Saturday, August 21, 2010

4.6 million people still without shelter
by Magdalena Rosova


The United Nations said there are still about 4.6 million people without shelter in Pakistan. Pakistanis lost their homes after some three weeks of heavy floods that caused huge disaster in the country. The United Nations further describe the current situation in Pakistan as the worst humanitarian crisis in the world. The foreign aid in the country is already reaching about 20 million victims of the floods. However, critics blame the UN for the slow response to the crisis. The UN estimates that there are 6 million people dependent on humanitarian aid. These people desperately need food, shelter and clean water. There are concerns over potential outbreaks of infections such ! as cholera, typhoid and hepatitis. Maurizio Giulian, spokesman for the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) in Islamabad, warns that roughly 4.6 million people still do not have any shelter. Furthermore, there are hundreds of thousands of people still on the move. They are already included in the number of people in need. Not all of them are considered as homeless as they may find their homes when the flood waters recede. Therefore the UN has decided to increase the initial figure of beneficiaries for tents and sheets from 2 million to 6 million. At a camp, survivors are troubled by terrible heat, bad sanitation and mosquitoes. Many people were forced to leave their homes just with some clothes on their backs and so had to drink contaminated water which caused them watery diarrhoea. On Thursday there is going to be the meeting of the UN General Assembly in New York which should fasten the delivery of aid. The UN received only half of the 460 million! dollars that it appealed for last week

related story ! ( sgx18028): http://www.channelnewsasia.com/stories/afp_asiapacific/view/...
by Magdalena Rosova
for Cantell TV (http://cantell.tv)

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