WHO agrees on additional support to Sindh, Balochistan for health services

SUKKUR: World Health Organization’s(WHO) executive director for health emergencies program Dr Mike Ryan Wednesday vowed that WHO will provide additional support to Sindh and Balochistan to back the government’s bid to provide emergency health services to the stranded population.

Talking to Commissioner Sukkur Ghulam Mustafa Phul at a briefing in Sukkur on recovery operations in Sindh, Dr Mike Ryan said the catastrophe is so massive that the international organization and community had to act fast.

He compared the 2010 floods and said that this is a climatic catastrophe and we need to act fast.”The WHO will provide more medicines and health kits for pregnant women to curtail malaria and water-borne diseases.

Commissioner Sukkur Division Ghulam Mustafa while briefing the WHO delegation, said that in Sukkur Division overall, 2.56 million individuals were directly affected by floods, losing their homes and crops. “However, water is still standing in the fields and many villages and union councils, stranded in water where the government machinery has been unable to reach.”

The Commissioner maintained that the Provincial Disaster Management Authority (PDMA) is coordinating the relief effort while deputy commissioners are focal persons for the emergency and recovery operations.

WHO Country Representative Dr Palitha Mahipala said that the WHO is establishing a Sukkur Hub to support government efforts in the relief and recovery operations in the Sindh province. The hub will be a centre for all coordinated efforts in providing health facilities and will also work as a nerve centre with partner UN agencies and NGOs.

The meeting was informed that 1.65 million people in Sukkur, Khirpur and Ghotki are displaced while 94 health facilities in the area have been damaged. The meeting was informed that a total of 517 IDP camps have been established where 289580 persons are being accommodated in the IDP camps.

The District Health Officer (DHO) Sukkur informed that malaria, diarrhoea, water-borne diseases and skin disease is on the rise. Malnutrition in children due to extreme poverty and pregnant women are a big concern for the health service providers as damage assessment has not been completed due to many areas still inaccessible and underwater.

The WHO delegation also inaugurated the Sukkur Hub (Emergency Operations Center) and visited the Sukkur Labor Colony Medical facility for the flood affectees.