PRCS lists immediate needs of affected people as it appeals for action

People in the flood-affected areas of Sindh and other provinces are in desperate need of clean drinking water, ready-to-eat food, medicines and tents, the Pakistan Red Crescent Society (PRCS) said in an appeal on Saturday and urged national and international donors to come forward to save people from deaths due to starvation and disease.

“Outbreaks of water and vector-borne diseases are being reported from nine districts of Sindh as well as from several areas of Balochistan and South Punjab. Hundreds of thousands of people are getting sick due to diarrhoea, skin and respiratory infections, malaria and dengue in these areas. They need medicines as doctors can’t treat patients without required medicines,” PRCS Sindh secretary Kanwar Waseem told The News on Saturday.

The PRCS in its appeal to national and international donors said people were dying due to unavailability of medical support. “We need medicines desperately. Please donate medicines as per guidelines prepared by the health experts, especially Pakistan Society of Health System Pharmacists (PSHP). If you can’t buy the medicines, give donations so that medicines could be purchased,” he added.

“Similarly, [a shortage of] clean drinking water is an acute problem in the flood-affected areas where daily hundreds of thousands of people are getting sick by consuming contaminated water. We need filtered water coolers and water purification tablets or drinking water bottles to save people from death due to waterborne diseases.”

Waseem said that in most of the affected areas, people were unable to cook food as they didn’t have dry wood or natural gas supply in their camps and make-shift living arrangements. “Ready-to-eat nutritious food is the requirement of the day. Dry ration will be required after one month when cooking is possible in their tents. People need tents, tarpaulin sheet, utensil sets, water cooler, mosquito nets, hygiene kits, blankets, jerry can etc., etc.” The Red Crescent official said mosquitoes had made the lives of people miserable and in many areas people were preferring mosquito nets to tents.