IOM yesterday dispatched 17,000 shelter and non-food item (NFI)
relief kits to help families displaced by flooding following
torrential monsoon rains in Pakistan's southern province of Sindh.

The aid, which includes plastic sheeting, ropes, blankets,
kitchen sets and plastic sleeping mats from a multi-donor emergency
stockpile, followed a request from Sindh's Provincial Disaster
Management Authority (PDMA).

The kits will be distributed in the 12 worst-affected districts
of Jamshoro, Mirpur Khas, Thatta, Tharparkar, Shaheed Benazirabad,
Ghotki, Naushehro Feroze, Khairpur, Dadu, Tando Muhammad Khan,
Tando Allah Yar and Sanghar.

The move follows a distribution of 3,400 tents by UNHCR, IOM and
HANDS that began yesterday in Badin district, which, according to
local officials is 90 per cent flooded, with some 100,000 people
displaced. IOM previously delivered 1,400 shelter kits to Badin,
Mirpur Khas and Tando Muhammad Khan districts.

Pakistan's monsoon rains, which followed the worst flooding in
the country's history in 2010, began a month ago and have to date
affected some 5.3 million people, according to government
estimates.

The Sindh PDMA estimates that more than 279,300 displaced people
are now living at some relief sites, including public buildings and
other temporary settlements.

Over a million homes have been destroyed or damaged, 4.2 million
acres of agricultural land has been inundated and over 200 people
have died, according to the National Disaster Management Authority
(NDMA).

Heavy rains resumed at the weekend and are forecast to continue
through the next three days, affecting districts including Badin,
Mirpur Khas, Tharparkar, Umar Kot, Thatta, Hyderabad, Shaheed
Benazirabad, Dadu and Larkana, as well as Karachi and eastern parts
of Balochistan.

IOM, at the request of the UN and the government, agreed last
week to lead the IASC Emergency Shelter Cluster – the group
of international aid agencies helping the government to provide
emergency shelter to flood victims. IOM played the same role
following the 2010 floods.

Between 10 -12 September IOM organized a rapid assessment of
some 2,000 temporary settlement sites, including schools and other
public buildings, by 250 teams to assess the number of displaced
people and their immediate needs.

"The rains are showing no sign of abating and this disaster is
still evolving. Hundreds of thousands of displaced people already
need emergency shelter and, as in 2010, the inaccessibility of
flooded areas is going to be our biggest challenge," says IOM
Hyderabad Head of Office Arshad Rashid, a former Emergency Shelter
Cluster Coordinator.

"IOM is committed to supporting Pakistan in the face of another
huge natural disaster at a time when people were still struggling
to recover from last year's floods.  We will be doing
everything we can to coordinate the work of our humanitarian
partners to get shelter aid to the people who need it most," says
IOM's Emergency and Post Crisis Regional Advisor for Asia and the
Pacific Brian Kelly.

For more information please contact:

Saleem Rehmat

IOM Islamabad

Tel: +92 300 856 0341

E-mail: "mailto:srehmat@iom.int">srehmat@iom.int

or

Chris Lom

IOM Bangkok

Tel: +66 819275215

E-mail: "mailto:clom@iom.int">clom@iom.int