Situation Report of Floods in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa

An emergency executive committee meeting was held at CHEF Intl on 2nd August, 2010 in response to the recent emergencies occurred in the shape of floods in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa.

Situation Analysis:
The northwest Pakistani province is witnessing worst floods since 1926. A newly constructed part of a dam in the Charsadda district collapsed, while the UN said it had reports that 5,000 homes were underwater in that area. Some 400,000 people were stranded in various northwest villages.

The death toll from Pakistan's worst floods in living memory topped 1000 as outbreaks of waterborne disease emerged and penniless survivors sought refuge from the raging torrents.

More than 1000 people have been killed by monsoon rains, flash floods and landslides in the northwest province of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, and at least another 47 have died in Pakistani-administered Kashmir, officials said.

Up to one million people have been affected, according to the United Nations, with thousands of homes and vast swathe of farmland destroyed in a region of Pakistan which were just getting some relief from years of extremist bloodshed.
At least 713 people died in Peshawar, Takhat Bhai, Nowshera and Charssada while the death toll in Shangla and Swat districts is over 300.

Hundreds of survivors sought shelter in schools in Peshawar, the main city in northwest Pakistan, and in Muzaffarabad, the capital of Pakistani Kashmir, after escaping the floods with children on their backs.

People clinging to the walls and rooftops of damaged houses as water rushed through villages.

According to official more than one million people are affected by the flood in 21 out of 25 districts of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa. Crops spread over millions of acre land have destroyed while the social structure of the province has changed into ruins.

Electricity, telephone and natural gas supplies to most parts of the affected areas are cutoff while the road infrastructure has collapsed. The current flood has broken all the previous records of the floods. The worst one before the 2010 flooding was considered to be that took place in 1929 in which the water flow was 150000 cusecs while the current flood with water flow at 275000 cusecs have broke the previous records.

Partner Projects
CHEF International has contacted all partner projects of CBM, LIGHT FOR THE WORLD, SEVA in Khyber Pukhtoon Khaw and no damage has been reported yet to any of these projects. CHEF International is in contact with other projects as the floods make their way to the rest of Pakistan.

CHEF Projects Situations:
All the projects of CHEF Intl have escaped the devastation caused by flood and are active and functioning, however CHEF-International is saddened by the loss of one of its employee Mr. Aqeel Ahmad of Bessian Eye Hospital, his car was washed away by the flash floods off river Kunhar in District Manshera while returning from Peshawar.

CHEF Intl Response:
Objective:
Takhtbai is placed in the middle of all the flood affected area and CHEF Intl has already 4 active projects running in Takthbahi which are: Comprehensive Eye Care Services, General Health Care Services, Community Vision Center and Hearing Care Unit.

In response to the needs of the most affected area of KPK, the following steps are being proposed:

1. Medical care services (eye care, and general health) will be provided free of cost initially for 4 weeks time with immediate effect to the affectees, at all CHEF International facilities in Takhat Bhai (General health care Unit and Hearing care unit funded by CBM), Comprehensive eye Care Hospital funded by LIGHT FOR THE WORLD, Community Vision Center Funded by SEVA)
2. Mobile general health clinic will be moved to a flood hit location near Takhtbai in coordination with the Government and other agencies to see the general ,eyepatients and persons with disabilities.
3. Life saving drugs will be provided to the patients at the mobile clinic and at the base hospital in Takhtbai free of charge.