Misery for ‘doomed orphans’ of Pakistan floods
By Sajjad Tarakzai (AFP)
16 August 2010 NOWSHEHRA, Pakistan — Six million children are suffering from Pakistan’s devastating floods: lost, orphaned or stricken with diarrhoea, they are the most vulnerable victims of the nation’s worst-ever natural disaster. At relief camps in government schools and colleges, and in tent villages on the edge of towns and by roadways, children are prostate from the heat, sick from dirty drinking water, or simply trying to find work. “These are the most bitter days of my life,” said Iltaz Begum, 15, suffering from diarrhoea and stretched out in a government tent on the muddy outskirts of the northwestern town of Nowshehra. “The weather has made our lives miserable,” she said. “I had to leave my blind mother behind and there’s no one to look after her as my father died two years ago.” The tent village has no electricity. The rains have gone, only to be replaced by heat and humidity. Flies buzz everywhere and the smell of faeces wafts through the camp. … Doctors at the camp’s field hospital say most of the children are suffering from gastroenteritis, skin diseases and dehydration caused by filth and infection resulting from the destruction of sewers in the floods. …
