According to the most recent UN assessment, more than 10 million people, including children, still lack access to clean drinking water more than six months after massive flooding decimated portions of Pakistan.
According to a report published on March 21 by the United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF), families in flood-affected areas are being forced to consume and use water that may be contaminated, which is fueling widespread outbreaks of waterborne illnesses like cholera, diarrhoea, dengue fever, and malaria.
Tens of thousands of hungry, poor children are battling acute malnutrition and water-borne illnesses in vain.
Beginning in June 2022, torrential downpours drowned one-third of Pakistan. At least 1,739 people died as a result of the devastating flooding.
According to UNICEF’s assessment, more than 2.2 million homes were reportedly damaged, and close to 33 million people were directly impacted.
According to the research, the majority of the water systems in the impacted districts were also damaged by the flooding, forcing over 5.4 million people—including 2.5 million children—to rely only on tainted water from ponds and wells.
Despite the fact that 92% of the population has access to the country’s drinking water supply system, only 36% of the water was deemed safe for consumption.
The report, which emphasises the lack of access to basic sanitation facilities like toilets, claims that “open defecation has increased by more than 14 percent in the flood-affected regions,” disproportionately affecting children, adolescent girls.
And women who are at increased risk of embarrassment and stigma harm when defecating outdoors.” Children who suffer from water-borne illnesses are put into “a vicious cycle of starvation and infection,” according to UNICEF, because they are unable to obtain the essential nutrients they require.
According to the report, malnutrition is a factor in half of all child fatalities in the nation.
According to the report, “in flood-affected areas, more than 1.5 million boys and girls are already extremely underweight, and the numbers will only grow in the absence of safe water and sufficient sanitation.”
Ahead of World Water Day on March 21, Abdullah Fadil, the UNICEF representative in Pakistan, urged donors to keep funding Pakistan in order to support millions of children.
