The United Nations has launched an urgent appeal for $160 million in aid for what it has called an “unprecedented climate catastrophe.”
“We didn’t receive any aid or relief from the government,” Fakhar Zaman told NBC News on Tuesday.
Zaman, 34, said his home in a rural community in the northern Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province was inundated within minutes when flooding poured through the area last Friday.
Neither he nor his family still had access to food or drinking water, he added.
Dr. Azra Fazal Pechuho, the health minister in the country’s worst-affected province of Sindh, said officials have set up 4,210 medical camps in its flood-hit areas to treat victims now suffering from skin and waterborne diseases, which are common during floods.
The World Health Organization also began aiding Pakistani authorities in their efforts to treat people injured in the rains and flooding. The agency said in a statement it was working to increase surveillance for acute diarrhea, cholera and other communicable diseases, and is providing medicine and medical supplies to health facilities.
“WHO is working with health authorities to respond quickly and effectively on the ground,” said Dr. Palitha Mahipala, the WHO representative in Pakistan. “Our key priorities now are to ensure rapid access to essential health services to the flood-affected population, strengthen and expand disease surveillance, outbreak prevention and control, and ensure robust health cluster coordination.”
Authorities said waterborne diseases among flood victims are now common across the country.
Reuters and Associated Press contributed.
Source: | This article originally belongs to Nbcnews.com
