Pakistani Female Flood Victims Struggle to Find Health Care Pakistani Prime Minister Yousuf Raza Gilani is warning the country's devastating floods will slow economic growth and lead to rising inflati…
SUKKUR: President Asif Ali Zardari on Thursday assured the flood affected people that the government was working hard to deliver relief goods and minimize their sufferings caused by unprecedented floods in the country. The President stated this during his visit to Sukkur Barrage and a meeting with the flood victims at a relief camp where he also received a briefing on the latest flood situation. The President, who was accompanied by Sindh Chief Minister Syed Qaim Ali Shah, Federal Minister for Labour Syed Khurshid Shah, Senator Islamuddin Sheikh, party leaders and government officials was given a briefing by Irrigation Provincial Secretary Shujauddin Junejo. The President asked questions to ascertain for himself the flood situation and its effect on the population. The Secretary told that 19 districts of Sindh had been affected. Some 188 villages were affected in Kashmore, 148 in Sukkur, 108 in Shikarpur, 584 in Khanpur, 214 in Larkana, 97 in Shahdadkot, 48 in Nosheroferoze, 223 in Shaheed Benazirabad, five in Dadu, 222 in Hyderabad and 35 in Tando Muhammad. Breaches had occurred at 100 places which worsened the situation in the inundated areas of the province. The President was told that 618 relief camps had been set up to help the flood victims. The aid was sent to the relief camps through aircraft, helicopters and for the rescue operation 10 navy rubber boats manned by navy personnel, 154 boats of Sindh government and boats of fisheries department were put to use. Food, drinking water and basic amenities were also delivered at the camps. The President was informed that NADRA had started registration of displaced people in an effort to improve the relief activities. President Zardari was told that United Nations had also come to the aid of relief agencies by providing food, shelter, health, sanitation facilities and essential equipment to mitigate sufferings of the people. Pakistan army was fully participating in the relief activities with its boats and dewatering pump sets. About 186 life safety jackets, 100 water proof torches, oxygen cylinders, 50 emergency generators, 100 helmets with search lights and 6000 mobilised tents were being deployed in the rescue and relief operation. About 7000 tents will also be provided on the directions of the Prime Minister. The President was told that Rs 40 billion was required for the relief activities. Three hundred motorised boats, hydraulic excavators, 300,000 ration packets, clean water, medicines and vaccines against snakebite were also needed. The Secretary Irrigation said that the floods were unprecedented as the water flowed from hill torrents and with heavy rains submerged huge areas. He said the high level of water flow in catchment areas caused unpredictable rise in rivers. There were abrupt changes in the weather and the rain fell for long periods which caused rivers to swell. He said heavy rains hindered flood fighting activities and blocked access to the affected people. In Sindh out of148 vulnerable embankments 11 were still at the risk of inaundation.
“You know you’re going to have to give me all the licorice ones, don’t you? Else I’ll tell Dad”
MOSCOW: The number of deaths in Moscow has increased to 700 daily during the deadly summer with record-breaking heat and toxic smog smothering the Russian capital, the head of the Moscow healthcare department said on Monday. Moscow region has seen abnormally hot weather and drought for over a month with two temperature records broken in June and ten records broken in July. Heat has caused peat bogs fires nearby Moscow creating toxic smog throughout the capital. The smog pushed pollution levels to new 2010 highs on Saturday threatening people’’s health. “Usually, 360-380 people die a day, while currently it is about 700,” Andrei Seltsovsky said. Russian Novaya Gazeta daily cited an unnamed Moscow medic as saying ambulance workers were not to hospitalize people except in urgent cases. Moscow ambulances are practically working in war-time conditions. The ambulances are not equipped with an air conditioning system and the temperature inside the vehicles sometimes reaches 50 degrees Celsius (122 degrees Fahrenheit). “Sometimes our doctors faint,” Novaya Gazeta quoted the medic as saying. “The daily routine is the most severe thing for us. None of the medical stations have drinking water for the emergency team. We buy it ourselves to water down the patients suffering the heat stroke,” the doctor told the paper. Novaya Gazeta said elderly people and the patients suffering from cardiovascular diseases are primarily at risk. Meanwhile, meteorologists have no reassuring news, saying Moscow will be cleared from the smog no earlier than next week.
ISLAMABAD: A United Nations official says the number of people affected by Pakistan’’s massive floods could exceed the combined total of three recent major natural disasters. Maurizio Giuliano, a spokesman for the U.N. Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs, said Monday if the Pakistan government’’s calculations are correct, the scale of the disaster could be worse than Haiti’’s January earthquake, the 2004 tsunami, and the 2005 Pakistan earthquake combined. Relief workers in Pakistan say continued heavy rains have worsened the situation in the country where raging floodwaters have killed more than 1,600 people and affected 15 million. The floods have destroyed hundreds of thousands of homes and washed away roads, bridges, crops and livestock. New downpours have hampered relief efforts in the northwestern province of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa and spread the floods to the agriculture heartland of Punjab and further south along the Indus River into Sindh province. In the northern area of Gilgit-Baltistan Sunday, at least 28 people were killed in landslides, but officials said up to 40 people were feared dead. Pakistan’’s army is leading the relief efforts, but bad weather is hampering helicopter flights carrying emergency aid to victims still trapped in remote areas. The United Nations says Pakistan will need billions of dollars to recover from its worst floods in history. U.N. official Guiliano told VOA that shelter for the millions of victims is the biggest and most urgent concern. Pakistani Prime Minister Yusuf Raza Gilani visited the flood-hit areas of Sindh province Sunday and appealed for more international aid. He said the crisis has spiraled beyond the government’’s capacity, adding the country has been set back many years because of the devastation. The office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees said its workers were reporting shortages of food, medicine and clean water. The NATO alliance pledged to help transport aid to the region. The World Health Organization warned that without access to safe water, Pakistanis are at high risk of contracting water-borne diseases such as diarrhea and cholera.
Monday, August 09, 2010 Our correspondent IslamabadAssisted by UNFPA, the Maternal and Child Health (MCH) Centre of the Pakistan Institute of Medical Sciences (PIMS) has launched piloting of cervi…
The Pakistani government, international and local health groups are stepping up efforts to prevent water-borne diseases from spreading in the country's flood- affected areas.According to official stat…
WASHINGTON: Pledging continued support for Pakistan’’s flood recovery effort, the United States has said the reconstruction phase following the current relief work will likely need more international aid overtime than committed to the key South Asian country after a deadly earthquake in 2005. “What makes this unique is the scale of the disaster and its effect throughout the entire country,” U.S. ambassador to Pakistan, Anne Patterson, said. “The (7.6-magnitude) earthquake and the displacement of 2 million people from the Swat Valley (in anti-militant operation last year) were more localized. So while the loss of life in this disaster may be less, the economic impact and the need for reconstruction assistance over time could well be greater,” the diplomat added, speaking from Islamabad via teleconference with American journalists. The United States, she said, is working with the federal Pakistani government and established NGOs to provide immediate life-saving aid to the victims of the worst floods in Pakistan in 80 years. The UN now estimates that nearly 1500 people were killed, a million people remain homeless, and 4.5 million people have been affected across the country as the initial flood waters moves through the Indus River system toward the Arabian Sea. It would be as if the Missouri, Arkansas and Red Rivers all overflowed at once and then dumped huge amounts of water and debris into the Mississippi, Patterson said, explaining enormity of the disaster to Americans. The ambassador estimated that the number of affected people is expected to rise to 6 million by the end of the week. “Countrywide, 92 bridges have been destroyed, and more than 200 major roads have been damaged. There are four major dams at risk. Crop and livestock loss will affect long-term livelihood and food security. International organizations believe that up to 2.5 million people will require food assistance. We anticipate that with additional rains this weekend, waters will still be high next week,” she informed. The U.S. engagement with this flood crisis began last Friday when the Government of Pakistan asked that U.S. helicopters and aircraft, assigned to support the Pakistan interior ministry’’s air wing, support flood relief, Patterson said. “We agreed immediately and began to consider what other ways we could help. In the meantime, these U.S. aircraft have rescued over a thousand people and airlifted over 37,000 pounds of supplies.” The U.S. has already committed $35 million in assistance to flood-affected populations. President Barack Obama and Secretary of State Hillary Clinton have vowed to stand by Pakistan in the hour of crisis. “The money will be provided by USAID to international organizations and established Pakistani NGOs to provide food, health care, and shelter for those displaced by the floods. This is being supplemented by existing programs that we had in place to help many of these same people who were formerly displaced by fighting in Swat. And we are working now to identify gaps,” the dop U.S. diplomat in Islamabad said. In response to a question, the ambassador underscored the United States” close working relationship with Pakistani government in the ongoing relief effort and praised the federal disaster management authority for doing a good job. “There are always, in situations like this, NGOs that are associated with what we would call extremist groups who have been active delivering supplies. But they are totally, in my view, overcome by the enormous number of local and highly reputable NGOs and the international NGOs who have already mobilized for this crisis. We are working with already 13 international and local NGOs trying to get money to them as quickly as possible so they can provide services throughout the country. So we think the government is particularly the federal disaster management authority is doing a good job in delivering support to the people.” Patterson also applauded her U.S. Department of Defense colleagues, who, recognizing the growing crisis, immediately went on a search for emergency meal and said U.S. aircrews aboard the U.S. Air Force C-130 and C-17 transport aircraft flew into Rawalpindi and delivered about 50,000 halal meals in support of a Pakistan Government request. That number grew through the week to nearly 436,000 meals. The ambassador also visited the airbase where two of U.S. Chinook helicopters were loading up supplies for flood victims and paid tribute to the young American men and women for their service in partnership with their Pakistani counterparts. “The U.S. Government has been working to support Pakistan’’s Government as it struggles to save lives and property. Secretary Clinton, who has been deeply engaged in building a strong relationship between the United States and Pakistan, has made our support for Pakistan in this time of crisis a priority. Our government is fortunate to have a number of people here and in Washington with substantial experience available to assist and support Pakistan, including several who were here during the earthquake. We are using the unique capabilities of our government to help save lives and to provide humanitarian assistance in full partnership with the Government of Pakistan.”
Sunday, August 08, 2010 KarachiFederal Minister of Health, Makhdoom Shahabuddin has lauded the initiative of pharmaceutical firm to produce Pegylated Interferon locally as it is a service to those su…
KABUL: Eight foreign medical workers, including “several” Americans, were killed by gunmen in Afghanistan’’s remote northeast, police and officials said on Saturday, with the attack claimed by the Taliban. A Christian aid group said it appeared those killed were members of one of its mobile eye clinics which had been travelling in northeastern Nuristan province and was headed back for Kabul after providing eye care for local Afghans. The Taliban claimed responsibility for the killings and accused the medical workers of proselytising Christianity. Zabihullah Mujahid, a spokesman for the Taliban, said from an undisclosed location that bibles translated into Dari had been found with the foreigners. Dirk Frans, executive director of the International Assistance Mission (IAM), said it had been told the bodies of eight foreigners — five men and three women — and two Afghans had been recovered. “This actually sounds very similar to our Nuristan eye camp team,” Frans said, adding that IAM had last had contact with the team’’s leader on Wednesday. “This means it might have happened on Thursday,” he said. Frans said the 12-member team had consisted of 6 US nationals, one British national, a German and four Afghans. Two Afghan staff members had escaped alive, he said. Afghan police officials had earlier said six Germans were among the dead. US officials in Kabul said it appeared Americans were involved. “We have reason to believe that several American citizens are among the deceased. We cannot confirm any details at this point,” US Embassy spokeswoman Caitlin Hayden said in a statement. Violence in Afghanistan is at its worst since US-led and Afghan armed groups overthrew the Taliban in 2001. June was the bloodiest month for foreign forces in Afghanistan since then, with more than 100 killed. Hundreds of Afghan civilians have also been killed this year as they become caught up in the crossfire. “WE WARNED THEM” Aqa Noor Kentuz, the police chief for Badakshan province, said the “bullet-riddled” bodies were found early on Saturday. Kentuz said the foreigners had identified themselves as doctors, but some early reports said they were tourists. He said they had been camping near jungle on a tour of Nuristan and neighbouring Badakshan when they were attacked. Travel documents were found near their bodies, he said. “Before their travel we warned them not to tour near jungles in Nuristan but they said they were doctors and no one was going to hurt them,” Kentuz said. Jamaluddin Badr, governor of nearby Nuristan province, also said the group was made up of doctors who had visited several districts in Nuristan and Badakshan, helping local Afghans. The IAM describes itself as an “international charitable, non-profit, Christian organisation” which has been helping Afghans with health and economic development since 1966. “At this stage we do not have many details but our thoughts and prayers are with the families and friends of those who are presumed killed,” it said in an earlier statement issued on its website (www.iam-afghanistan.org/). “This tragedy negatively impacts our ability to continue serving the Afghan people … We hope it will not stop our work that benefits over a quarter of a million Afghans each year.” A spokesman for the German Foreign Ministry in Berlin said it was checking reports through its embassy in Kabul and could not comment until more information became available. The Nato-led International Security Assistance Force in Afghanistan said it had no involvement in the incident and had no information. Despite a record number of foreign forces in Afghanistan, standing at some 140,000 backed by tens of thousands of Afghan forces, the Taliban have extended their campaign out of traditional power bases in the south and east into the north and elsewhere in recent years.