WFP expands assistance operations to flood-hit communities in Pakistan - complementing Government response
ISLAMABAD – WFP continues to expand its emergency operations to assist flood-hit Pakistani families four months since the flooding began in June 2022. WFP is ramping up life-saving food and nutrition assistance, alongside recovery and resilience-building support, and aims to reach 2.7 million people who are facing emergency levels food insecurity (IPC Phase 4) and urgently require humanitarian assistance. WFP is also boosting its logistics support to the Government and humanitarian partners.
Nearly eight million people remain displaced from their homes, of which 644,000 are in relief camps. The floodwaters have receded in some areas, but scores of communities continue to find themselves cut off, creating challenges for the delivery of food assistance and other essential aid. Flood-hit communities have also seen outbreaks of waterborne diseases, with 4.4 million cases of cholera, dengue and malaria reported nationwide, piling a health crisis on top of the already devastating flood emergency. Moreover, an estimated 600,000 pregnant women in flood-affected areas have no place to safely deliver their babies, while five million children do not have immunization and nutritional care.
The floods have driven up what were already high levels of food insecurity and malnutrition. The latest WFP and FAO assessment indicates that the number of people requiring emergency food assistance will increase from the pre-flood estimate of 7.2 million people to 14.6 million from December through March 2023 – a staggering rise.
WFP RESPONSE
- WFP has assisted over 700,000 flood-affected people with food and livelihoods assistance in Balochistan, Khyber Pakhtunkhwa and Sindh, the country’s hardest-hit provinces.
- WFP has provided 11,200 children under 2 and 12,000 pregnant and breastfeeding women with specialized nutritious foods to help prevent and treat malnutrition and boost immunity against disease.
- WFP is using 27 boats from the Provincial Disaster Management Authorities (PDMA) to ferry food, reaching 52,000 people (8,000 households) in hard-to-reach areas of Sindh.
- Since early September, WFP has supported the National Disaster Management Authority (NDMA) to handle 28,467 m3 of relief cargo and supported the transport to more than 50 different locations across Pakistan via 2,000 contracted trucks. WFP has also coordinated the arrival of vessels at the Karachi seaport, flights at Karachi, Sukkur and Islamabad airports, as well as trains arriving at the Pakistan border carrying relief items, as large amounts of bilateral in-kind relief items arrive at quantities that exceed NDMA’s logistics capacity.
- The month-long Post Disaster Needs Assessment (PDNA) is underway under the leadership of the Ministry of Planning and Development with the technical support of the Asian Development Bank, European Union, World Bank, and the UN. WFP is represented under the Agriculture and Food security sector, which is led by FAO, under the Nutrition sub-sector and under Disaster Risk Reduction for crosscutting themes. The report, with key recommendations, is expected to be finalised by 15 October.
- After concluding the relief response, WFP will gradually transition to recovery and resilience activities to help communities rehabilitate climate-smart infrastructure and restore livelihoods.
- On 04 October, the United Nations in Pakistan revised its Flash Appeal to meet the evolving needs on the ground, seeking US$816 million to reach 9.5 million people. WFP’s scale-up requires US$225 million, including US$185 million in food and agriculture, US$31 million in nutrition and US$9 million in logistics.
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The United Nations World Food Programme is the world’s largest humanitarian organization, saving lives in emergencies and using food assistance to build a pathway to peace, stability and prosperity for people recovering from conflict, disasters and the impact of climate change.
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