water and sanitation

International aid agency Oxfam has started an emergency response to get aid to those affected by flooding in the Sindh, Punjab and Baluchistan provinces of Pakistan. This is the third consecutive year of flooding in Pakistan and many of those affected had not fully recovered from last years’ mega-floods.

Sally Chin of Oxfam said:

Thousands of people living in camps in Haiti remain at risk from flooding and disease, according to international aid agency Oxfam, despite the Caribbean island appearing to have avoided the worst of tropical storm Isaac.

Oxfam will be flying out eight tons of water purification aid to Sierra Leone as it boosts its response to the cholera outbreak which is spreading across the country.

Sierra Leone is in the grip of one of the worst cholera outbreak in its history with death rates almost double emergency thresholds and the number of people affected likely to increase significantly in the next month.

Tens of thousands of lives at risk with money for vital services set to run out in 2-3 months

Yemen is on the brink of a catastrophic food crisis, seven aid agencies said today (23 May 2012) with 10 million people – 44 percent of the population – without enough food to eat.  The aid agencies warned that malnutrition rates recorded by the UN in some parts of the country were alarming, with one in three children severely malnourished.

A recent influx of 63,000 displaced families – bringing the total to almost half a million people – into the Districts of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa has sparked grave concerns among international and national NGOs in Pakistan.

The floods that began in August 2011 and swept across the province of Sindh and part of Bolochistan resulted in one of the most destructive disasters that Pakistan has experienced.

Tropical storm Dando and cyclone Funso affected more than 117,000 people and left 40 dead in Mozambique last week. Oxfam and local partners are providing water and sanitation in Zambezia, to help reduce the risk of cholera and other sanitation-related disease.