions of people across the country.

Pakistani troops, local charities and U.N-led international agencies are making frantic efforts to provide food, water, medicine and shelter to victims of the country’s worst floods in history. But nearly a month after the disaster hit Pakistan, humanitarian workers say millions of flood-ravaged people have received little or no help.

While rising floodwaters are threatening to uproot more Pakistanis, officials and aid agencies are increasingly worried about health issues in the disaster zone.

Prime Minister Yousuf Raza Gilani told a meeting of on Tuesday that the government has so far distributed 200 tons of medicine and supplies to 2.2 million people.  But, he said that Pakistan on its own cannot respond to what he described enormous health needs of the flood victims because of the damage the floods have caused.

“It has damaged more than 200 health facilities. About 35,000 lady health workers, out of a total of 100,000 throughout the country, have been displaced. Doctors, nurses, lady health visitors and paramedical staff have also been dislocated in the affected areas. The magnitude of the destruction due to these floods is not only colossal but multi dimensional,” Gilani said.

The Pakistani prime minister says that acute respiratory infections, skin diseases and malnutrition are spreading in the affected areas. He urged international and local aid agencies to help the government to frame a coordinated medical rehabilitation policy.

Stacy Winston, a spokesperson for the U.N Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs, says that a number of infectious diseases are on the rise among flood victims and aid workers have provided medical care to some 1.8 million people. But the U.N spokeswoman says providing shelter to the victims’ families is still a major challenge.

“We have reached through the humanitarian community and the International Organization for Migration about one million people with emergency shelter. But almost five million that are still in need of some sort of emergency shelter, tents and plastic sheeting,” Winston stated.

Authorities say that tens of thousands of people are still in danger from rising flood waters in southern Pakistan where authorities are making desperate efforts to strengthen embankments.

Pakistani leaders estimated the floods have directly affected some 20 million people and have caused widespread damaged to cash crops, agricultural land as well as the country’s irrigation system.

THATTA, EDOs of Health and Community Development Departments represented the District Government Thatta and over NGOs held a meeting at EDO Health office here on Friday where they develop a strategy and an action plan to tackle imminent flood in the district.

WWF-Pakistan Thatta Site Manager. Zahid Jalbani said every NGO has its own mandate, but ultimately they are contributing to the development of the district. However, to cope with the natural disasters like cyclones, storms and floods, the coordinated efforts are needed to be taken to ensure effective delivery of the services to the affectees of the calamities. He delivered a presentation on ‘contingency plan to combat the rains/floods developed by the district government, which mainly describes about the vulnerable areas/points, susceptible population, setting up of relief camps and the management plan for the IDPs camps.

He also shared information about current situation of the flood in the Indus River at different barrages, particularly in Sindh province, at Guddu, Sukkur and Kotri Barrages. Jalbani also spoke about the history of floods occurred in the country. The action plan was developed in consultation with the meeting participants for which the NGO representatives pledged all-out support in every possible form. During the consultation Dr. Dhani Bux Thebo, EDO Thatta (Health) also contributed his input and shared the contact details of his staff deployed at strategic points, where flood can cause any possible damage of any kind. Razak Ghanhro, EDO (CDD) appreciated the efforts being made by the different organizations in district Thatta, particularly in the time of natural disaster. The NGOs which participated in the meeting were WWF-Pakistan, LHDP, NRSP, ACF, SAFWCO, HANDS, SPO, WHDT, NCHD and AKPBS-P.

The United Nations has said it needs at least 40 more helicopters to help reach an estimated 800,000 people who have been cut off by the floods in Pakistan.

The UN appeal was an indication of the massive problems facing the relief effort, more than three weeks after the floods hit the country.

“These unprecedented floods pose unprecedented logistical challenges, and this requires an extraordinary effort by the international community,” John Holmes, UNunder-secretary-general for humanitarian affairs, said.

The disaster is also raising concerns about exacerbating social unrest and political instability, as the nation struggles with an ongoing insurgency.

Pakistani officials are attempting to negotiate with the International Monetary Fund on how to shore-up the battered economy to help maintain stability.

Meanwhile emergency teams are working to shore up a system of levees protecting two southern cities as the crisis continues to grow.

The worst floods in decades, which began nearly a month ago with hammering rains in the country’s northwest, have affected more than 17 million people, the UN said.

Now, the waters are spreading through the rice-growing belt in southern Sindh province district by district, breaking through or flowing over embankments one by one.

“The floods are outrunning our relief efforts. We move faster and faster, but the finish line keeps moving further ahead,” United Nations spokesman Maurizio Giuliano added.

View Pakistan Floods in a larger map

In Shadad Kot, in Sindh province, authorities are increasingly worried that even the 10 miles of new levees soldiers have built may not hold back the waters from the city as well as Qambar city further south.

Workers have piled stones and sandbags to plug leaks in the levees, trying to keep on top of any damage to the defences.

Around 90% of Shadad Kot’s 350,000 residents have already fled the city and many have also left Qambar and other nearby towns.

On the eastern side of the city, levees were under pressure from nine-foot high floodwaters, said Yaseen Shar, a top administrative official.

High tides in the Arabian Sea have hampered drainage of the Indus River and are expected to hamper flood relief until for days to come.

Flood survivors flee Shadad Kot as emergency workers battle to reinforce the levees

Meanwhile, Pakistan’s president Asif Ali Zardari has defended the government’s much-criticised response to the country’s record-breaking flood crisis.

Authorities have been accused of moving too slowly, and Islamist charities, some with suspected links to militant groups, have rapidly provided relief to Pakistanis already frustrated with their leaders’ track record on security, poverty and chronic power shortages.

Mr Zardari said anger at the government in the coming months is inevitable given the scale of the disaster, comparing it to the anti-government sentiment generated by the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina in the US.

“There will be discontent, there is no way any nation, even a superpower…. can bring the same level of satisfaction that will be close to the expectations of the people,” he said.

“Surely we will try and meet them as much as we can.”

But he insisted the government “had functioned to its fullest capacity”.

The IMF has said it will review Pakistan’s budget and economic prospects due to the magnitude of the disaster.

Agriculture, the mainstay of the economy, has been hit hard. The floods have destroyed or extensively damaged crops over 4.25 million acres of land, food minister Nazar Muhammad Gondal said.

The IMF help may come in the form of lowering some of the fiscal targets of the loan program or allowing the government to abandon it and take IMF emergency funding for countries hit by natural disasters.

:: Donate to the Disasters Emergency Committee’s Pakistan Floods Appeal by visiting the  website or by phone No. +923439555544

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