Millions of flood affected Pakistanis need help

November 26th, 2011 - 7:57 pm ICT by IANS  

United Nations, Nov 26 (IANS) A UN humanitarian arm has called for help for the over five million Pakistanis, including a large number of women and children, who have been displaced by floods.

The Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) reports that a quarter of over five million people in need of humanitarian assistance following floods in Pakistan’s Sindh and Balochistan provinces are women, and half are children, said UN spokesman Martin Nesirky quoting a recently completed joint UN-Government Needs Assessment study.

Some of those displaced by floods, which had the heaviest impact in Sindh and Balochistan provinces, are now seeking to return to their homes and communities but are finding their houses and infrastructure are severely damaged.

“Around 660,000 people in Sindh and more than 83,800 in Balochistan remain displaced,” Nesirky said. “With 797,000 homes either destroyed or damaged, many of the estimated 1.2 million returnees had gone back to homes that either needed to be repaired or entirely rebuilt.”

According to OCHA, the onset of winter will pose additional challenges to the displaced people.

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