Much Needed Aid For Flood-Hit Arrives Ahead Of Winter

UK’s DFID Donates 23 Containers, IOM Receives

International Organization for Migration (IOM) received delivery at Karachi port of twenty-three 40-foot containers of aid.

The aid was sent for Sindh flood victims and was donated by the UK’s Department for International Development (DFID).

The aid, which included 15,000 shelter kits, 15,000 pole sets, 36,000 wool blankets, 21,000 fleece blankets and 24,000 buckets, would help some 15,000 vulnerable, flood-affected families in Sindh.

“This shipment is particularly welcome as it comes at a time when our emergency stocks are nearly exhausted, thousands of families still need our help and winter is fast approaching,” says IOM Pakistan Emergency Operations Manager Tya Maskun.

IOM will serve as the consignee for the containers, arrange their onward shipment to Hyderabad in Sindh, and organize distribution of the aid through partner humanitarian agencies in the IASC Emergency Shelter Cluster.

According to the Cluster, which is led by IOM, the government and aid agencies have already distributed emergency shelter to 361,839 families in Sindh and Balochistan flood-affected areas, but more than 75% of total affected households have yet to receive any shelter assistance.

Pakistan’s National Disaster Management Authority (NDMA) says that the floods have damaged or destroyed over 1.58 million houses in Sindh and approximately 26,000 houses in Balochistan.

“Temperatures are dropping and we are getting dozens of requests every day for plastic sheet and blankets, both from families who are returning to their villages after vacating public buildings, and from people who simply moved to higher ground and are still waiting for the water to recede,” says IOM Hyderabad Head of Sub-Office Arshad Rashid.