Concern Worldwide launches emergency response to the Pakistan floods

The monsoon floods have so far resulted in over 1,000 deaths, including 348 children, and destroyed and damaged close to one million homes, 149 bridges and 3,451km of roads.

“We are responding to a very serious humanitarian situation with a significantly high number of deaths and the numbers continuing to rise every hour,” said Concern’s Pakistan acting Country Director, Sherzada Khan.

“Our teams are responding in provinces of Balochistan, Sindh and Punjab providing relief packages to people trying to survive this crisis.

“Many have lost their homes and livelihoods with the province of Sindh alone having 4.5 million people displaced. The magnitude and scale of the destruction to the country cannot be under-estimated.

“Concern’s response includes multi-purpose cash assistance to enable extremely vulnerable families to buy essential items that they need now, such as food, medicine and makeshift tents.

“We are also providing emergency hygiene and dignity kits, which contain items like soap and menstrual pads, to help protect the health of the population at risk.

“We are continually assessing the needs as the flooding worsens and we are especially worried about the destruction of millions of acres of crops in what are already very poor and vulnerable communities.  Around 90 per cent of agricultural land in the areas where we work are currently submerged in water.

“It has also been reported that over 720,000 animal livestock have perished and all these numbers are still very under-reported, since there are areas where there is still no accessibility and where all communication lines, including cellular network and internet connectivity, are down.”

The Pakistan government has declared a national emergency and Sherry Rehman, a senator and Pakistan’s climate change minister, called the monsoon flooding “a serious climate catastrophe.”

Concern’s Regional Director for Asia, Lucia Ennis, said Concern has over twenty years’ experience working in Pakistan and responding to emergencies and she said the devastation and enormity of this disaster as it unfolds will require a huge international response.

“The Concern team and our partners on the ground and have already mobilised and are scaling up their humanitarian emergency response,” she said.

“The people of Pakistan need help and assistance urgently and we would very much welcome and appreciate any support you can provide to help us respond to the poorest and most vulnerable communities.

“It is difficult to put into words the scale and enormity of this destruction that our teams are witnessing, but it is extremely critical these communities get our help.

“These floods are caused by weeks of very extreme monsoon rainfall and glacier melting and they have come at a time when Pakistan was already trying to cope with one of the worst economic crisis in its history with high inflation and food and fuel prices rocketing.

“Pakistan ranks as among the top ten countries severely hit by climate change induced disasters.  The rainfall this year is almost three times higher than the national 30-year average.”

Anyone who would like to support Concern’s Pakistan Floods Emergency Appeal can go to: concern.org.uk/donate/pakistan-floods-emergency-appeal or call 0800 032 4001.

ENDS

For media queries or interview requests contact Charlotte Hussey at [email protected]