Malnutrition and water-borne diseases as a result of the floods that hit Pakistan this summer could prove more deadly than the latter, UN officials warned on Wednesday.
Caused by torrential monsoon rains, the intensity of which has been increased by global warming according to experts, these floods have covered a third of Pakistan and caused the death of nearly 1,600 people since June, according to the latest official report.
More than seven million people have been displaced, many since living in makeshift camps with no protection from mosquitoes and a lack of clean water and sanitation.
Pakistan is under the threat of a “second disaster” caused by diseases such as dengue fever, malaria, cholera, diarrhea, or by malnutrition, warned Wednesday Julien Harneis, humanitarian coordinator of the United Nations in the country.
“My concern is that the mortality caused by water-borne diseases, (or) malnutrition, will be higher than what we have seen so far,” he told a conference in press in Islamabad.
“It’s a sober but realistic assessment,” he added.
Around 33 million people were affected by the floods, which destroyed around two million homes and businesses, washed away 7,000 kilometers of roads and collapsed 500 bridges.
Large parts of the country, mainly in the southern province of Sindh, still remain flooded.
More than 6,000 cases of dengue fever have been recorded there since the start of the year – half of them during the month of September alone – or already almost the total for the year 2021, according to the authorities of the province.
“500 children have died as a direct result of the floods,” Scott Whoolery, head of operations for the United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF) in Pakistan, said at the same press conference.
The health crisis does not only threaten “hundreds” but “thousands” of people, he stressed. And “for many of them, we will never know, they will not be counted”.
At the end of August, the UN launched an appeal for a donation of 160 million dollars to finance an emergency plan over the next six months.
This call has been heard and the pledges exceed this amount, so that the organization now intends to raise its initial objective.
“The absolute priority is to deal with the health crisis currently affecting the districts affected by the floods”, insisted Mr. Harneis.