Post-flood scenario: child malnutrition at dangerous level in Sindh

Inability of the flood victims to harvest swamped crops once again is feared to intensify child malnutrition in Sindh. "Children in Badin and Khairpur are in desperate need of nutritious food to help them survive this second disaster," said Alexander Davey, National Director, World Vision - Pakistan.
Talking to APP Sunday, he said his NGO in close co-ordination with Muslim Aid (United Kingdom) and Helping Hands (USA) has engaged itself with communities, in Badin and Khairpur, that constitute about half of all 5.4 million flood victims.
"Malnutrition that already existed among children in many parts of the province has assumed emergency level after the recent bout of flooding," he said.
In reply to a question, he agreed that malnutrition is closely linked to hygienic practices among the people and therefore equal efforts are being made to sensitise victims about its relevance. Simultaneously, a quick, well co-ordinated relief effort is urgently needed to reach children and their families who have lost everything, said the activist. This is extremely relevant as 49 percent of the more than 5.4 million flood-victims are women and around five percent of the one million affected households, 56,000 (five percent) households are headed by females.
Davey said the focus of their intensified response at current point of time is on health, nutrition and distribution of commodities to the flood victims, particularly pregnant women, children and old people, he said. This is crucial as the number of flood-affected people has more than doubled in the last month alone.
In reply to a question, he said nearly half a million people have been displaced into camps, half of them children, and the numbers are rising daily. "Many more remain stranded in villages that are now islands or on the sides of roads without shelter," he said. Out of 824,000 displaced people, 66 percent are currently living in temporary settlements and 20.4 percent affected people are living in open air, 34.1 percent use plastic sheets as shelter and only 0.2 percent are living in houses.