September 2011: Torrential monsoon rains have triggered severe flooding in Pakistan, affecting more than 5.4 million people – 2.7 million children – across the country.
This is the second time in the last 12 months that severe flooding has devastated communities. Hundreds of thousands of children in Sindh province have been hit twice by these natural disasters.
With almost 1.2 million homes destroyed or damaged, many families have been forced to seek shelter in government schools, official buildings and makeshift tented settlements. UNICEF is delivering emergency relief to vulnerable children and families by providing safe drinking water and sanitation supplies, as well as helping to avoid the spread of water-borne diseases.
As of September 2011, UNICEF and partners:
- Are delivering safe drinking water to an estimated 40,000 people each day
- Provided an initial supply of 50,000 water purification sachets, jerry cans, buckets and latrine slabs
- Dispatched health kits to cover more than 500,000 people in flood-affected communities
- Administered more than 100,000 polio and measles vaccinations and Vitamin A drops
- Vaccinated more than 5,400 women against tetanus
- Distributed 140,000 insecticide-treated bed nets to severely-affected families
UNICEF and partners will also provide emergency assistance around education and child protection once humanitarian assistance moves beyond the initial life-saving phase.
Please support UNICEF's emergency and recovery efforts in Pakistan by making a donation.
In July 2010, monsoon rains triggered what some news outlets referred to as “the flood of the century” in Pakistan. Over 18 million people have been affected by this disaster - almost half of whom are children. This was more people than the tsunami and the Haiti earthquake combined.
Homes, livelihoods, communities and infrastructure, including schools and health centres, were damaged and destroyed across the country. The poorest of the poor suffered the most losses, with many families lacking the resources needed to rebuild and recover.
UNICEF and partners mounted one of the largest emergency responses in its history - providing life-saving food, water and health care supplies and essential child protection and education services in every flood-affected province. Learn more about our emergency response in our one year report, Children in Pakistan: One Year After the Floods - Turning Towards a Brighter Future.
With your support, we will work to give children in Pakistan every opportunity at a brighter future.
