Flooding in Pakistan

Flooding in Pakistan

RMedicalefugees and displaced persons
Our teams are on the ground in Pakistan, providing medical and humanitarian assistance to people as health issues arise after the destructive floods.

THE CURRENT SITUATION

More than four months have passed since the declaration of a state of emergency of devastating floods caused by the huge monsoon. People had to leave their villages and spend months living in camps with or without shelter and access to basic needs. Now that the water has receded in some areas and people are returning to their villages, they are finding their houses and land damaged and infrastructure destroyed. Others are unable or unwilling to return and are exposed to water and vector-borne diseases and worsening winter conditions. The need for healthcare and clean drinking water for those affected by the floods remains very high.

Our teams in Balochistan and Sindh are seeing seeing high numbers of malaria cases and are very concerned about possible emergencies such as malnutrition and other communicable diseases.  Since October 2022, we have seen more people with malnutrition presenting at our clinics in East Balochistan, and with livestock dead, food stores destroyed, and land not ready for the next planting season. . With winter, people are becoming more vulnerable and have nowhere to go. 

HOW MSF IS RESPONDING IN PAKISTAN

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MSF began working in Pakistan in 1986 and now has 1,738 local hired staff and 53 international staff working in seven regular projects. In 2022, over 50 international staff were additionally sent to support the flood response.

MSF has been committed to supporting affected communities in Pakistan and has responded to natural disasters over the years. Hundreds of Pakistani staff, including medical and non-medical specialists, have been at the core of this response to emergencies, making it possible to reach those in need.

MSF launched a large-scale response to the 2005 earthquake, the floods of 2010 and 2016, the measles and dengue outbreaks in 2010 and 2013, and COVID-19 in 2020 to 2021. We also responded to the flooding in Dadu in Sindh province in 2020.

 THE RESPONSE SO FAR – IN NUMBERS

  • Over 95,900 mobile clinic patient consultations in Sindh, Balochistan and Khyber Pakhtunkhuwa.
  • Over 44,800 kits of essential relief items, including hygiene and kitchen kits, mosquito nets and mosquito repellent, distributed to affected families in Balochistan, Khyber Pakhtunkhuwa and Sindh.
  • Over 465,494m3 litres of clean drinking water provided in Sindh, Balochistan and Khyber Pakhtunkhwa.
  • Over 23,707 patients treated for malaria and 7,458 treated for malnutrition at our mobile clinics in Eastern Balochistan and Sindh.

* All data from early September to 4 December 2022.

SINDH

Sindh

The floodwaters have receded in some places but are still present in many areas. Many people whose villages are now accessible have returned but have found for example that water sources are still contaminated and they have to source drinking water from far away. Crops and food stores have been destroyed, livestock have died, and fields will not be ready for the next planting season, which will likely lead to food insecurity. Our teams are also seeing concerningly high numbers of malaria cases across the province and children with severe malnutrition brought to our mobile clinics in North Sindh.

MSF emergency teams are running six mobile clinics that visit over 24 different locations per week in the Dadu, Jacobabad, Sukkur and Shahadat Kot districts of Sindh. So far they have provided basic medical care to over 33,780 people, mainly for skin diseases, malaria, respiratory tract infections and diarrhoea. 

In North Sindh and Johi town, our teams are seeing high numbers of cases of malaria  We are concerned that, with the floodwaters still not receding in some areas, the malaria season will last longer than usual, resulting in increased demand for testing and treatment. In the past two months, our teams have treated more than 12,100 people for malaria. Our teams are continuing to provide clean drinking water, with 4,148m3 litres already distributed. Our teams have also helped to distribute 562 hygiene kits to residents of remote flood-affected areas. 

North Sindh

Our teams are seeing high numbers of children with malnutrition at our mobile clinics. They have screened 9,246 children under five for malnutrition. Of those, 2,535 had severe acute malnutrition and 2,243 had moderate acute malnutrition. Generally, it is the sickest children who are brought to our mobile clinics and therefore it is difficult to know how many cases are going untreated in the wider community. Malnutrition is chronic in Pakistan.

South Sindh

Our teams in Dadu district are providing medical care through three mobile clinics visiting over 11 locations. Our water and sanitation teams have also provided over 444,460m3 litres of clean drinking water and have distributed around 24,600 relief packages to affected communities. In Sanghar district, our team have provided 5,120m3 litres of clean drinking water in the three worst-affected tehsils and have distributed 6,000 relief packages including tents, kitchen kits, hygiene kits and mosquito nets. The teams are also providing antenatal and postnatal healthcare in the district.

Keamari Karachi district

MSF teams are working in Karachi tent city camp where they have set up more than 800 shelters, are providing more than 10,000  litres of clean drinking water every day, have installed 141 shower points and latrines, and have distributed 1,350 relief packages, including 600 mosquito nets, in collaboration with health authorities. 

BALOCHISTAN

Eastern Balochistan

The floodwaters have receded in many areas but the worst-affected districts of Sohbatpur and Jaffarabad are still largely under water, while pools of stagnant water are spread across other areas. Families living near flooded areas are vulnerable to water- and vector-borne diseases. Winter has arrived and people living in the open and they, as well as some people who have returned to their villages, are in need of basic necessities. We are not seeing an end to the emergency yet.

In Eastern Balochistan, MSF has five medical teams in Naseerabad, Sohbatpur, Jaffarabad, Usta Muhammad and Jhal Magsi districts. Our teams are providing outpatient primary healthcare to people affected by the floods, treating more than 1,000 patients daily. Areas of stagnant water are a major contributor to the rise in the number of people with water- and vector-borne diseases in Eastern Balochistan. Our teams are treating high numbers of people with malaria, severely malnourished children, and people with respiratory tract infections, diarrhoea and skin diseases, including ear infections. MSF has provided more than 10 million litres of clean drinking water in five districts of Eastern Balochistan.

In the past two months, MSF emergency teams have treated 11,533 cases of malaria with a positivity ratio of over 50 per cent. These numbers are concerningly high compared to previous years. We are also seeing high numbers of patients with malnutrition and have treated 3,965 children and pregnant and lactating women. 

In October, MSF’s water and sanitation teams installed a water filtration plant with a capacity of 270,000 litres per day in Jaffarabad district. The clean drinking water is delivered through water trucking to flood-affected villages and displaced person camps in Eastern Balochistan, which helps mitigate the risk of waterborne disease caused by contaminated water. The team has provided a total of 13,050,000 litres of clean drinking water in five districts of Eastern Balochistan.

Since 2008, MSF has worked in DHQ hospital in Dera Murad Jamali in support of the Department of Health (DoH). In recent months, MSF has bolstered this support, deploying additional medical and non-medical experts and increasing bed capacity from 40 to 69. Since September, our team has assisted 1,382 deliveries and admitted 1,142 children to the paediatric inpatient department. 

Western Balochistan

MSF has provided over 735 medical consultations in Chaman, and over 1,890 outpatient consultations in Quetta, mostly for patients with respiratory infections or acute watery diarrhoea. In Quetta, MSF water and sanitation teams have provided more than 2,190 litres of clean drinking water. A total of 740 relief kits including hygiene items, kitchen tools and mosquito nets have also been distributed to affected families.

KHYBER PAKHTUNKHUWA

In Charsadda and Nowshera districts, the floodwaters have receded and families have returned to their homes or are rebuilding their damaged houses. However, water sources in the flood-hit districts, including Charsadda and Nowshera, remain contaminated and are contributing to waterborne diseases in the area. To tackle this issue, MSF water and sanitation teams have been cleaning and repairing water sources since October.  

In Charsadda and Nowshera districts, four MSF mobile medical teams have provided 9,000 outpatient primary healthcare consultations for respiratory tract infections, eye infections, acute diarrhoea, severe skin infections and chronic diseases. MSF has also donated medical items to the hospital in Nowshera to support the isolation unit for patients with dengue fever. MSF emergency water and sanitation teams have installed water filtration systems, have provided 34m3 litres of clean drinking water and have cleaned and decontaminated 500 wells in flood-affected villages in Charsadda district. The aim is to clean 1,500 wells by the end of March 2023. In both districts MSF teams have distributed a total of 11,386 relief packages, including kitchen sets, hygiene items and 14,107 mosquito nets to affected families.

MSF teams in various villages in Dera Ismail Khan district are distributing around 5,000 winter kits to flood-affected communities.

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