Up to 4 million children in Pakistan living near stagnant, contaminated floodwater: Unicef

• 1.5m children in flood-affected areas still in need of lifesaving nutrition interventions

ISLAMABAD: The United Nations International Children’s Emergency Fund (Unicef) has urged the international community to come to the rescue of 4 million children in Pakistan still living near stagnant and contaminated floodwaters.

These children have been facing the worst living conditions and suffering from skyrocketing acute respiratory infections, a leading cause of child mortality worldwide, Unicef said in a press statement.

The number of children facing acute malnutrition in flood-affected areas between July and December last year “nearly doubled” as compared to 2021, the Unicef said, adding that some 1.5 million children were still in need of lifesaving nutrition interventions.

“Children living in Pakistan’s flood-affected areas have been pushed to the brink,” Abdullah Fadil, Unicef representative in Pakistan, said.

Climate threat changes from rains to severe cold

The conditions have changed in the flood-affected areas, he said, adding the rains may have ended, but the crisis for children has not. Now it is freezing cold and the chilly weather they have to face.

“Nearly 10 million girls and boys are still in need of immediate, lifesaving support and are heading into a bitter winter without adequate shelter. Severe acute malnutrition, respiratory and water-borne diseases coupled with the cold are putting millions of young lives at risk,” he said.

“We know the climate crisis played a central role in supercharging the cascading calamities evident in Pakistan. We must do everything within our power to ensure girls and boys in Pakistan are able to fully recover from the current disaster, and to protect and safeguard them from the next one,” he added.

1,700 killed, 8 million permanently displaced

According to the official figures, more than 1,700 people of Pakistan were killed in the monsoon rain and floods starting from mid-June last year.

According to Pakistan’s Permanent Representative to the UN in Geneva Khalil Hashmi, some 8 million people remain “acutely displaced,” since waters still have not receded in some areas.

In an official statement, the Unicef said the agency and its partners had started providing warm clothing kits, jackets, blankets and quilts to nearly 200,000 children, women and men, screened more than 800,000 children for malnutrition, 60,000 of which identified as suffering from life-threatening conditions named severely acute malnutrition, and brought safe drinking water to over a million people and hygiene kits to another million.

So far, primary healthcare interventions have reached nearly 1.5 million people, and 4.5 million children have been immunised against polio in 16 flood-hit districts, the statement said.

The Unicef has urged the international community to provide additional humanitarian assistance, and ensure the timely release of funding to save lives before it is too late. The organisation’s current appeal of $173.5 million (Dh 635.42 million) for this effort remains only 37 per cent funded, it added.