The Pakistan Floods: Six Months Later

A Report Prepared by the U.S. Fund for UNICEF, February 2011

The Pakistan Floods: Six Months Later
A Report Prepared by the U.S. Fund for UNICEF, February 2011

Six months have passed since millions of Pakistanis suffered from

the worst monsoonal floods in the country’s recorded history. UNICEF
AFGHANISTAN
has been in action since day one as unprecedented amounts of rain
Islamabad
in July and August of 2010 displaced 20 million people. A nation that
PAKISTAN was still reeling from a series of massive earthquakes and ongoing
INDIA
political, social and economic instability had yet another emergency
of epic and unimaginable proportions on its hands.

Generations of Pakistanis have depended UNICEF in Action

on the rivers that flow through the nation.
However, this dependency turned tragic
when violent flood waters ended the l
ives of close to 2,000 people in the north.
In three other provinces, the number
affected—20 million—exceeded the
combined total of lives devastated by
the 2004 Indian Ocean Tsunami, the 2005
Kashmir earthquake, the 2008 Cyclone
Map
Nargis and the 2010 Haiti earthquake
Flood-affected areas combined. One in ten Pakistanis was
shown in red.
affected by the unprecedented flood
waters that covered an area the size of the
United Kingdom. More than two million
homes were damaged or destroyed. For
the ten million children affected by the
floods, the disaster meant the loss of
homes, belongings, clothing, schooling,
health care and food.
The 2010 Pakistan floods tested the will
not only of the citizens of Pakistan, but
also the will of all humanitarian agencies.
UNICEF, which has been working for
Pakistan’s children for over 60 years,
stood firm. During the flooding, UNICEF
devoted resources, and energy into
making sure that Pakistan’s children and
Cover photo women received supplies and services by
Pakistan: A girl holds a mounting one of the largest emergency
wooden writing board responses in its history. As winter drew
in a UNICEF-supported near, Pakistan saw a severe sharp drop in
temporary learning center
temperatures and significant snowstorms
in the village of Basti
in the north, making the need for shelter,
Bhaya in one of the worst
flood-affected districts safe drinking water, food and health care
in Punjab Province. more acute.
© UNICEF/Shehzad
Noorani
The 2010 Pakistan crisis was a slowly
unfolding catastrophe that stretched
and worsened over a period of seven
weeks. Following the heavy flooding
in Khyber Pakhtunkwa Province on
July 29, UNICEF immediately initiated
its emergency response. Two days later,
the UNICEF Representative declared that
the Pakistan Country Office was in full
emergency mode.
Three weeks into the floods, the number
of affected Pakistanis rose to more than
15 million. On September 16, the height
of the emergency, the final number of
affected people was 20 million people,
among them ten million children. October
saw large numbers of displaced people
returning to their homes. Most found
their homes partially or completely
destroyed. At present, UNICEF continues
to deliver goods and services to children
and mothers throughout Pakistan, paying
particular attention to over 650,000 people
in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Province.
During this crisis, UNICEF mounted an
emergency response that continues six
months later, as most of the displaced have
returned to their homes. As the emergency
phase winds down and early recovery
efforts are under way, UNICEF sees an
opening to turn tragedy into opportunity,
and begin the process of healing for many
of Pakistan’s children. As in any emergency,
UNICEF is leading the way in the areas of
health, education, child protection, and
water and sanitation.

The Pakistan Floods: Six Months Later 2

Photo right
Pakistan: Taslim Kausar
measures the arm of
11-month-old Laila
Allahdatta with a mid-
upper arm circumference
(MUAC) arm band. The
red portion of the armband
indicates severe acute
malnutrition, a life-
threatening condition.
© UNICEF/Shehzad
Noorani

Health a package of high-impact, low-cost

UNICEF’s health interventions during the
flood response included measles and polio
vaccinations and vitamin supplementation.
UNICEF and its partners immunized
about 9.7 million children against polio
and 8.6 million children against measles.
UNICEF distributed 900,000 insecticide-
treated bed nets to protect pregnant and
lactating women and children under five
from malaria.
A massive mobilization of 44,000 lady
health workers (LHWs) was undertaken
to distribute medical supplies and spread
health messages across the flood affected
areas. LHWs are community-based
health workers who conduct door-to-
door outreach and give intensive health,
hygiene and nutrition promotion lessons.
They provide demonstrations on using
oral rehydration salts for the treatment
of diarrhea and deliver critical, lifesaving
messages about the prevention of
communicable diseases like diarrhea,
pneumonia, skin infections and malaria.
Mother and Child Health Days were also
held in various areas in order to address
the lack of access to basic health services
for mothers. This campaign delivered
child survival interventions. During the
campaign, children—especially in rural
areas—received immunizations and
de-worming medicines. Mothers were
counseled on household practices like
breastfeeding and basic hygiene. They
were also taught how to identify and treat
diseases like pneumonia and diarrhea.
The nutrition situation in Pakistan has
been an issue of concern for close to
a decade, particularly among children
under five years old. The country’s multiple
and recurring emergencies, combined
with inadequate infant feeding practices
and the high incidence of disease has
undermined the nutritional well-being
of Pakistani children.
UNICEF supported all of the therapeutic
programs for severely malnourished
children. It distributed treatment
drugs used to alleviate symptoms of
malnourishment in thousands of children
and leveraged long experience to ensure
that nutrition strategies would meet the
needs of the most vulnerable children
throughout the nation, all at minimal
operating costs.

The Pakistan Floods: Six Months Later 3

 Education
More than 1.8 million school children
lost access to education when 16,400
schools were damaged or converted into
temporary shelters. The floods dealt a
heavy blow to the schooling of girls, who
looked after their brothers and sisters.
Still, efforts to restore education scaled
up quickly. School supplies were procured
and distributed to 150,000 children by
November. Around 218,000 children have
benefited from these supplies, such as
kits containing instructional exercise books,
tools for teachers as well as recreational
learning activities. Furthermore, UNICEF
lent its technical expertise to train
3,700 teachers. UNICEF and its partners
have reached a total of 300,000 students,
rehabilitated 360 schools and built
54 transitional school shelters (TSS) to
temporarily replace fully damaged schools.
Child Protection
The floods exacerbated already significant
protection risks for children and women
in Pakistan. Prior to the floods, around
32 percent of girls were married before
they reached the age of 18, and 3.3 million
children under the age of 14 were engaged
in child labor. During the floods, a confluence
Photo right
Pakistan: A girl reads
from a book in a UNICEF-
supported temporary
learning center in the
village of Basti Bhaya
in Punjab Province.
The flood reached the
village on August 5
2010, destroying the
local school. © UNICEF/
Shehzad Noorani
The Pakistan Floods: Six Months Later
of protection concerns arose. Pakistani
children experienced profound stress.
They faced hunger, disease and destruction
of their homes.
UNICEF’s child protection response
included establishing 1,000 child-friendly
spaces, where experienced UNICEF staff
provided education and recreational
services to 180,000 children in protected
spaces. UNICEF has also established
967 child protection committees, child
protection units, and birth registration
centers. UNICEF is currently supporting
individual and group counseling for
women and children suffering from
the stress brought on by the disaster.
Unaccompanied and separated children
have also been reunited with their families
and relatives.
Water, Sanitation, and Hygiene
Before the floods, many of Pakistan’s
water and sanitation facilities were in
poor condition. About 42 percent of
the population did not have access to
toilets. The floods swept away the few
facilities functioning in the north, and
inundated those in the south. During the
immediate response, UNICEF prioritized
the construction of emergency latrines,
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 sanitation facilities, and bathing facilities
to benefit 1.5 million displaced people.
By September, over 680 water tankers
were traveling throughout the flood
affected areas to provide safe water.
As time progressed, delivery strategies
were modified as families returned to
their homes, and the rehabilitation of
water systems became the priority. Today,
UNICEF and its partners are supplying
clean drinking water to nearly 3.5 million
Pakistanis each day.
Photo right
Pakistan: A boy drinks
from a newly installed
handpump in the village
of Jinnah Colony.
UNICEF and a partner
organizations, have
provided safe water and
sanitation in the village.
© UNICEF/Shehzad
Noorani
UNICEF has saved more children’s lives than any
other humanitarian organization in the world.
Working in over 150 countries, UNICEF provides
children with health care, clean water, nutrition,
education, emergency relief, and more. The
U.S. Fund for UNICEF U.S. Fund for UNICEF supports UNICEF’s work
125 Maiden Lane through fundraising, advocacy, and education
New York, NY 10038 in the United States.
1.800.4UNICEF
www.unicefusa.org UNICEF is at the forefront of efforts to reduce child
mortality worldwide. In just two decades, the
The Pakistan Floods: Six Months Later
Since the onset of the emergency,
UNICEF has distributed nearly 30 million
water purification tablets and household
treatment filters to provide 300 million liters
of safe drinking water. UNICEF provided
nearly 30,000 sanitation facilities benefiting
nearly 1.5 million people. Hygiene promotion
has reached over 1.9 million Pakistanis
and one million bars of soap have been
distributed.
The Impact of Your Support
Your support has been vital to the
expansion of UNICEF’s emergency relief
efforts in Pakistan. Your generous support
has allowed UNICEF to provide lifesaving
interventions that both enrich the lives and
empower Pakistan’s children and mothers.
By supporting the children of Pakistan, you
are acting as a true agent of change—for
them and for their communities. Thank you
for your continued interest and concern for
the children of Pakistan.
number of children under age five dying each day
has been cut by one-third. But still, 22,000 children
die each day from preventable causes. Our mission
is to do whatever it takes to make that number zero
by giving children the essentials for a safe and
healthy childhood. For more information, visit
www.unicefusa.org.
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