ISLAMABAD: Government has sought across-the-board medical assistance as cataclysmic floods have wreaked havoc and crumbled country’s health system, leaving people vulnerable to deadly diseases.

Death toll from deluge has touched 1,559, including 551 children and 318 women, which does not include deaths from diseases contracted from floods, National Disaster Management Authority (NDMA)’s latest report showed. “People suffering from floods are now looking towards 2/3 of population which has not been affected,” Minister for Planning, Development and Special Initiatives Ahsan Iqbal told press conference alongside military officials yesterday.

He appealed to doctors to set up medical camps wherever possible for flood-hit people and also called on unaffected population to donate generously for rehabilitation work. Iqbal appealed to health sector to ensure they help government as outbreaks of diseases were being witnessed in several areas and are expected to increase.

Record monsoon rains and glacial melt in northern Pakistan triggered flooding that has impacted nearly 33 million people in South Asian nation of 220 million, sweeping away homes, crops, bridges, roads and livestock in damages estimated at $ 30 billion.

Published in The Daily National Courier, September, 21 2022

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