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On June 25, 2007 a cyclone hit the regions of Baluchistan and Sindh in Pakistan, causing widespread and severe flooding. More than 300 people have died in the floods and around 400,000 have lost their homes. The floods washed away or seriously damaged people’s mud-brick homes and left them stranded as roads turned to mud.

Villages Washed Away

Around 2.5 million people have been affected by the floods and as many as 500,000 have been left without safe drinking water as water sources have been destroyed or contaminated.

With no water or sanitation facilities, the threat of waterborne disease and skin conditions is high, especially among vulnerable young children. In some places, entire villages have been washed away and people have lost all their possessions, food stocks, clothes, livelihoods and livestock. The most pressing needs are for shelter, clean drinking water, food, and healthcare and sanitation facilities.

Emergency Intervention

Islamic Relief dispatched an emergency team to Baluchistan and work began in the regions of Kharan and Chagai. In Chagai, 80 percent of the population has been displaced from their homes and in many rural areas up to 60 percent of houses have been washed away.

Islamic Relief provided 900 families in Chagai and Kharan with temporary shelter, food aid, water cans and kitchen sets. Working with the United Nations High Commission for Refugees (UNHCR), Islamic Relief also distributed tents and relief items to displaced families in Chagai and Kharan. Islamic Relief has also planned to distribute shelter kits, kitchen sets and hygiene kits to 1,800 more families in Kharan in partnership with the Swedish International Development Co-operation Agency (SIDA.)

Islamic Relief recently began a project in Kharan and Jaffarabad working with the UK Government’s Department for International Development. The project will provide shelter repair kits, hygiene kits, kitchen sets and water cans to 3,400 families as well as the provision of health and hygiene sessions to stop the spread of disease.

Health Concerns

Islamic Relief has already provided healthcare to thousands of people injured in the floods in 12 health centers in Kharan and Chagai. Islamic Relief is also working with UNICEF on a project that will focus on the provision of clean drinking water and sanitation facilities to prevent the spread of waterborne diseases.

Islamic Relief ’s plans also include the provision of safe drinking water, water bladders, water purification tablets and water cans to 6,000 families in Kharan City and its suburbs. The construction of new restrooms and drainage facilities, which had been damaged in the floods, as well as carrying out hygiene promotion sessions, are also in the works.