UN & partners deliver 170,000 tons of food to flood survivors
ISLAMABAD, October 11, 2010: United Nations agencies and their humanitarian partners have delivered almost 170,000 tons of food to millions of people affected by the severe floods that first hit the country in late July, and are preparing to distribute seeds and fertilizer ahead of the planting season in an effort to enable 4.2 million people to feed themselves again.
An estimated 8 million flood-affected people are meanwhile expected to receive food aid this month, the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) reported.
To date, organisations providing health care have delivered enough medicines to cover the health needs of more than 5 million people. More than 6.7 million health consultations have been recorded.
In addition, over 260,000 tents and 413,000 tarpaulins have been provided, enough to accommodate almost 467,000 households -- 25 per cent of those in need of shelter material.
The water, sanitation and hygiene cluster is now providing clean water for daily use to 3.7 million people, and almost 1.5 million people have benefited from distributions of hygiene kits.
According to OCHA’s Financial Tracking Service (FTS), the over $2 billion revised Floods Emergency Response Plan for Pakistan is to date 33 per cent funded.
Meanwhile, OCHA and the global humanitarian logistics cluster, led by the UN World Food Programme (WFP), have launched an interactive web-based tool dubbed “Global Mapping of Emergency Stockpiles,” which displays information on emergency relief warehouses managed by international humanitarian organisations.
The aim of the tool is to help affected countries and aid agencies identify and send emergency relief items in response to crises. It is the only existing central platform that emphasises “who has what where” by region, sector, organisation and organisation type, OCHA and WFP said in a joint statement.
Information has so far been provided by UN agencies, non-governmental organisations (NGOs) and a number of governmental entities. OCHA is in discussion with other stockpile owners to expand the content of the database. The tool is available at www.humanitarianinfo.org/stockmap. -- INFN (Infochange News and Features Network)