IOM, Shelter Cluster, to Seek Aid for 274,000 Families Displaced by Southern Pakistan Floods
As thousands continue to flee their homes in the face of rising
flood waters in Pakistan's southern Sindh province, IOM and its
partners in the "cluster" of aid agencies providing emergency
shelter are to appeal to international donors for funding to help
at least 274,000 families.
The appeal, expected to be launched this weekend, follows
Pakistan's urgent request for international assistance last
Thursday and the subsequent deployment of hundreds of cluster teams
to assess the extent of the destruction, the numbers of people
displaced and their immediate needs.
"Our role is to support the Pakistani government's massive
effort, led by the National Disaster Management Authorities (NDMA),
to provide people whose homes have been destroyed with emergency
shelter and other essential non-food relief items," says IOM
Emergency Advisor for Asia Brian Kelly.
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"The government says that it can provide 150,000 tents. Based on
our preliminary estimates, that means that at least 274,000
vulnerable families will be left without emergency shelter, unless
we – the international community – step in," he
adds.
Emergency shelter cluster aid is expected to include thousands
of plastic sheet-based shelter kits. While tents can provide better
protection in the short term, plastic sheet is cheaper, more
versatile and can be more useful in the longer term when displaced
families return home and use it for waterproofing new shelters and
rebuilt homes, says Kelly.
According to the NDMA, some 5.74 million people in all 23 Sindh
districts have already been affected by the floods.
Some 925,000 houses have already been damaged or destroyed,
together with an estimated 1.6 million acres of crops, and at least
248 people have died.
An estimated 415,195 people are now living in some 2,656
makeshift temporary relief sites, including schools and public
buildings, dotted across the province. Thousands are camped out on
higher ground or on roadsides.
More heavy rain is expected across Pakistan in the coming days,
cutting off many towns and villages across Sindh – a province
that has yet to recover from the massive damage to its
infrastructure sustained in the 2010 floods – the worst on
record. On Tuesday alone, Dadu district experienced 108 mm of
rainfall.
IOM has already released to local partners for distribution
18,400 shelter and non-food relief item kits comprising plastic
sheeting, ropes, blankets, plastic sleeping mats and cooking
utensils to Sindh, following a request from the government.
The kits are currently being distributed to vulnerable people,
particularly targeting women and children, in some of the
worst-affected districts including Badin, Jamshoro, Mirpur Khas,
Thatta, Tharparkar, Shaheed Benazirabad, Ghotki, Naushehro Feroze,
Khairpur, Dadu, Tando Muhammad Khan, Tando Allah Yar and
Sanghar.
"Displaced people are living in wretched conditions in many of
these temporary sites and we need to get emergency shelter to them
in the form of tents or plastic sheets as soon as possible," says
IOM Hyderabad Head of Office Arshad Rashid.
"Continuing rain here in Sindh and upstream in Punjab,
waterlogged land and high tides mean that water levels are not
going to fall anytime soon. Until they do, these people will not be
able to go home and will remain very vulnerable," he adds.
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
Tel: + 92.303.555.2058
E-mail:
"mailto:clom@iom.int">clom@iom.int