As flood waters continue raging, Scottish aid charity Mercy Corps ramps up operations in southern Pakistan

As flood waters rise in southern Pakistan, Scottish aid charity Mercy Corps is quickly expanding efforts to assist families in four districts of Sindh Province. The Edinburgh-based aid agency is making multiple daily trips to displacement camps with water tankers, building latrines, and preparing to open two mobile health units to meet pressing medical needs. The United Nations estimates that 35 percent of Sindh Province is underwater and 2.5 million people in the province have been affected by the floods.

“This tragedy is unfolding from north to south. In the southern part of Pakistan, flood waters are still flowing in, rushing through communities, and creating tremendous destruction,” said Mercy Corps Pakistan Country Director Steve Claborne. “People are desperate and confused. They’re staying in crowded camps, with friends and family, or even camping out on roads or wherever they can find higher ground.”

The Mercy Corps team based in Sukkur reports that clean water is the most pressing need in Sindh Province. In response, the agency has started trucking water tankers into displacement camps three or four times daily, providing 250,000 litres of water per day for 15,000 people. In addition, Mercy Corps plans to bring multiple high-volume water filtration units to Sindh in the coming days, and is working closely with local organisations to determine how to best support their efforts.

Mercy Corps will also open two mobile health units in Sindh Province early next week to provide basic medical care for 300 people per day. The most pressing health needs are treatment of water-borne diseases such as gastro-intestinal problems and upper respiratory infections. Lack of clean drinking water and deplorable sanitation conditions threaten to create more widespread and serious outbreaks of disease.

“We will be faced with enormous public health challenges in the next four weeks,” explained Mercy Corps Director of Public Health Dr. Arif Noor. “This could get much worse if people do not receive adequate drinking water soon. We have not yet seen outbreaks of cholera, but we have seen many incidents of diarrhoea and other serious water-borne illnesses.”

Mercy Corps continues to meet needs in the hard-hit Swat Valley, where the agency is providing clean water for 10,000 people per day via water tanks, high-volume filtration units and water purification tablets. Mercy Corps is also delivering hundreds of food kits containing staples such as cooking oil, sugar, salt and rice, and tool kits with wheelbarrows, shovels, hammers and other tools needed for clean up and rebuilding efforts.

Mercy Corps has been working in Pakistan since 1986, running a range of health, economic development and emergency relief projects. The organisation was working in both Swat Valley and Sindh Province prior to the floods, focusing on a mix of boosting incomes, promoting health and caring for livestock.

How you can help:

Donate to the Mercy Corps Pakistan Emergency Fund:

- Online at www.mercycorps.org.uk

- Call 0845 245 0686

- Or send a cheque to Mercy Corps, 40 Sciennes, Edinburgh EH9 1NJ