Alam Zeb Khan
ISLAMABAD: United Nations Children’s Emergency Fund (UNICEF) on Monday urged the international community to prioritize both the immediate and longer-term requirements of children affected by flood in Pakistan through the provision of principled, sustained, and flexible support.
“In the context of immediate life-saving support, UNICEF is calling for the international community to urgently provide additional humanitarian support, and ensure the timely release of funding to protect lives before it is too late.”
“As the International Community looks to recovery and rebuilding, UNICEF called the international community to prioritize assistance that is based on needs and allows for a response and recovery to the children as they return to their homes while building and strengthening climate-resilient infrastructure and services that can reach to the children and families in need with healthcare, nutrition, learning, protection, hygiene, sanitation, and other basic services.”
UNICEF warns of children’s plight in flood-affected areas
UNICEF also warned that up to four million children are still living near contaminated and stagnant flood waters, risking their survival and well-being, where respiratory infections, a leading cause of child mortality worldwide among children have skyrocketed in flood-stricken areas.
In addition, UNICEF monitored the number of cases of children identified as suffering from severe acute malnutrition in the affected areas and were nearly doubled between July and December 2021. Also, an estimated 1.5 million children were still in need of lifesaving nutrition interventions.
Meanwhile, almost 10 million girls and boys need immediate lifesaving support and are heading into a bitter chilling winter without adequate and proper shelter. Severe acute malnutrition, respiratory and water-borne diseases along with chilling cold are putting millions of children at risk, said Abdullah Fadil, Representative of UNICEF in Pakistan.
In Jacobabad a southern district where a number of families have little more than mere piece of cloth to cover their makeshift shelters by stagnant and contaminated floodwaters, temperatures have dropped down to seven degrees Celsius at night. Meanwhile, in mountainous and high-altitude areas, also been affected by the devasted floods, snow has fallen, and temperatures have dropped below freezing point.
UNICEF Support
UNICEF and partners have initiated providing items such as warm clothing kits, jackets, blankets and quilts, aiming to cover nearly 200,000 children, women and men in the flood affected area.
In response to the severe child survival crisis, over 800,000 children have been screened for malnutrition; about 60,000 were identified as suffering from Severely Acute Malnutrition, a life-threatening situation where children have less height, and are referred for treatment with Ready-to-Use Therapeutic Food (RUTF).
UNICEF health interventions have reached about 1.5 million people with primary health care services so far, and about 4.5 million children have been immunized against Polio in 16 flood-hit districts in the country.
UNICEF and partners have also provided over one million people with access to safe and clean drinking water, and about one million with hygiene kits. In the coming months, UNICEF will continue to respond to urgent humanitarian needs, while also restoring and rehabilitating existing health, water, sanitation, and education facilities for families returning home.
