Pakistan floods - update from Oxfam's Qasim Barech
by Oxfam Channel - update from the field
Oxfam Public Health Promotor Qasim Barech reports from the Swat Valley in Pakistan. It is the worst flood in the history of Pakistan. The total population of Swat district is 1.7 million, out of 1.7 million, 45% are badly affected due to this recent flood. At the moment the greatest need for the affected families is clean drinking water… like I can say 95% drinking water sources have been heavily contaminated due to this recent flood. Second thing is sanitation facilities like toilets, especially for women. Families are also needing tool kits for those families whose houses are totally damaged to rebuild or to start the basic construction of their houses here in Swat valley. Oxfam and our implementing partner are the only organisations now on the ground providing support to affected families where accessibility is possible in Swat valley. At the moment we have covered almost 50,000 individuals and we have been regularly providing clean drinking water to water tankers to them and we’ve also provided pure sachets for water purification and a quick rehabilitation of water supplies has been started. And Oxfam buckets distribution has been already started on the ground. And besides this, our partner’s female public health promoter has been started extensive hygiene promotion campaign in affected area of Swat Valley to be awareness to the flood affected families about, regarding the public health promotion. Due to accessibility problems, all humanitarian organisations, including Oxfam has been facing the problem to provide humanitarian assistance to these affected area. Because upper Swat is totally cut off from the whole country, and kilometres of roads and bridges are completely washed away. We are planning, the areas that are not accessible at the moment, to rebuild their water supplies and to install water tanks over there, so we are planning to distribute bottled water to the affected families in upper Swat area. So this is our plan for tomorrow. Team is here, we are discussing now the solution for this. We have just received like 20, uh 25 hundred hygiene kits and household kits and food which we just received and it’s also gone to distribute tomorrow in affected area. I’m going to request that all humanitarian organisations, and individuals from all over the world, to join their hands and contribute to these flood emergency response.
Oxfam Public Health Promotor Qasim Barech reports from the Swat Valley in Pakistan. It is the worst flood in the history of Pakistan. The total population of Swat district is 1.7 million, out of 1.7 million, 45% are badly affected due to this recent flood. At the moment the greatest need for the affected families is clean drinking water… like I can say 95% drinking water sources have been heavily contaminated due to this recent flood. Second thing is sanitation facilities like toilets, especially for women. Families are also needing tool kits for those families whose houses are totally damaged to rebuild or to start the basic construction of their houses here in Swat valley. Oxfam and our implementing partner are the only organisations now on the ground providing support to affected families where accessibility is possible in Swat valley. At the moment we have covered almost 50,000 individuals and we have been regularly providing clean drinking water to water tankers to them and we’ve also provided pure sachets for water purification and a quick rehabilitation of water supplies has been started. And Oxfam buckets distribution has been already started on the ground. And besides this, our partner’s female public health promoter has been started extensive hygiene promotion campaign in affected area of Swat Valley to be awareness to the flood affected families about, regarding the public health promotion. Due to accessibility problems, all humanitarian organisations, including Oxfam has been facing the problem to provide humanitarian assistance to these affected area. Because upper Swat is totally cut off from the whole country, and kilometres of roads and bridges are completely washed away. We are planning, the areas that are not accessible at the moment, to rebuild their water supplies and to install water tanks over there, so we are planning to distribute bottled water to the affected families in upper Swat area. So this is our plan for tomorrow. Team is here, we are discussing now the solution for this. We have just received like 20, uh 25 hundred hygiene kits and household kits and food which we just received and it’s also gone to distribute tomorrow in affected area. I’m going to request that all humanitarian organisations, and individuals from all over the world, to join their hands and contribute to these flood emergency response.
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