Shocking figures reveal the catastrophic losses of Pakistan's floods

Weather of Arabia - With the flood waters stagnating, which submerged more than a third of the country, the nightmare experienced by Pakistani citizens who survived in one of the worst flood events in the country's history began to become clear, as temporary shelters are crowded with survivors who have no homes to return to.

The floods that hit Pakistan since last month took a heavy toll on the health system in the country, after the dense water inundated entire villages and covered vast areas.

Scenes from Pakistan's floods that wreaked havoc in the country:

In an interview with "Sky News", the representative of the World Health Organization in Pakistan, Palita Mahipala, revealed that the floods affected 160 districts in the country, including 80 areas that were declared "disaster areas" .

Until the second of September:

• More than 33 million people have been affected by the floods, and more than 6.4 million people are in dire need of humanitarian assistance, including 627,793 people in camps.
• More than 1,265 people were killed and 12,577 people were injured.
• About 1427039 houses were damaged, 529,472 houses were completely destroyed.
• About 1,460 health facilities were affected, including 432 health facilities that were completely damaged and 1028 health facilities that were partially damaged, about 10% of the total health facilities of 14,282 facilities.

The "catastrophic" impact of floods on the health situation in Pakistan

The representative of the World Health Organization said that the impact of rain and floods on the health situation in Pakistan is "catastrophic", and significant health risks are unfolding, as floods are expected to exacerbate pre-existing outbreaks of disease, especially in camps and where water, sanitation and hygiene facilities have been damaged. .

There are already significant health concerns about the spread of acute respiratory infections, diarrhoea, typhoid and skin infections, according to Mahipala, and many crops and livestock have been lost, already affecting the nutrition of the affected areas.

Doctors in Pakistan initially said they often saw patients traumatized by the floods, but are now treating people suffering from diarrhoea, skin infections and other water-borne diseases in the flood-affected areas of the country.

The representative of the World Health Organization in Pakistan believes that the floods in Pakistan are exacerbating the outbreak of pre-existing diseases, including: dengue fever, malaria, polio and corona , especially in the camps, where water and sanitation facilities have been damaged.

Even before the torrential rains and subsequent floods, Pakistan had reported 4,531 cases of measles and 15 cases of wild poliovirus in 2022.

Mahipala revealed that rains and floods have disrupted the Pakistan-wide polio vaccination campaign in the affected areas, and given that the current surveillance system is weak and dispersed and does not adequately capture cases of the disease, there is an urgent need to strengthen and expand disease surveillance, prevention and control of disease outbreaks and strengthen Laboratory capabilities for the detection of epidemic diseases.

UN aid

The World Health Organization plans to release $10 million from the organization's emergency fund, which supports treating the wounded, delivering supplies to health facilities and preventing the spread of infectious diseases, while deploying a team of public health experts to increase response capacity.

This comes after the World Health Organization classified the floods in Pakistan as a Class III emergency, the highest level of assessment.

Mahipala explained that the organization contributes to providing essential medicines, emergency stocks, and distributing medical supplies in response to emergencies caused by floods, as well as water purification supplies, tanks, and tents, in addition to supporting the provision of disease detection laboratories by providing rapid tests for cholera, Dengue fever, and malaria.

The National Disaster Management Authority said more than 480,000 displaced people had been transferred to refugee camps.

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