WaterAid responds to Pakistan floods with relief to over 40,000 people

on
August 30, 2022
children playing with water
Image: WaterAid/ Saiyna Bashir

WaterAid is responding to the crisis in Pakistan and has allocated PKR 30 million (over US$136,000) for initial emergency relief to over 40,000 people affected by the floods. It is handing out hygiene kits with soap, towels and jerrycans, it will disinfect drinking water sources, build temporary toilets in schools/camps, help with the clearance of flood water and support the specific needs of women and girls in the flood affected areas, including provision of menstrual hygiene kits.

"These devastating floods in Pakistan show that climate change is too much for any one country to handle. Earlier this year Pakistan battled scorching heatwaves, now it's the floods that have killed well over 1,000 people and have affected more than 30 million people - this is climate-blow upon blow. And it's likely to get even worse in the years to come, if action is not taken. 

We need world leaders to step up and help the millions in Pakistan who have been affected by the deadly floods with food, shelter, and clean and safe water to curb the outbreak of diseases. We have to rebuild water points, toilets and lives.

But we also need them to take urgent action for the longer term. The climate crisis is a water crisis at its core, so we need comprehensive, global action to mitigate the impact of climate change across the world, and to ensure the most vulnerable communities have access to basics such as water and food no matter the climate impacts that are already upon us. Every meeting between world leaders should have the climate crisis at the top of its agenda."

 - Arif Jabba Khan, Country Director, WaterAid Pakistan

WaterAid is an international nonprofit working to make clean water, decent toilets, and good hygiene normal for everyone, everywhere within a generation. WaterAid works in more than 30 countries to change the lives of the poorest and most marginalized people. Since 1981, WaterAid has reached 28 million people with clean water, 28 million people with decent toilets, and 26 million people with good hygiene.

Statistics

  • 750 million people in the world - one in ten - do not have clean water close to home.
  • Two billion people in the world - almost one in four - do not have a decent toilet of their own.
  • Around 310,000 children under five die every year from diarrheal diseases caused by poor water and sanitation. That's around 800 a day, or one child every two minutes.

Every $2 invested in water and toilets returns an average of $8 in increased productivity.