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Islamabad: Over four
million Pakistanis are still homeless, six months after massive
floods devastated the country, the Red Cross has said. Many are
returning to their homes to discover these are no longer
inhabitable.
"Six months on from the devastating flooding in Pakistan, more
than four million people remain in a desperate situation without
adequate shelter," The News International reported Saturday
quoting a statement by the International Federation of the Red
Cross and Red Crescent Societies (IFRC).
Families which have begun leaving camps and temporary shelters
have returned to find that their homes are no longer inhabitable,
leading to a "secondary wave of displacement".
"The cruelty of this disaster is that millions of people were
driven from their homes by the floods. They have endured miserable
conditions, living for months under canvas or tarpaulins," said
Gocha Guchashvili, IFRC flood operations coordinator in Pakistan.
"Now they are returning home to almost nothing. Their houses,
their fields and their livelihood are ruined," she said.
Monsoon rains swept through the country in July and August last
year affecting 21 million people, destroying 1.7 million homes and
damaging over 5.4 million acres of crop land.
The IFRC urged donors for more donations, saying that its appeal
of $135 million was only 59 percent covered.
"Full funding will allow the IFRC to support 130,000 families in
their recovery over two years," the statement said.
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