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Relief efforts stepped up in flood-ravaged Pakistan |
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By Anto Akkara - Catholic News Service
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Wednesday, 11 August 2010 |
Church charities in Pakistan are gearing up for prolonged relief and rehabilitation work as the South Asian nation is faced with the worst flood in its history.
“With continuing rains and floods spreading to more areas, the challenge
before us is growing by the day,” Carolyn Fanelli, head of programming
and acting country representative for Catholic Relief Services in
Pakistan, told Catholic News Service Aug. 10 from her office.
“We have already distributed emergency relief material to 6,400 people
and our target is being regularly revised upward,” she said.
The devastating floods that began in late July in the mountainous north
under incessant monsoon rains have claimed more than 1,600 lives and
affected more than 13 million people.
The United Nations reported Aug. 9 that the floods have affected more
people than the 2004 Indian Ocean tsunami, the 2005 earthquake in the
Kashmir region of Pakistan and the January earthquake in Haiti combined.
Fanelli noted that floodwaters are expanding into new regions, including
the plain provinces of Punjab and Sindh, forcing the agency to raise
its estimates of people needing assistance.
She said the agency may need to provide emergency shelter and hygiene supplies to as many as 100,000 people.
“Our staff have covered up to 40 kilometers (13 miles) on foot to remote
areas where the people are in great suffering. Mules remain the only
option for us to [get] the material to those in remote areas made
inaccessible by landslides,” said Nasrullah Khan, head of the CRS office
in mountainous Besham, 185 miles north of Pakistan’s capital,
Islamabad.
CRS has already started a cash-for-work program in the mountainous
region to repair the drinking water supply system the agency built after
the 2005 earthquake.
“Ironically, though water caused all the problems, people are struggling
for water now. They have to walk miles to fetch drinking water,”
Fanelli said.
As the flood-affected area grows, roads and bridges have been washed
away and much of the country’s communication network has been destroyed.
An official of Caritas Pakistan said some supplies, including plastic
sheeting for shelter, water purification tablets, cooking utensils and
food items, have gotten through.
All Catholic dioceses in Pakistan are involved in the relief work, Anila
Gill, national executive secretary of Caritas Pakistan, told CNS from
her office in Lahore.
By Aug. 9, the agency had assisted 4,800 families with tent materials, and hygiene and kitchen kits.
“For the next three months, we will concentrate on the relief work,”
Gill explained. “The people are in trauma. The challenge now is to
support them to survive and overcome the tragedy.”
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