Over 450 dead, 4.5 million people hit in Pakistan floods
By Arslan Sharif
01 October 2012 Islamabad – At least over 450 people are reported to be dead and another 4.5 million are said to be affected by floods caused by monsoon rains in Pakistan this summer, especially in the south, said the National Disaster Management (NDMA) on Friday. Floods this year began in early September. Nearly 80 people were then killed and dozens injured in a few days, especially in the province of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa (North-West), backed the Afghan border and in Pakistan administered Kashmir (North-East). The NDMA spokesman Ahmad Kamal, said that this year’s floods were less important at this stage than last year, which “had affected 9.1 million people” in total and left nearly 2000 people, dead. On Friday, UNICEF for its part said in a statement that at least 2.8 million people were affected by floods this year, including 1.4 million children, and of these 392,000 less than five years. The UN agency for children is said to have been able to provide drinking water to 183,000 victims in Punjab, Balochistan and Sindh. “The children of very poor families are among the most affected by severe floods and need our immediate help,” said in this press assistant representative of UNICEF in Pakistan, Karen Allen. The scarcity of access to drinking water increases the risk of contracting see “diarrhea or diseases such as malaria, polio, and pneumonia,” she says. The UN agency urgently needs $15.4 million to provide water and sanitation services to approximately 400,000 people who need it in the coming months, as well as assistance education, health and nutrition. UNICEF is particularly concerned about the consequences of population displacement caused by flooding on the health of young children. The country had already suffered two previous summers’ floods; the worst in its history was the one in 2010, which hit 21 million victims and $ 10 billion of damage or shortfall.
Over 450 dead, 4.5 mn people hit in Pakistan’s summer floods 
Islamabad, 29 September 2012 (AFP) – Monsoon floods in Pakistan have killed 371 people and affected nearly 4.5 million, the government’s disaster relief agency said today. Pakistan has suffered devastating floods in the past two years, including the worst in its history in 2010, when catastrophic inundations across the country killed almost 1,800 people and affected 21 million. As in 2010 and 2011, most of those hit by the latest floods are in Sindh province, where the National Disaster Management Authority (NDMA) said 2.8 million were affected, with nearly 890,000 in Punjab and 700,000 in Baluchistan. Nearly 290,000 people around the country have been forced to seek shelter in relief camps, NDMA said in figures published on its website. The floods began in early September, with nearly 80 killed in flash floods, mostly in the northwest and Pakistan-administered Kashmir. An NDMA spokesman said the government was not yet appealing for foreign assistance. “The government’s point of view is that the situation will be handled from own resources,” Ahmad Kamal told AFP. More than a million acres (400,000 hectares) of crops have been destroyed by the floods across the country, NDMA said, and nearly 8,000 cattle have been killed. UN children’s agency UNICEF, quoting a separate flood assessment, said at least 2.8 million people had been affected, including 1.4 million children, of whom more than 390,000 are under five. UNICEF said it was providing 183,000 people a day with drinking water but warned it urgently needed more funds. “Children from very poor families are among the worst affected by the severe flooding and they need our immediate help,” said UNICEF Pakistan Deputy Representative Karen Allen.
