UN announces $5.5m for Food Security and Nutrition and flood relief for the flood hit areas in Baluchistan and Sindh.
In 2022, the disastrous floods caused an emergency situation in various areas of Pakistan including Baluchistan and Sindh.
The people of flood affected areas in Baluchistan and Sindh are facing poor nutrition, issues food security interventions for the last year.
The catastrophic floods of 2022 were one of the most most expensive climate disaster that were faced by Pakistan in the last decade.
The resources revealed that the floods of 2022 caused an estimated loss of $3 billion on the country along the more than 1,700 deaths and displacement of more than 8 million people.
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UN officials have warned that the are large number of children that are suffering from hunger in flood-affected areas.
It was told that a rapid survey was conducted in 15 flood-affected areas nd it was found that almost one-third of kids aged 6 to 23 months are suffering from malnutrition and 14% of them are suffering from severe acute malnutrition.
It is also found that many childrens are suffering from medical complications who were admitted for hospital treatment had also gradually increased since the floods as global food prices soared.
In response to this press release, Julien Harneis, the UN Resident Coordinator in Pakistan announced $5.5m funds for the emergency nutrition and food security interventions in the flood effected areas.
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Harneis added that child wasting was already reaching “emergency levels” even before the floods but what he was witnessing now in villages was “very worrying” and alarming.
He also thanked the global community for its support however, much more is needed to help the government to support the increasing numbers of children who are at risk of death.
“We must help the government avert a nutrition crisis which would have dangerous and irreversible consequences for millions of children, and for the future of Pakistan,” the press release quoted him as saying.
He also added that additional funding was “urgently required” for the early identification, integrated prevention and treatment of malnutrition in a greater number of villages. There is need to provide healthcare facilities and nutrition support in these areas.
Unicef had warned about the unhygienic conditions in the flooded areas including lack of safe drinking water and toilets. It was also warned that stagnant water is causing widespread outbreaks of disease like diarrhoea, cholera, dengue, malaria, etc.
