PESHAWAR:In the aftermath of the most destructive floods in the country, teams from Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF), an international humanitarian organization, are responding to urgent humanitarian needs in the provinces of Sindh, Balochistan, and Khyber Pakhtunkhwa.
Our emergency teams, including some staff who lost their own homes to the devastating floods, have set up mobile clinics, clean water distribution points and distributed relief kits in different affected locations in the country, says a press release issued here on Friday.
Since August 20, we have provided medical consultations to over 17,000 patients, most presenting with skin diseases, fever, eye infections, respiratory infections, malaria and diarrhoea.
We have distributed over 5,000 relief kits including kitchen and hygiene items, mosquito nets and repellent to more than 4,000 flood-affected families, and our teams have provided 1.7 million litres of clean drinking water to the affected people in the three provinces.
“Our teams on the ground see a growing number of patients with diseases related to unsanitary living conditions and drinking contaminated water, the statement added.
Accessibility is a big challenge as many villages and cities are still cut off by the water and our teams are using boats to reach them.
We are working to provide medical and water and sanitation aid to thousands of displaced people and try and prevent further outbreaks of disease”, says Dr Ahmed Bilal, MSF’s emergency medical coordinator.
Giving details of relief work by MSF, he shared in Sindh, we are running two mobile clinics in Dadu city, Khairpur Nathan Shah and Johi town, and assessments are being undertaken in Sukkur and its surroundings as well as in remote areas of Jacobabad.
In Dadu district, our teams have provided medical care to over 4,000 patients, donated relief items to over 300 families and distributed over 100,000 litres of drinking water.
We have installed water tanks to provide clean drinking water to displaced people taking shelter in Labour Colony flats and Lab-e-Mehran camp in Sukkur district.
In Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, the response teams have started running mobile clinics in Sara Sang, Bela, and Miaonlay villages in Charsadda district.
Our medical teams have so far provided outpatient basic healthcare services to over 1,900 patients.
We have distributed of relief items to over 2,500 families in these villages, he continued.
MSF is also strengthening the capacity of the flood-hit Kot basic health unit and providing support with a team of doctors and nurses, medications and logistics.
After assessing the needs in Nowshera district we have identified two sites for mobile clinics and our registrations are ongoing for the distribution of relief items.
We will soon expand support to basic healthcare, clean drinking water and distribution of relief items in both Charsadda and Nowshera districts.
In Balochistan, our teams are providing outpatient basic healthcare, water and sanitation, and undertaking health promotion activities in Quetta, Chaman, Nasirabad and Jaffarabad districts.
Our teams have also set up water distribution points to provide water to the flood-hit population and are distributing relief items among families.
We are running two mobile clinics in Dera Murad Jamali and Dera Allah Yar, and will be expanding to reach out more patients in surrounding districts.
“Internally displaced people living in tents by the riverbanks or in temporary shelters are waiting to return to their homes once the water levels go down.
However, this could take several months, and millions of houses have been destroyed or damaged, says Frank Ross Katambula, MSF emergency coordinator.
Our teams are bringing experts in different departments to increase our response capacity in the country.