Sightsavers' partner HRDS constructing pit latrines for displaced people. © Sightsavers

Sightsavers' partner HRDS constructing pit latrines for displaced people. © Sightsavers

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Flooding in Pakistan

Sightsavers is working with our partners in Pakistan as they respond to the country's worst flooding in over 80 years.

Heavy monsoon rains have triggered the floods which have so far killed at least 1,600 people, displaced a further 2 million and affected around 14 million overall. The UN has suggested the flooding has now affected more people than the tsunami in 2004, the earthquake in Pakistan in 2005 and the earthquake in Haiti earlier this year combined. The extraordinary deluge is likely to continue for the next few days, spreading fear that many more people will have their lives devastated by the country's worst floods since 1929.

Sightsavers in Pakistan
Sightsavers' team in Pakistan have been unscathed by the flooding, and have been able to make contact with all of our partners. Two of our partners have already begun relief work, and several more are planning to begin as soon as they can. We have been busy trying to establish the impact of the floods on eye health and on disabled people in Pakistan, and have been helping disabled people's organisations that have approached us for assistance. We have also facilitated a £5,000 grant from the RNIB that will support blind and visually impaired people affected by the flooding. The money will be used by blind people's organisations once their needs have been fully identified.

Our partners the Layton Rahamtulla Benevolent Trust (LRBT) have formed six medical teams to open relief camps in the flood affected areas near to their hospitals. The teams, each formed of a doctor, two paramedics, a driver and a cleaner, will serve different areas for fifteen days, but may extend their stay if required. They are treating a number of diseases, including cholera, diarrhoea and malaria, as well as supplying tablets to purify drinking water. They have also referred any patients who require eye surgery to the nearest LRBT hospital.

The need for relief
The seasonal monsoon rains have caused rivers to burst their banks triggering floods in the north of the country. As the monsoon has continued floodwaters have developed, and have surged south, wreaking over 600 miles of destruction from the northern provinces of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa and Punjab, through to the southern province of Sindh, where evacuations are currently under way.

With the true extent of the damage only now becoming clear, a massive relief effort is under way. Entire villages, roads, bridges and railway tracks have been washed away or totally destroyed, leaving many communities completely cut-off without food or clean water. Many have been left further isolated by the devastating landslides that have occurred as a result of the floods, trapping thousands of people in submerged areas.

International agencies have rushed to supply aid, and the Pakistani army is coordinating the relief efforts with all available troops deployed to deal with the flooding. But the terrible weather conditions are hampering the distribution of aid; even helicopters have been unable to access the Swat valley in the north of the country. In many cases aid workers are improvising by travelling on foot, or by donkey, as water and food shortages worsen each day. Rescue teams are also battling the weather to distribute medicine in order to avoid a cholera epidemic and the spread of other waterborne diseases. There have already been several reported outbreaks, and the slowly receding waters offer a perfect breeding ground for these potentially fatal diseases.

The Disasters Emergency Committee has launched an appeal to support the victims of the floods in Pakistan. Please click here if you would like to support the appeal.