UNITED NATIONS, Sep 27 (APP):The United Nations and its partners are scaling up relief operations in Pakistan’s flood-affected regions, as vector-borne and water-borne diseases spread in the underwater areas of Sindh and Balochistan provinces, a UN Spokesperson said Tuesday.
Responding to a question at his regular noon briefing, Spokesperson Stephane Dujarric also said that the outbreak of those infectious diseases was a matter of “growing concern.”
The floods, he said, have also damaged nearly 1,500 health facilities across the country, including more than 300 refrigerators and solar power systems, which is disrupting vaccine cold chains.
Assessments are continuing, but an estimated 7.9 million people remain displaced by the catastrophic floods, the spokesman said. Nearly 600,000 people are living in relief camps, and more than 7,000 schools across the country are being used as temporary relief camps.
More than two million houses have been damaged by the heavy rains and floods, he said, adding that over 25,000 schools and 13,000 km of roads have also reportedly been damaged.
“We and our humanitarian partners continue to scale up our response and have reached more than 1.6 million people directly affected by the floods,” the spokesperson told reporters in New York.
The deadly climate-induced floods killed more than 1,500 people, and displaced 30 million.
