Flood News in Pakistan
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Anger over Pakistan flood response
Survivors say government failed to come to their rescue following floods that have affected 2.5 million. Survivors of devastating floods in Pakistan have accused the government of failing to provide adequate shelter, food and medicine in the aftermath of the disaster, which has killed at least 1,500 people. About 2.5 million people across the country have been affected by the floods, according to the Red Cross. Hundreds of them gathered in the city of Peshawar on Monday to protest against the government's slow response. "I had built a two-room house on the outskirts of Peshawar with my hard-earned money but I lost it in the floods," Ejaz Khan, one of the demonstrators, said. "The government is not helping us... the school building where I sheltered is packed with people, with no adequate arrangement for food and medicine," the 53-year-old said. Criticism 'justified' Farhatullah Babar, a spokesman for Asif Ali Zardari, Pakistan's president, told Al Jazeera that survivors had "every right" to criticise the government. "I think their criticism will persuade the government to do even more than it is doing," he said. "We really sympathise with those who are marooned and those who have lost lives and relatives. They are justified in criticising because after all, they are the people who are suffering." Babar said that the cost of the clean-up may run into billions of dollars. President Zardari has set up a special unit to co-ordinate the response to the disaster and is watching the situation closely as he continues a trip to France. The government has issued a flood warning for the southern province of Sindh, where heavy rain was expected on Monday night. International donors have pledged millions of dollars in aid to help the survivors. The crisis developed after "unprecedented" monsoon rains caused rivers to burst their banks, washing away entire villages, bridges and triggering deadly landslides. Al Jazeera's Sohail Rahman, reporting from Mingora in the Swat Valley, one of the worst affected areas, said "it's breathtaking to see the damage that has been caused." "There are no formal relief camps in the region of Swat," he said. "They can't situate them anywhere because if these rains come again, these camps could just as well be swept away. There are some feeding stations though." He said about 100,000 people were getting food from such stations at the outskirts of Peshawar.
Farmland destroyed Thousands of homes and vast swathes of farmland have been destroyed in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, one of Pakistan's poorest regions. Several camps, offering food and medicine, have been set up in community centres by provincial and relief organisations in different parts of the country. Concerns have been raised over the threat of disease as survivors arrived in camps with fever, diarrhoea and skin problems. "Our doctors have treated over 600 people just in the last two days and they are seeing a lot of cases of diarrhoea, fever and skin infections," Sonia Cush, the director of emergency response at Save the Children in Washington, DC, told Al Jazeera. "We currently have emergency health teams moving around within the affected area treating people who urgently need healthcare, and our priorities are food, clean drinking water, healthcare and hygiene materials to ward off diseases. "We will be distributing plastic sheeting to build makeshift shelters, but the hard work will only begin once the flood waters start to recede." Officials from Unicef, the United Nations' children fund, said contaminated flood waters and lack of clean water could increase the risk of the spread of diarrhoeal diseases. Children under five are especially vulnerable to dehydration from diarrhoea. With more than 40 per cent of the population under 18 years of age, the number of children affected could be in the hundreds of thousands, they said. The UN has pledged $10m to help in the crisis, as has the US, which has also rushed rescue helicopters and boats to Pakistan to reach survivors who have been cut off by the floods.
AmeriCares Responds to Pakistan Flooding...
08/19/10
AmeriCares Airlifts More Relief Supplies to Help Pakistan Flood Survivors
Pakistan's worst flooding in 80 years has claimed at least 1,600 lives, left more than 4 million people homeless and affected over 20 million people. The latest AmeriCares airlift contains more than $500,000 worth of critical medical aid to help survivors of devastating floods in Pakistan. The shipment includes medicines and medical supplies to help people suffering from serious infections, pain, fever and injuries. "The Pakistan flooding disaster is going from bad to worse, especially for millions of children and vulnerable elderly people at risk of cholera and other deadly waterborne illnesses," reports Christoph Gorder, AmeriCares senior vice president of global programs. "With the threat of disease outbreak increasing, we are ramping up our planned deliveries of crucial medicines and medical supplies to meet a crisis that is now reaching epic proportions." AmeriCares has mounted disaster relief efforts to help sick and injured people affected by the floods. Hospitals and clinics report rapidly depleting existing stocks of medication, wound care supplies and hygiene items. In response, AmeriCares continues to deliver medical aid to local partners and the airlifted aid is en route to health care providers helping flood survivors. Continued rains hamper access to Pakistan's northwest region, leaving entire villages cut off many from relief efforts and raising the level of urgency to reach many in desperate need of basic supplies. And with more rain on the way,
officials fear that the flooding will extend still further into the more populated provinces of Sindh and Punjab over the coming days. Since 1990, AmeriCares has delivered nearly $57 million in assistance to Pakistan including relief supplies ranging from medicines, medical supplies, equipment, health care facilities and nutritional support.
Pakistan Flood Toll Exceeds 1,500 as Officials Struggle to Reach Survivors
By Anwar Shakir and Farhan Sharif - Aug 2, 2010
Pakistan¶s deadliest floods in decades killed more than 1,500 people and overwhelmed government efforts to provide aid, officials and relief workers said. With President Asif Ali Zardari touring Europe, the government said it was rushing help to the devastated northwestern province, where the army has fought Taliban guerrillas. Islamic militant groups in the region and the U.S. government both have built public support in the past by providing assistance to bolster government attempts. Monsoon rains will continue for the next few days after ripping out bridges, roads and villages since late last week, said Nasir Khan, a Meteorological Department official in the provincial capital, Peshawar. Regions downstream in the Indus River valley, where most of Pakistan¶s 162 million people live, braced for floods that may damage crops, according to the nation¶s biggest agriculture body. More than 1,500 people have died in Pakistan¶s northwestern province, Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, said Noor Muhammad, a press officer for the provincial development ministry. Government and private relief agencies are managing to provide ³only 5 percent of what¶s required,´ Mujahid Khan, provincial spokesman for the Edhi Foundation, which runs Pakistan¶s largest ambulance and rescue services, said by phone from Peshawar. Pakistani television channels showed flood survivors gathered at roadsides, seeking transport to nearby towns. Army Rescue Pakistani soldiers in the flood-scoured Swat Valley ³are rescuing people from the water by helicopter,´ said Zahid Khan, 55, president of the hotel association in Mingora, the valley¶s main town. ³But the government has sent no help for people who lost their homes and they are camping wherever they can with no drinking water,´ he said by phone. Islamic militant activists distributed aid packages in the northwestern town of Charsadda, outside Peshawar, the Associated Press reported. An earthquake in 2005 that killed about 86,000 people exposed the government¶s inadequacy in providing relief as the U.S. and Islamic militants raced to fill the gap. U.S. Air Force cargo planes landed in the city of Rawalpindi yesterday with food packages as part of $10 million in emergency help pledged by Secretary of State Hillary Clinton. She has
sought to boost her country¶s image among Pakistanis as an opinion survey released last week by the Pew Research Center in Washington showed only 17 percent of the local population had a positive view of the U.S. U.S. Aid The U.S. is rushing helicopters, boats, pre-fabricated bridges, mobile water treatment units and food supplies to affected areas, Clinton said in a statement yesterday. Food distribution has begun in the worst affected districts of Peshawar, Nowshera and Charsadda, the World Food Program said yesterday on its website. Floodwaters ³have also caused significant damage´ to the UN agency¶s warehouses in northwestern Pakistan, it said. The flood¶s death toll may rise to 3,000, said Edhi Foundation¶s Khan. He spoke from Peshawar, the capital of Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa, previously called the North-West Frontier Province. Officials in Pakistan¶s other provinces -- Punjab, Sindh and Baluchistan -- braced for the floodwaters moving down the Indus River and its tributaries. The Sindh government ordered residents evacuated from locales along the Indus. Crop Damage The floods, which according to U.K. charity Oxfam may be Pakistan¶s worst in 35 years, may cut the production of rice, sugarcane and corn by about 10 percent to 15 percent, said Nasir Cheema, president of Pakistan¶s Chamber of Agriculture. Pakistani television networks showed survivors clinging to trees or debris in muddy, raging mountain rivers. Armed forces chief Ashraf Pervez Kayani yesterday visited flooded areas of the Swat Valley and his helicopter evacuated 17 residents, the army said on its website. Opposition leader Nawaz Sharif, a two-time prime minister, criticized Zardari for pursuing a trip to France and the U.K. this week. His absence flies in the face of ³the worst flooding in the country¶s history,´ Sharif said on the GEO television news channel. Prime Minister Yousuf Raza Gilani, who toured the stricken province by air, ordered the government to provide food to people at safe locations. The floods followed the deaths of 152 people when a plane crashed in heavy rain near the capital, Islamabad, on July 28.
'2.5m people affected' by Pakistan floods officials say
2 August 2010 Last updated
Up to 2.5 million people have been affected by devastating floods in north-west Pakistan, the International Red Cross has said.
Continue reading the main story Related stories y y
In pictures: Flood damage South Asia's deadliest threat?
Rescuers are struggling to reach 27,000 people still cut off by the floods, which are the worst in 80 years. At least 1,100 people have died and thousands have lost everything. "In the worst-affected areas, entire villages were washed away without warning by walls of flood water," the Red Cross said in a statement. There are fears diarrhoea and cholera will spread among the homeless. Food is scarce and water supplies have been contaminated by the floods.
From the air we've had a clear view of the destructive force of the monsoon rains. Muddy brown waters have submerged fields, bridges and roads, destroying crops and devastating communities. In some areas we've seen people wading, chest-deep, through the floods. In others, only the tops of trees have been visible. We went to the city of Nowshera, one of the worst affected areas, where we saw several lakes - including one which covered the polo ground. Mud and rubble lined the streets. We met people at a temporary camp who said they were being helped by the army, but they were worried about the future. Mian Iftikhar Hussain, the Information Minister of Khyber-Pakhtoonkhwa (formerly North West Frontier Province), one of the worst-hit regions, said rescue teams were trying to reach 27,000 stranded people, including 1,500 tourists in the Swat Valley, the scene of a major military offensive against the Taliban last year. "We are also getting confirmation of reports about an outbreak of cholera in some areas of Swat," he added. The Pakistani military says it has committed 30,000 troops and dozens of helicopters to the relief effort, but winching individuals to safety is a slow process.
The army - which says it has rescued 28,000 people in recent days - predicts the initial search and rescue operation will take up to 10 days, says the BBC's Orla Guerin, who has been on board a military helicopter over the Swat Valley. But the army says rebuilding the damaged areas could take six months or more. A spokesman for the UK-based charity Save the Children told the BBC that the infrastructure damage in Swat may be worse than in the earthquake which devastated the region in 2005. "We fear that in places that have not been accessed as yet there are people that were trapped, and there is a possibility of more deaths taking place," the spokesman said.
Full picture
As well as the more 1,000 deaths in Pakistan, at least 60 people have died across the border in Afghanistan, where floods have affected four provinces.
There have been complaints that emergency shelters have been inadequate or even non-existent
The BBC's Aleem Maqbool in Islamabad says the biggest challenge for the emergency services is access, as so many areas had their transport and communication links destroyed and are now isolated. Officials in Islamabad fear that once access to affected areas improves, the full picture will show that the situation is much worse than is so far known, our correspondent adds. Floodwaters receded in some areas as weather conditions improved on Monday, but more rain is now forecast. Part of the main north-south motorway into the region was re-opened on Sunday, before reportedly closing again. The brief opening allowed some aid supplies into the flooded area while also permitting people to flee.
There is a desperate need for temporary shelter, clean drinking water and toilets to avert a public health catastrophe´
End Quote Jane Cocking Oxfam y y y
In pictures: Flood rescue efforts Pakistan floods: Your stories Your photos of the destruction
The rain may have stopped but huge swathes of north-west Pakistan remain submerged, with many of those affected still stranded and waiting for help. There have been complaints from some survivors that the government response has been slow and inadequate. Several hundred people took part in a protest in the north-western city of Peshawar, where homeless survivors have crammed into temporary shelters. "The government is not helping us," said 53-year-old labourer Ejaz Khan, whose house on the city's outskirts was swept away by the floods. "The school building where I sheltered is packed with people, with no adequate arrangement for food and medicine," he told AFP news agency. Shariyar Khan Bangash, the regional programme manager for the aid organisation World Vision, based in Peshawar, said survivors of the worst-affected areas were desperate for drinking water. "All the wells which are providing water for them are full of mud," he told the BBC. "Among the children the diarrhoea has started already, and cholera."
BBC Weather: Yet more rain is forecast
UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon said he was "deeply saddened by the significant loss of lives, livelihoods and infrastructure in Pakistan", and offered an extra $10m (£6.5m) in aid for the relief effort. The UK government's Department for International Development has said it is providing £10m for the Pakistan relief effort. International Development Secretary Andrew Mitchell said: "I know many British people are deeply concerned by the terrible suffering caused by the ongoing monsoon floods in Pakistan. The government of Pakistan is leading the relief efforts and the UK is ready to help in any way we can." Earlier, the US also promised the government $10m in aid. The US embassy in Islamabad said Washington would also be providing 12 temporary bridges to replace some of those destroyed by the floods.
Survivors say government failed to come to their rescue following floods that have affected 2.5 million. Survivors of devastating floods in Pakistan have accused the government of failing to provide adequate shelter, food and medicine in the aftermath of the disaster, which has killed at least 1,500 people. About 2.5 million people across the country have been affected by the floods, according to the Red Cross. Hundreds of them gathered in the city of Peshawar on Monday to protest against the government's slow response. "I had built a two-room house on the outskirts of Peshawar with my hard-earned money but I lost it in the floods," Ejaz Khan, one of the demonstrators, said. "The government is not helping us... the school building where I sheltered is packed with people, with no adequate arrangement for food and medicine," the 53-year-old said. Criticism 'justified' Farhatullah Babar, a spokesman for Asif Ali Zardari, Pakistan's president, told Al Jazeera that survivors had "every right" to criticise the government. "I think their criticism will persuade the government to do even more than it is doing," he said. "We really sympathise with those who are marooned and those who have lost lives and relatives. They are justified in criticising because after all, they are the people who are suffering." Babar said that the cost of the clean-up may run into billions of dollars. President Zardari has set up a special unit to co-ordinate the response to the disaster and is watching the situation closely as he continues a trip to France. The government has issued a flood warning for the southern province of Sindh, where heavy rain was expected on Monday night. International donors have pledged millions of dollars in aid to help the survivors. The crisis developed after "unprecedented" monsoon rains caused rivers to burst their banks, washing away entire villages, bridges and triggering deadly landslides. Al Jazeera's Sohail Rahman, reporting from Mingora in the Swat Valley, one of the worst affected areas, said "it's breathtaking to see the damage that has been caused." "There are no formal relief camps in the region of Swat," he said. "They can't situate them anywhere because if these rains come again, these camps could just as well be swept away. There are some feeding stations though." He said about 100,000 people were getting food from such stations at the outskirts of Peshawar.
Farmland destroyed Thousands of homes and vast swathes of farmland have been destroyed in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, one of Pakistan's poorest regions. Several camps, offering food and medicine, have been set up in community centres by provincial and relief organisations in different parts of the country. Concerns have been raised over the threat of disease as survivors arrived in camps with fever, diarrhoea and skin problems. "Our doctors have treated over 600 people just in the last two days and they are seeing a lot of cases of diarrhoea, fever and skin infections," Sonia Cush, the director of emergency response at Save the Children in Washington, DC, told Al Jazeera. "We currently have emergency health teams moving around within the affected area treating people who urgently need healthcare, and our priorities are food, clean drinking water, healthcare and hygiene materials to ward off diseases. "We will be distributing plastic sheeting to build makeshift shelters, but the hard work will only begin once the flood waters start to recede." Officials from Unicef, the United Nations' children fund, said contaminated flood waters and lack of clean water could increase the risk of the spread of diarrhoeal diseases. Children under five are especially vulnerable to dehydration from diarrhoea. With more than 40 per cent of the population under 18 years of age, the number of children affected could be in the hundreds of thousands, they said. The UN has pledged $10m to help in the crisis, as has the US, which has also rushed rescue helicopters and boats to Pakistan to reach survivors who have been cut off by the floods.
AmeriCares Responds to Pakistan Flooding...
08/19/10
AmeriCares Airlifts More Relief Supplies to Help Pakistan Flood Survivors
Pakistan's worst flooding in 80 years has claimed at least 1,600 lives, left more than 4 million people homeless and affected over 20 million people. The latest AmeriCares airlift contains more than $500,000 worth of critical medical aid to help survivors of devastating floods in Pakistan. The shipment includes medicines and medical supplies to help people suffering from serious infections, pain, fever and injuries. "The Pakistan flooding disaster is going from bad to worse, especially for millions of children and vulnerable elderly people at risk of cholera and other deadly waterborne illnesses," reports Christoph Gorder, AmeriCares senior vice president of global programs. "With the threat of disease outbreak increasing, we are ramping up our planned deliveries of crucial medicines and medical supplies to meet a crisis that is now reaching epic proportions." AmeriCares has mounted disaster relief efforts to help sick and injured people affected by the floods. Hospitals and clinics report rapidly depleting existing stocks of medication, wound care supplies and hygiene items. In response, AmeriCares continues to deliver medical aid to local partners and the airlifted aid is en route to health care providers helping flood survivors. Continued rains hamper access to Pakistan's northwest region, leaving entire villages cut off many from relief efforts and raising the level of urgency to reach many in desperate need of basic supplies. And with more rain on the way,
officials fear that the flooding will extend still further into the more populated provinces of Sindh and Punjab over the coming days. Since 1990, AmeriCares has delivered nearly $57 million in assistance to Pakistan including relief supplies ranging from medicines, medical supplies, equipment, health care facilities and nutritional support.
Pakistan Flood Toll Exceeds 1,500 as Officials Struggle to Reach Survivors
By Anwar Shakir and Farhan Sharif - Aug 2, 2010
Pakistan¶s deadliest floods in decades killed more than 1,500 people and overwhelmed government efforts to provide aid, officials and relief workers said. With President Asif Ali Zardari touring Europe, the government said it was rushing help to the devastated northwestern province, where the army has fought Taliban guerrillas. Islamic militant groups in the region and the U.S. government both have built public support in the past by providing assistance to bolster government attempts. Monsoon rains will continue for the next few days after ripping out bridges, roads and villages since late last week, said Nasir Khan, a Meteorological Department official in the provincial capital, Peshawar. Regions downstream in the Indus River valley, where most of Pakistan¶s 162 million people live, braced for floods that may damage crops, according to the nation¶s biggest agriculture body. More than 1,500 people have died in Pakistan¶s northwestern province, Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, said Noor Muhammad, a press officer for the provincial development ministry. Government and private relief agencies are managing to provide ³only 5 percent of what¶s required,´ Mujahid Khan, provincial spokesman for the Edhi Foundation, which runs Pakistan¶s largest ambulance and rescue services, said by phone from Peshawar. Pakistani television channels showed flood survivors gathered at roadsides, seeking transport to nearby towns. Army Rescue Pakistani soldiers in the flood-scoured Swat Valley ³are rescuing people from the water by helicopter,´ said Zahid Khan, 55, president of the hotel association in Mingora, the valley¶s main town. ³But the government has sent no help for people who lost their homes and they are camping wherever they can with no drinking water,´ he said by phone. Islamic militant activists distributed aid packages in the northwestern town of Charsadda, outside Peshawar, the Associated Press reported. An earthquake in 2005 that killed about 86,000 people exposed the government¶s inadequacy in providing relief as the U.S. and Islamic militants raced to fill the gap. U.S. Air Force cargo planes landed in the city of Rawalpindi yesterday with food packages as part of $10 million in emergency help pledged by Secretary of State Hillary Clinton. She has
sought to boost her country¶s image among Pakistanis as an opinion survey released last week by the Pew Research Center in Washington showed only 17 percent of the local population had a positive view of the U.S. U.S. Aid The U.S. is rushing helicopters, boats, pre-fabricated bridges, mobile water treatment units and food supplies to affected areas, Clinton said in a statement yesterday. Food distribution has begun in the worst affected districts of Peshawar, Nowshera and Charsadda, the World Food Program said yesterday on its website. Floodwaters ³have also caused significant damage´ to the UN agency¶s warehouses in northwestern Pakistan, it said. The flood¶s death toll may rise to 3,000, said Edhi Foundation¶s Khan. He spoke from Peshawar, the capital of Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa, previously called the North-West Frontier Province. Officials in Pakistan¶s other provinces -- Punjab, Sindh and Baluchistan -- braced for the floodwaters moving down the Indus River and its tributaries. The Sindh government ordered residents evacuated from locales along the Indus. Crop Damage The floods, which according to U.K. charity Oxfam may be Pakistan¶s worst in 35 years, may cut the production of rice, sugarcane and corn by about 10 percent to 15 percent, said Nasir Cheema, president of Pakistan¶s Chamber of Agriculture. Pakistani television networks showed survivors clinging to trees or debris in muddy, raging mountain rivers. Armed forces chief Ashraf Pervez Kayani yesterday visited flooded areas of the Swat Valley and his helicopter evacuated 17 residents, the army said on its website. Opposition leader Nawaz Sharif, a two-time prime minister, criticized Zardari for pursuing a trip to France and the U.K. this week. His absence flies in the face of ³the worst flooding in the country¶s history,´ Sharif said on the GEO television news channel. Prime Minister Yousuf Raza Gilani, who toured the stricken province by air, ordered the government to provide food to people at safe locations. The floods followed the deaths of 152 people when a plane crashed in heavy rain near the capital, Islamabad, on July 28.
'2.5m people affected' by Pakistan floods officials say
2 August 2010 Last updated
Up to 2.5 million people have been affected by devastating floods in north-west Pakistan, the International Red Cross has said.
Continue reading the main story Related stories y y
In pictures: Flood damage South Asia's deadliest threat?
Rescuers are struggling to reach 27,000 people still cut off by the floods, which are the worst in 80 years. At least 1,100 people have died and thousands have lost everything. "In the worst-affected areas, entire villages were washed away without warning by walls of flood water," the Red Cross said in a statement. There are fears diarrhoea and cholera will spread among the homeless. Food is scarce and water supplies have been contaminated by the floods.
From the air we've had a clear view of the destructive force of the monsoon rains. Muddy brown waters have submerged fields, bridges and roads, destroying crops and devastating communities. In some areas we've seen people wading, chest-deep, through the floods. In others, only the tops of trees have been visible. We went to the city of Nowshera, one of the worst affected areas, where we saw several lakes - including one which covered the polo ground. Mud and rubble lined the streets. We met people at a temporary camp who said they were being helped by the army, but they were worried about the future. Mian Iftikhar Hussain, the Information Minister of Khyber-Pakhtoonkhwa (formerly North West Frontier Province), one of the worst-hit regions, said rescue teams were trying to reach 27,000 stranded people, including 1,500 tourists in the Swat Valley, the scene of a major military offensive against the Taliban last year. "We are also getting confirmation of reports about an outbreak of cholera in some areas of Swat," he added. The Pakistani military says it has committed 30,000 troops and dozens of helicopters to the relief effort, but winching individuals to safety is a slow process.
The army - which says it has rescued 28,000 people in recent days - predicts the initial search and rescue operation will take up to 10 days, says the BBC's Orla Guerin, who has been on board a military helicopter over the Swat Valley. But the army says rebuilding the damaged areas could take six months or more. A spokesman for the UK-based charity Save the Children told the BBC that the infrastructure damage in Swat may be worse than in the earthquake which devastated the region in 2005. "We fear that in places that have not been accessed as yet there are people that were trapped, and there is a possibility of more deaths taking place," the spokesman said.
Full picture
As well as the more 1,000 deaths in Pakistan, at least 60 people have died across the border in Afghanistan, where floods have affected four provinces.
There have been complaints that emergency shelters have been inadequate or even non-existent
The BBC's Aleem Maqbool in Islamabad says the biggest challenge for the emergency services is access, as so many areas had their transport and communication links destroyed and are now isolated. Officials in Islamabad fear that once access to affected areas improves, the full picture will show that the situation is much worse than is so far known, our correspondent adds. Floodwaters receded in some areas as weather conditions improved on Monday, but more rain is now forecast. Part of the main north-south motorway into the region was re-opened on Sunday, before reportedly closing again. The brief opening allowed some aid supplies into the flooded area while also permitting people to flee.
There is a desperate need for temporary shelter, clean drinking water and toilets to avert a public health catastrophe´
End Quote Jane Cocking Oxfam y y y
In pictures: Flood rescue efforts Pakistan floods: Your stories Your photos of the destruction
The rain may have stopped but huge swathes of north-west Pakistan remain submerged, with many of those affected still stranded and waiting for help. There have been complaints from some survivors that the government response has been slow and inadequate. Several hundred people took part in a protest in the north-western city of Peshawar, where homeless survivors have crammed into temporary shelters. "The government is not helping us," said 53-year-old labourer Ejaz Khan, whose house on the city's outskirts was swept away by the floods. "The school building where I sheltered is packed with people, with no adequate arrangement for food and medicine," he told AFP news agency. Shariyar Khan Bangash, the regional programme manager for the aid organisation World Vision, based in Peshawar, said survivors of the worst-affected areas were desperate for drinking water. "All the wells which are providing water for them are full of mud," he told the BBC. "Among the children the diarrhoea has started already, and cholera."
BBC Weather: Yet more rain is forecast
UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon said he was "deeply saddened by the significant loss of lives, livelihoods and infrastructure in Pakistan", and offered an extra $10m (£6.5m) in aid for the relief effort. The UK government's Department for International Development has said it is providing £10m for the Pakistan relief effort. International Development Secretary Andrew Mitchell said: "I know many British people are deeply concerned by the terrible suffering caused by the ongoing monsoon floods in Pakistan. The government of Pakistan is leading the relief efforts and the UK is ready to help in any way we can." Earlier, the US also promised the government $10m in aid. The US embassy in Islamabad said Washington would also be providing 12 temporary bridges to replace some of those destroyed by the floods.
