4 million children at risk of hunger, disease in Sindh

At least four million children are at risk of hunger and disease in Sindh as funding fatigue from rich nations continues to fuel the desperation faced by families, a recent report of Save the Children warned.

Pledges to help aid agencies meet the massive needs of displaced communities has been sluggish with only 3 percent of the $357 million UN appeal received so far.

It said that up to eight million people have been affected by the flooding again this year after torrential rains caused riverbanks to burst and overflow in late August.

Some villages were drowned by rainfall in just one day, forcing people to flee to roadside, railway tracks, schools and higher ground in search of shelter.

Save the Children started delivering food rations to 5,000 families in the Sanghar district where a total of 900,000 people have been affected by flooding, according to local authorities. It said that children and families are drinking from floodwater contaminated with sewage.

The aid agency has launched a $30 million flood response appeal for lower Sindh. Save the Children aims to provide support to 1 million people, including 600,000 children in four of the worst hit districts: Badin, Mirpurkhas, Sanghar and Tando Allahyar.

Save the Children has been working in Pakistan for more than 30 years and is already supporting nearly seven million people in the country.

Save the Children has delivered 9,900 litres of clean water to three relief camps and a hospital from the water point in Badin. Save the Children in partnership with WFP has distributed 1,075 metric tonnes of food to over 88,000 people in Badin and Mirpurkhas, including wheat flour, pulses, rice, vegetable oil, salt, high-energy biscuits, wheat-soya blend and ready-to-use supplementary food for infants.

Over 2,300 families in Badin and Mirpur Khas districts have received emergency family packages including plastic sheeting, basic household goods and soap. The UN’s Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO) estimates that nearly three quarters of Sindh crops have been damaged, while two thirds of food stocks have also been hit.

One year after the country experienced its worst-ever floods, affecting 21 million people. Crops of grain, cotton, sugarcane, fruit and vegetables have been submerged, clocking up nearly $2 billion in farming losses, private news channel reported. Sindh agriculture ministry said the financial cost of crop losses so far was estimated at $1.87 billion.

Cotton faces losses of $998 million, income from chilli crops will be down $427 million and both rice and sugarcane will lose an estimated $135 million, said Agha Jan Akhtar, the ministry secretary.

“Besides that, we have lost $180 million through the destruction of tomato, onion, banana and other vegetable crops,” he said.

The floods will certainly affect the trade and may cause a loss of at least $3 billion to the Pakistani exchequer,” an economist said.