Staff Report
ISLAMABAD: The United Nations International Children’s Emergency Fund (UNICEF) has decided to increase number of mobile clinics in flood-hit areas of Pakistan.
According to sources privy to the matter, the UNICEF will increase 15 mobile health clinics in northern areas of the Sindh province with the cooperation of the provincial government. “The number of UNICEF-run clinics in flood-hit areas have now increased to 66,” they said, adding that currently, 18 clinics each are operational in Sindh and Khyber Pakhtunkhwa and 15 in Balochistan.
The decision to increase number of clinics, according to sources, was made after increase in water-borne diseases in flood-hit areas. “More cases of skin diseases, nutritional deficiencies, diarrhea and malaria are being reported from flood-hit areas,” they said. A UNICEF report highlighted that the recent rains in Pakistan have broken the 30-year rainfall record and resulted in 1200 deaths including 400 children while 1.1 million homes and 160 bridges are damaged in the last two months.
UNICEF reported that at least 16 million children, among 34 million total, have been affected by floods in the country. The floods have damaged over 1.1 million homes, and 18,000 schools in the country, they added.
UNICEF added that the affected people need clean drinking water, unavailability of water can give rise to multiple diseases. There are only eight weeks until the winter season starts, which will only worsen the condition, they added. The floods have damaged 160 bridges, over 5000 km of roads and crops on over 3.5 million acres in the country, they said, over 800,000 cattle have been reported dead amid devastating floods in the country, they added.
