Press briefing note 4-10-2011.
Met een donatie van 1,5 miljoen dollar van het Centraal Noodhulpfonds van de Verenigde Naties (CERF) is IOM actief in Pakistan om 6000 extra nood-onderdakkits en non-food artikelen uit te delen aan ontheemde families in Sindh
Over the past six weeks, IOM has already distributed 18,500
similar kits from its contingency stockpiles to local partner NGOs
and directly to thousands of Sindhi families camped out on
roadsides or on higher ground near their submerged villages.
The new kits, each of which consists of two plastic sheets,
ropes, tent poles and pegs blankets, a kitchen set and two solar
lanterns, will target displaced families in three of the worst hit
districts of Mirpurkhas, Tando Muhammad Khan and Tando Allah
Yar.
“The CERF donation of USD 1.5 million to IOM and a further USD
3 million to our IASC Shelter Cluster partners UNHCR and UNHABITAT
for emergency shelter will help thousands of families who have lost
everything in these floods,” says IOM Pakistan Chief of Mission
Hassan Abdel Moneim Mostafa.
“But the needs on the ground remain vast, these people are
desperately poor and vulnerable, and with our contingency
stockpiles depleted, we urgently need other international donors to
step forward,” he adds.
Based on government and independent assessments, the UN believes
that nearly 5.5 million people have been affected and at least 1.8
million have been displaced by the floods in Sindh.
While all 23 districts of Sindh have been affected by the 2011
floods, much of the rest of Pakistan was spared, unlike the 2010
floods which caused devastation the entire length of the Indus
valley.
But in the far northern province of Gilgit-Baltistan, heavy
rains and landslides in late July demolished Tallis, a village in
Ghanche district, leaving at least 150 families homeless.
At the request of the provincial government, IOM and
humanitarian partner agencies are now trying to build new shelters
for them, before the onset of Himalayan winter.
Working with local government, IOM is providing insulation
materials including blankets, sandbags, plastic sheets, mats and
doors. The Pakistan Red Crescent Society (PRCS) is providing walls
and roofing materials, including bamboo and corrugated galvanized
iron (CGI) sheets. UNHABITAT will provide technical oversight and
skilled labour to ensure completion of 150 winterized shelters by
the end of October.
For more information on the work of the IASC Emergency
Shelter Cluster in the 2011 Pakistan floods please go to:
www.shelterpakistan.org
