PAKISTAN: Many flood victims reluctant to return to their destroyed homes

Record ID: 345262

  • Title: PAKISTAN: Many flood victims reluctant to return to their destroyed homes
  • Date: 4th September 2010
  • Summary: FAMILY HAVING MEAL IN TENTED HOUSE LITTLE GIRL
  • Embargoed: 19th September 2010 13:00
  • Keywords:
  • Location: Pakistan
  • Country: Pakistan
  • Topics: Disasters / Accidents / Natural catastrophes
  • Reuters ID: LVA5J0V7SYMUGN3DTGFAXZ5DS7WU
  • Story Text: Many victims of the recent floods in Pakistan who are now living in makeshift shelters are reluctant to return to their devastated villages as the waters recede.
    Gul Mohammad, whose family is living in a tent settlement in Makli said: "Even if waters recede in our village, we are not ready to go back. Our land and livlihood has been destroyed for the next five to ten years."
    Relief worker Mohammad Adam explained that the internally displaced people living Makli camp could not return home before the flood waters dried out, they could earn a living from their lands and their homes had been rebuilt.
    "Their area is totally swamped. They will stay here for about two months because their areas are six to eight feet under water. They will not go back until the waters dry out. Their land not ready to live on and their destroyed houses have not been rebuilt," Adam said.
    More than 1,600 people have died and more than 6 million are homeless, according to the United Nations. The total population affected is at least 17 million people.
    Flooding battered Pakistan since the onset of heavy monsoon rains a month ago, affecting a wide central belt.
    At least 3.2 million hectares (7.9 million acres) -- about 14 percent of Pakistan's entire cultivated land, have been damaged.
    The U.N. says 121,000 tents and 110,500 tarpaulins, able to house 1.2 million people, have been delivered so far. But almost 5 million people are still homeless.
    Aid agencies fear disease, food shortages and malnutrition may create new crises.
    The United Nations says only 64 percent of the funds required to meet the 458 million U.S. dollar cost of the crisis have been pledged or funded.
  • Copyright Holder: REUTERS
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