Disease warning as Pakistan flood death toll rises
Aid workers warn a lack of clean drinking water is causing an increase in diseases in Pakistan, as the floods death toll passes 1,200.
Access to clean water was the biggest problem for those trying to find food and shelter, said medical charity, Medecins Sans Frontieres.
The government met on Saturday to assess the scale of the floods which have submerged a third of the country.
At least one in three of the victims of the flooding are said to be children.
Government minister Ahsan Iqbal said that the country did not have the resources to deal with the unprecedented crisis.
The flooding was the worst climate-induced disaster in recent world history, he said.
The country’s top disaster management official said that 2022 had brought some harsh realities of climate change for Pakistan.
“This year we did not witness a spring season – we faced four heatwaves which caused large-scale forest fires across the country,” said Akhtar Nawaz.
Meanwhile, UN children’s agency Unicef said more children were at risk of dying from disease in Pakistan due to the shortage of clean water.
“There is now a high risk of water-borne, deadly diseases spreading rapidly, diarrhoea, cholera, dengue, malaria,” Unicef’s Abdullah Fadil said. “There is, therefore, a risk of many more child
deaths.”
Agencies