03/08/10
By Andrew Holt
Concern Worldwide, the international humanitarian agency, which has been working in Pakistan since 2001, has launched an emergency £4m appeal to deal with the consequences of the largest floods that have hit Pakistan since 1929.
The appeal is seeking emergency funding for desperately needed food, clean water and shelter.
Over 12 inches of rain has fallen in 36 hours causing huge flooding in northwest Pakistan.
This has resulted in estimates of over one million people becoming homeless.
Many of those people who have been forced to leave their homes by the floods had already been displaced in 2009 when the military launched a major operation against the Taliban militants in Northwest Frontier Province (NFWP)
It is feared that the situation will worsen dramatically in the next 48 hours when more water is expected to flow towards Punjab and Sindh provinces aggravating the devastation to human lives and livelihoods.
Since 2001, Concern has been involved in longer term development programmes in 4 provinces in Pakistan.
The agency has been working in the Swat and Charsadda districts in some of the now worst flood-affected provinces of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa (KPK) and Punjab and has been able to do rapid assessments with its local partners over the last few days.
The agency is now responding to the emergency by providing clean water, food, shelter, mosquito nets, basic hygiene and kitchen items, emergency medical assistance and distributing pre-emergency stocks to the most vulnerable families in KPK.
Concern has over 50 staff in Pakistan, mostly local staff, and 9 local partners.
“The British public and the government have always rallied to help victims of natural disasters and we are asking for the public’s urgent help for Pakistan,” said Concern regional director, Brid Kennedy.
“This is a terrible catastrophe affecting some of the most vulnerable people in the world who are already living in dire poverty.”
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