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| A family leaves flees devestated home, looking for a place to rebuild. (c) UNHCR/A.Fazzina |
20 million affected by the devastating floods
More than the tsunami, the 2005 Pakistan earthquake and the Haiti earthquake combined
The number of people affected by the floods is worse than the tsunami, the 2005 Pakistan earthquake and the Haiti earthquake says the UN.
With your help, UNHCR is providing life-saving aid to flood victims. Over 160,000 people having so far received UN Refugee Agency emergency shelter and relief assistance across flood-affected areas of Pakistan. But the needs are growing fast.
UNHCR is asking its most it most dependable donors to urgently help assist a further 2 million people (286,000 families) whose lives have turned upside down by the disaster.
"The people of Pakistan urgently need the support of the international community," said Mengesha Kebede, UNHCR representative to Pakistan. "The monsoon floods that swept across the land destroyed homes, farms, factories and entire livelihoods for millions of people."
$114 can provide an emergency tent for a displaced family that has lost everything.
 UNHCR is focusing its flood-relief efforts mainly in west and northwest Pakistan's Balochistan and Khyber Paktunkhwa provinces, where it is assisting Pakistani communities, people displaced by conflict, and long-time Afghan refugees.
"We're putting our stockpiles and expertise to work helping all communities affected by this disaster, but funding is urgently needed to help agencies respond in this time of crisis," UNHCR's Kebede said.
UNHCR, one of the world's leading aid agencies, is working to help families recover from the devastating floods that have destroyed more than 300,000 homes throughout the country.
In the south, where flood waters are still rising, more than 600 spontaneous settlements have sprung up across affected districts of Sindh in public facilities including schools, colleges and government buildings. Conditions are extremely crowded. People are also camping out along roadsides and many lack shelter. UNHCR tents have been sent to the city of Sukkur with the remainder going to Shikarpur.
In northern Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, a UNHCR assessment team visited the badly damaged Azakehl refugee village, which formerly accommodated around 6,000 Afghan families. Their report detailed huge devastation.
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"Ninty-nine percent of the camp has been completely destroyed by the floods, clearing the rubble would take at least two months," said Werner Schellenberg, UNHCR's shelter coordinator. "I saw a handful of people there trying to rescue their belongings but the majority of the Afghans have left to live with relatives or camp along the elevated roadside, where a makeshift site has sprung up."
UNHCR's main office in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa is focusing it flood relief work on Charsadda, Nowshera, and damaged areas of Peshawar. The agency has also sent tents for 500 families to Swat, where an assessment mission is underway. The aid distributed so far has come entirely from stockpiles through which UNHCR has been helping people displaced by conflict in the northwest.
With your continued support, the UN Refugee Agency can meet the massive humanitarian challenge that lies ahead.
By Peter Kessler in Islamabad
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