Over 10m in flood-hit Pakistan still lack safe water: UNICEF

UNITED NATIONS      -     More than 10 million people, includ­ing children, living in Pakistan’s flood-affected areas still lack safe drinking water, the Unit­ed Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF) warned Tuesday. In a statement, the UN agency said the situation leaves fam­ilies with no alternative but to “drink and use potentially dis­ease-ridden water.” The floods, which experts attribute to cli­mate change, killed 1,739 peo­ple, including 647 children and 353 women, causing an esti­mated $30 billion in damag­es. Even before the devastat­ing floods, despite the country’s drinking water supply system covering 92 percent of the pop­ulation, only 36 percent of the water was considered safe for consumption, UNICEF said. The floods damaged most of the water systems in affected ar­eas, compelling more than 5.4 million people, including 2.5 million children, to solely rely on contaminated water from ponds and wells. “Safe drink­ing water is not a privilege, it is a basic human right,” UNICEF Representative in Pakistan, Ab­dullah Fadil said, calling for donors support, and placing children at the heart of all post-flood recovery and resilience plans. “Yet, every day, millions of girls and boys in Pakistan are fighting a losing battle against preventable waterborne dis­eases and the consequential malnutrition,” he said. “We need the continued support of our donors to provide safe wa­ter, build toilets and deliver vi­tal sanitation services to these children and families who need them the most.”

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