For the second year in a row, the people of Pakistan are struggling to survive in the face of flooding. In mid-August 2011, heavy monsoon rains began to fall on Southern Pakistan, swelling the Indus river. As the water levels rose, the river and its tributaries overflowed their banks causing damage reminiscent of last year’s disaster.
According to the BBC, eight million people have now been affected by the floods, nearly one million houses have been damaged or destroyed, and thousands of livestock have been lost. The Christian Reformed World Relief Committee (CRWRC) is responding.
Together with its local partner, the Interfaith League Against Poverty (I-LAP), CRWRC was already active in Pakistan before this year’s floods began. In fact, over the past year, CRWRC has provided $5.6 million in aid to survivors of last year’s disaster in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa (KPK) province. You can read about this response here.
This year’s floods occurred further south in the Province of Sindh. Here, large tracts of land are now sitting under water, leaving thousands of families displaced. The flooding has also contaminated the drinking water and left families at risk for a variety of waterborne illnesses. While CRWRC is continuing to respond in KPK, it is now also responding to needs in Sindh.
Together with I-LAP, CRWRC is providing hygiene kits, mosquito nets, kitchen kits, and stoves to 200 families. CRWRC is also providing three months of food aid to 5,000 households through the Canadian Foodgrains Bank (CFGB).
Coordinated with the World Food Programme, this food program is providing wheat flour, lentils, cooking oil, and salt to families. This food aid will amount to over 1,700 metric tons and should provide an average of 2,100 calories per day to each individual.
