Updated on 1st October 2010
Since the onset of the floods we have:
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Conducted 49,534 consultations through 6 hospitals, 7 mobile clinics and 7 Diarrhoea Treatment Centres.
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Treated over 1,748 malnourished children.
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Distributed 1,250,400 litres of clean water per day, built 714 latrines.
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Distributed a total of 57,714 relief item kits and 13,755 tents to 39,283 families
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135 international staff are working alongside 1,198 Pakistani staff in MSF’s existing and flood response programmes in Pakistan.
SINDH
Presently the most severely flood affected areas are in central Sindh Province where the overflowing Manchar Lake has submerged vast areas with a second wave of flooding in recent weeks.
Along the banks of the Indus River, our teams still observe large areas of stagnant water, mostly in agricultural heartland of Sindh. Where water levels are slowly receding some displaced people have started moving closer to their places of origin. They have adopted a cautious “wait-and-see” approach. They are still faced with great uncertainty over their future – especially those who are considered to be the poorest of the poor who are tenant farmers with no way to repay debts to their landlords. A psychologist engaged in an assessment in Jamshoro noted high levels of anxiety and depression among people living in the camps.
A medical team has been working from Dadu, near Lake Manchar, as part of preparations to set up a new base in Johi – a town entirely isolated from the world by floodwaters and reachable only by boat. Basic needs for medical care, clean water and shelter remain high while the number of malnourished children under five being treated is increasing.
In Sukkur a growing number of malnourished children are treated in the Intensive Therapeutic Feeding Centre (ITFC) at the Railway Hospital. There have been 100 new admissions since its inception in late August. There are plans to expand the reach of nutritional programmes through an Ambulatory Therapeutic Feeding Centre. Water and sanitation activities have also increased with the amount of water chlorinated and distributed daily now reaching 75,000 litres per day. There has been a general decrease in the number of patients treated for Acute Watery Diarrhoea at the Sukkur Diarrhoea Treatment Centre (DTC) , which is in line with a decrease in the number of patients treated for diarrhoea in other projects.
In Larkana MSF teams are still providing medical services. Relief item distributions in both Sukkur and Larkana have increased, with a total of 1,709 kits and 668 tents having been distributed so far.
Further south, in Jamshoro, we have conducted just over 4,000 consultations through mobile clinics in recent weeks, while 6,683 relief item kits have been distributed. Teams are also now running two 20-bed capacity DTCs in Shahbaz camp, Jamshoro, and at the Sehwan Hospital, about 100km to the north. On average our water and sanitation teams distribute 300,000 litres of safe drinking water per day in 11 places in Jamshoro.
BALOCHISTAN
The knock-on impact of the floods is still felt strongly in Dera Murad Jamali (DMJ) where there is reverse flow of people back towards their homes in Jacobabad and Jafarabad transiting in Dera Allah Yar. Consequently our water and sanitation services and relief item distributions are being stepped up with efforts shifting towards the Dera Allah Yar area. Teams here are also observing an increased number of malnourished children in our programmes since the onset of the floods. There have been 130 new admissions to our mobile therapeutic feeding programmes during the last week of September, as compared to the 95 admissions in the previous week.
PUNJAB
We are winding up ourflood response operations in Kot Addu and many displaced people have started to make their way back home to rebuild their shattered lives. A total of 3,385 patients have received consultations from our medics since 21 August.
At the Muzaffargarh district hospital during the height of the emergency we operated a 70-bed capacity Diahorrea Treatment Centre, with nearly half of all the cases treated for Acute Watery Diahorrea (AWD). During the last 14 days the number of patients presenting with AWD has decreased measurably, currently only 10% of all cases. MSF teams have distributed 3,050 relief item kits and 1,824 tents in Kot Addu.
KHYBER PAKHTUNKHWA
Our staff in the north-western region of Pakistan report that life is still slowly returning to normal as the water has receded and people are returning to their homes.
Our emergency interventions have been concluded in Charsadda, while in Nowshera teams have handed over water and sanitation activities to other groups who have started working there. Since the onset of the floods our medical teams conducted 4,599 consultations in Peshawar, 8,998 consultations in Nowshera and while in Charsadda a total of 12,384 consultations were conducted. Teams conducted aid distributions in Charsadda (604 tents and 16,523 relief item kits) Peshawar (6,324 tents and 8,575 relief item kits) and Nowshera (11,147 tents and 3,210 relief item kits).