The United Nations Children’s Fund UNICEF immediately needs 80 million dollars to provide emergency food supplements to over 272,000 malnourished Pakistani children displaced by the devastating floods, a UN official said on Saturday.
The worst floods in the country’s living memory displaced over 17 million people, including 2.1 million children under five. At least 13 per cent of them are suffering from severe or moderate malnutrition, the UN said. “We have at least 72,000 under—five children suffering from severe malnutrition and over 200,000 suffering from moderate malnutrition among the flood—affected people,” Dr Shahid Mehboob of UNICEF told the German Press Agency dpa.
“We need additional 80 million dollars to launch a special nutrition programne otherwise these children may die of malnutrition or other diseases caused by it,” he said.
ADVERTISEMENT
Dr Mehboob said that the number of malnourished children may rise in the coming days and could become a major cause of death in children under five. Floods began after heavy monsoon rain in late July and submerged thousands of villages and towns, destroyed millions of hectares of agricultural land, and killed over 1,500 people.
Initially, the United Nations launched an appeal for 460 million dollars to provide emergency relief to the people affected by the deluge. So far it has received 325 million dollars.
The international community has also given direct donations and made pledges to Pakistan, taking the total funds from international donors to 1 billion dollars.
ADVERTISEMENT
The aid workers have been struggling to supply aid to the millions in the relief camps and to reach the estimated 800,000 people still marooned at different places.
Dr Mehboob said most of the breastfeeding mothers are also malnourished and need additional food supplements to help them breastfeed infants under five months to avoid water—borne diseases.