Pakan floods: UNHCR rushes aid

The UN refugee agency rushed in more desperately needed aid Monday to flood-stricken Pakan as the nation’s prime miner travelled to the south where rising waters of Lake Manchar pose a new threat.
Two UNHCR planes touched down in the southern port city of Karachi and two more were expected later in the day. A third plane, with aid from Turkmenan also landed in Karachi. While the floods in recent weeks have touched much of Pakan, the southern Sindh province, where Karachi is the capital, has been the most affected.
More than 1,300 people have been killed and millions have lost their homes in flooding caused unusually heavy monsoon rains in Pakan this year that many experts have blamed on climate change. In response to the unfolding disaster, UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres last week called on the world to stop “sleepwalking” through the crisis. He plans to visit flood-hit areas on Sept 9.
On Sunday, engineers cut into an embankment in the sides of Lake Manchar in an effort to release rising floodwater to save the city of Sehwan and several near villages from possible destruction flooding waters, which have damaged 1.6 million houses since mid-June.
Prime Miner Shahbaz Sharif was met Foreign Miner Bilawal Bhutto in the city of Sukkur on the swelling Indus River, from where they toured the flood-hit areas helicopter. Murad Ali Shah, the province’s chief miner, briefed Sharif about the damages caused floods in Sindh.
Floods have affected more than 3.3 million in this Islamic nation of 220 million and the devastation has caused $10 billion in damage, according to government estimates. The provinces of Punjab, Sindh, Baluchan and Khyber Pakhtunkhwa have been the most affected and the majority of people killed were women and children.
Afghan refugees living in Pakan have also been affected. Pakan has hosted millions of Afghans fleeing the violence in their country over the past four decades and currently has about 1.3 million regered Afghan refugees.
More than 420,000 Afghan refugees are estimated to be in the worst-affected areas in Pakan, living side side with their host communities Also Sunday, UNICEF delivered relief supplies, including medicines and water-purifying tablets, as part of the UN flash appeal for $160 million to support Pakan’s flood response. UNICEF is also appealing for $37 million for children and families.
“The floods have left children and families out in the open with no access to the basic necessities of life,” said Abdullah Fadil, UNICEF’s representative in Pakan.
Planes carrying aid from other countries are also expected later Monday in response to an appeal from Sharif, who has appealed to the international community to help Pakan.
With the two UNHCR planes, 38 planes have brought in aid from countries including China, Qatar, the United Arab Emirates, and Uzbekan.