International aid agency Oxfam is providing water and sanitation facilities to 30,000 households in the aftermath of the Pakistan floods.
The agency will also work to help people re-build their incomes and livelihoods in the months following the floods.
Oxfam has mapped out the 13 most affected districts in Pakistan after the worst floods there in 35 years and is also working to provide rescue services where possible in those districts.
More than 1 million people are reportedly affected with more monsoon rains on the way.
Oxfam’s Country Program Manager in Pakistan, Iftikhar Khalid, has just returned from an assessment trip to the worst hit district in the province of Punjab.
“This flood is of an overwhelming size and its impact is only slowly emerging,” he said.
“The water has swept away everything. Families are desperate about the loss of their loved ones, their belongings and their livelihoods. Water sources and crops are destroyed. People are in need of food, clean drinking water, shelter and toilets to avoid a public health crisis.”
Other reports from one of Oxfam’s partner aid agencies indicate that in the Usmanzai town of Charsadda district, hundreds of families are displaced and the commercial market in the town is completely submerged with water touching the roofs of the shops.
Oxfam Australia Executive Director Andrew Hewett said Oxfam had been working in Pakistan since 1973.
“Our work there focuses on education, health, violence against women, increasing resilience to disasters, climate change and emergency relief,” he said.
“Oxfam assisted over 740,000 people following the devastating earthquake in 2005, and in the aftermath of these floods, is now implementing a three month plan for immediate emergency aid work.”
Find out more about the current emergencies we’re responding to around the globe.
For further information or interviews please contact:
Contact in Pakistan:
Tariq Masood Malik, Media Communications Officer
+92-3085052976
tariq.malik@oxfamnovib-pakistan.org
Please note: Pakistan time is GMT+5
Contacts in Australia:
Laurelle Keough, Media Coordinator, 0409 960 100, laurellek@oxfam.org.au
Louise Perry, Media Manager, 0414 456 015 , louisep@oxfam.org.au
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