Source: IFRC
Country: Pakistan
Flash floods prompted by monsoon rains across Pakistan in the third week of August 2012 affected Khyber Pakhtunkhwa (KP) Gilgit Baltistan (GB) provinces and Azad Jammu and Kashmir (AJ&K) state. A second spell of monsoon rainfall started over the southern parts of the country from the end of the first week of September peaking on 9 and 10 across Pakistan resulted in flooding across the provinces of Punjab, Sindh and Balochistan. The hardest hit districts in the first and second wave of the monsoon were Rajanpur, Dera Ghazi Khan (Punjab), Kashmore, Jacobabad, Shikarpur (Sindh), Nasirabad and Jaffarabad, Killa Saifullah, Jhal Magsi and Loralai (Balochistan) with widespread loss of life, livelihoods and infrastructure recorded across the country. Currently the weather is dry in most parts of the country. However, light rain has occurred at a few places of Hazara, Gujranwala, Lahore divisions, Kashmir and Gilgit-Baltistan during the last two weeks. According to the last information bulletin by Pakistan meteorological department all the major rivers across the country are flowing at normal levels.
Many of the affected districts, particularly in Balochistan and Sindh, were already struggling to recover from the floods of 2010 and 2011. Currently river flows and weather are normal in all parts of the country. There is still flood water in parts of Kashmore, Jacobabad, Shikarpur in Sindh and Jaffarabad and Nasirabad in Balochistan provinces covering almost 4,000 square kilometres with effects including, contamination of water sources, disease outbreaks, infrastructural damage, and loss of livelihoods. Water logged crop and grazing land will also have adverse consequences on the agro-based economy of the region and result in food deficits.
According to the findings of the joint government/United Nations Multi-sector Initial Rapid Assessment (MIRA) conducted in five priority districts, food, emergency shelter, health and WASH services have been identified as the immediate needs of the affected population. The findings further indicate that over 68 per cent of the flood affected households have lost their sources of livelihoods and income, while 9 per cent are extremely vulnerable to food insecurity.[1] Funding gaps and severed road access have intensified the challenges faced by the vulnerable affected persons and hampered humanitarian assistance response.
The United Nations’ Central Emergency Response Fund (CERF) has allocated USD9.9 million (PKR 942.2 million) for the provision of water, food, shelter and healthcare to 1.3 million people in the seven hardest-hit districts of Balochistan, Punjab and Sindh. Critical humanitarian needs remain unmet across all sectors in the flood-affected areas: 1.3 million people need immediate food and livelihoods assistance and safe drinking water.