Four million children in Pakistan have no safe water, a year after deadly floods: UNICEF

ISLAMABAD: One year after catastrophic floods devastated swathes of Pakistan, some four million children in the South Asian nation remain without access to safe water, the United Nations children’s agency has warned.

In a news release Friday, UNICEF said it estimates that there are eight million people in the country, around half of whom are children, who continue to live in flood-affected areas without clean water.

“Vulnerable children living in flood-affected areas have endured a horrific year,” Abdullah Fadil, UNICEF Representative in Pakistan, said in the statement.

“They lost their loved ones, their homes and schools. As the monsoon rains return, the fear of another climate disaster looms large. Recovery efforts continue, but many remain unreached, and the children of Pakistan risk being forgotten.”

Flooding caused by record monsoon rains and melting glaciers in Pakistan’s northern mountain regions last year claimed the lives of nearly 1,600 people – more than a third whom were children – and impacted an estimated 33 million more.

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The floods submerged a third of the country, with the force of the floodwater washing away homes, leaving tens of thousands stranded on the road without any food to eat or clean water to drink.

About 30,000 schools, 2,000 health facilities and 4,300 water systems were damaged or destroyed, UNICEF said.

“The climate-related disaster deepened pre-existing inequities for children and families in affected districts,” UNICEF said in the statement. “One third of children were already out of school before the floods, malnutrition was reaching emergency levels and access to safe drinking water and sanitation was worryingly low.”

Fadil from UNICEF said the agency has called on the government of Pakistan and its partners to “increase and sustain investment in basic social services for children and families.”

He added: “We cannot forget the children of Pakistan. The flood waters have gone, but their troubles remain, in this climate volatile region.”