GENEVA 02 Sep (Online): The United Nations children\u2019s agency (UNICEF) said on Friday there was a risk of \u201cmany more\u201d child deaths in Pakistan from disease after floods claimed the lives of around 400.<\/p>\n
The toll for children, estimated at 416 by national authorities, represents around a third of the total of 1,208 people killed amid record monsoon rains and melting glaciers in northern mountains.<\/p>\n
\u201cThere is now a high risk of water-borne, deadly diseases spreading rapidly — diarrhoea, cholera, dengue, malaria,\u201d UNICEF Pakistan Representative Abdullah Fadil told a Geneva press briefing. \u201cThere is therefore a risk of many more child deaths,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
Record monsoon rains and melting glaciers in northern mountains have triggered floods that have killed at least 1,191 people, including 399 children. <\/p>\n
The military said on Thursday it had evacuated some 50,000 people, including 1,000 by air, since rescue efforts began.<\/p>\n
The United Nations has appealed for $160 million to help with what it has called an “unprecedented climate catastrophe”. Britain on Thursday pledged $17 million in aid.<\/p>\n
“We’re on a high alert as water arriving downstream from northern flooding is expected to enter the province over the next few days,” Sindh provincial government spokesman Murtaza Wahab told.<\/p>\n
Wahab said a flow of some 600,000 cubic feet (17,000 cu m) per second was expected to swell the Indus, testing its flood defences.<\/p>\n
Pakistan received nearly 190% more rain than its 30-year average in the quarter from June to August, totalling 390.7mm (15.38 inches).<\/p>\n
Sindh, with a population of 50 million, has been hardest hit, getting 466% more rain than the 30-year average.<\/p>\n
The World Health Organisation said that more than 6.4 million people were in dire need of humanitarian aid.<\/p>\n
Aid has started to arrive on planes loaded with food, tents and medicines, mostly from China, Turkey and United Arab Emirates.<\/p>\n
Aid agencies have asked the government to allow food imports from neighbouring India, across a largely closed border that has for decades been a front line of confrontation between the nuclear armed rivals.<\/p>\n
The UK’s foreign minister Liz Truss said on Thursday the country’s \u00a315 million ($17.35 million) donation would be used to provide water, sanitation, shelter and to protect women and girls.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
GENEVA 02 Sep (Online): The United Nations children\u2019s agency (UNICEF) said on Friday there was a risk of \u201cmany more\u201d child deaths in Pakistan from disease after floods claimed the lives of around 400. The toll for children, estimated at 416 by national authorities, represents […]<\/p>\n
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