16 million displaced by floods, says UNHCR

Source: Dawn

Date: 01 Sep, 2010

QUETTA, Aug 31: The country director of United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees has said that floods and torrential rains had affected over 20 million people and displaced 16 million Pakistanis.

Addressing a press conference at the UNHCR office here on Tuesday, Mengesha Kebede said the flood-affected area was equal to the size of Italy.
He said that UNHCR had been in Balochistan since the Afghan war and the international community had requested the organisation to launch relief activities and help flood survivors. Mr Kebede said that over 500,000 people had been displaced by the floods in Balochistan and a similar number had crossed over into the province from Sindh.

 “We will provide shelter to one million people in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa and Balochistan,” he said, adding that UNHCR had provided 80,000 jerrycans of water to the affected people. He, however, said that the scale of disaster was so high that UNHCR alone could not cope with it.

Mr Kebede said that the UN had appealed for $120 million, but it had so far received 40 per cent of the amount. He said that Pakistan was not a weak country and it had the capability of coping with such kinds of humanitarian crisis.

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