An estimated 16 million children have been impacted by "super floods" in Pakistan with at least 3.4 million of them needing immediate lifesaving support,the UNsaid.
The situation is extremely grim in flood-hit areas with malnourished children battling diarrhoea, dengue fever, and several painful skin diseases, United Nations International Children’s Emergency Fund (Unicef) representative Abdullah Fadil said in a statement on Friday.
Fadil, who recently concluded a two-day visit to the flood-affected areas of Sindh, said floods had now claimed the lives of at least 528 children.
“An estimated 16 million children have been impacted by these ‘super floods’ and at least 3.4 million girls and boys remain in need of immediate, lifesaving support.
"Young children are living out in the open with their families, with no drinking water, no food, and no livelihood, exposed to a wide range of new flood-related risks and hazards - from damaged buildings, drowning in flood waters and snakes. The vital infrastructure that children so rely on has been destroyed and damaged, including thousands of schools, water systems and health facilities," he said.
A lot of the mothers are anaemic and malnourished themselves and have very low-weight babies. Mothers are exhausted or ill and they are unable to breastfeed, Fadil added.
International aid
As the magnitude of the flood disaster continues to unfold, international aid continues to trickle in.
“Whilst the number of children lost in these floods continues to grow, Unicef is doing everything it can to support children and families affected and protect them from the ongoing dangers of water-borne diseases, malnutrition and other risks,” he added.
The Japanese government decided on Friday to extend emergency grant aid of $7 million to Pakistan in response to damages caused by the flood disaster.
The Canadian government has announced to match individual donations up to a total of 3 million Canadian dollars through the Humanitarian Coalition of 12 charitable organisations collecting funds and donations in Canada in response to flooding in Pakistan.
Meanwhile, over 90,000 people were treated for infectious and water-borne diseases in a day in flood-hit areas of Sindh, government data showed on Friday, as the total death toll from the inundations surpassed 1,500.
The floods have claimed 1,545 lives while 12,850 people were injured, according to the National Disaster Management Authority