Asia-Pacific

Over 160,000 in flood-affected Pakistan remain displaced

(Xinhua)
Updated: 2011-01-26 09:43

UNITED NATIONS - Six months after the devastating floods struck Pakistan, more than 160,000 people are still displaced there, UN spokesman Martin Nesirky said here on Tuesday.

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"Although this is a substantial decrease from peak levels in the fall, where nearly 3.3 million people were living in camps, a substantial population is still in need of help," Nesirky said at a daily news briefing here.

According to the UN Refugee Agency (UNHCR), many of those still uprooted have lost their livelihoods and are without sufficient cash or transport to move on, or have lost their homes and do not have the means to rebuild them.

In the past six months, the UNHCR has provided emergency shelter to nearly two million people, and pledges to continue supporting hundreds of thousands of flood victims.

The floods, which struck northern Pakistan at the onset of the monsoons in July and spread southwards inundating villages along the Indus River, affected some 20 million people. At the height of the crisis in September and October, an estimated 3.2 million internally displaced persons (IDPs) were accommodated in camps.

The floods damaged or destroyed an estimated 1.7 million homes. The remaining IDPs are sheltered in more than 240 camps and spontaneous settlements.