United Nations relief agencies are stepping up help for hundreds of thousands of victims of a cyclone and floods in Pakistan, where authorities urgently need tents and medicines, a UN spokeswoman said on Friday.
About 1.5 million people in the province of Balochistan and 150,000 in Sindh are affected by the flooding and up to 400,000 homes have been destroyed, the UN humanitarian coordination office (OCHA) said. About 60 percent of the area hit by floods this week is inaccessible, OCHA spokeswoman Elisabeth Byrs told journalists.
"The situation for the 1.65 million people affected by the cyclone in Pakistan is serious and UN agencies are going to increase their activities in the region," Byrs said.
"There's an urgent need for tents, medicines... and the problems with drinking water are very extensive," she added. Pakistan has not appealed for international help but is welcoming it, according to OCHA, which co-ordinates international aid for disasters.
So far Canada has pledged some two million dollars in funding for relief operations in Pakistan and the United States 380,000 dollars, Byrs said. Pakistani military helicopters airdropped more food and other relief supplies in swamped parts of Balochistan and Sindh this week amid clearer weather and falling water levels.
Balochistan Home Secretary Tariq Ayub said that three to seven days of food had been provided to flood-affected people so that in case of more rain no survivors should go hungry.
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