Pakistan flood victims face harsh winter

Terra Daily via UPI: The onslaught of winter is compounding the hardships faced by millions of Pakistan flood victims, aid agencies say. Completing a four-day visit to Pakistan Sunday, Valerie Amos, U.N. undersecretary-general for Humanitarian Affairs and Emergency Relief Coordinator, said millions of people need assistance for healthcare, education, agricultural support and to build rebuild their homes and livelihoods. "The world's attention is waning at a time when some of the biggest challenges are still to come," said Amos in a news release.

The July-August floods, the worst natural disaster in Pakistan's history, killed nearly 1,800 people and displaced 21 million others. So far, the United Nations has received about half of its $1.94 billion appeal target.

The U.S. military formally ended its relief mission to flood-stricken Pakistan, it was announced Thursday but officials stressed that the government would continue with financial relief for flood victims, saying that it is providing more than $571 million.

While some displaced families have returned to their villages, they live in tents and makeshift structures that don't protect them adequately from the elements. And with a shortage of food, children are going hungry, making them more vulnerable to pneumonia and other diseases, Save the Children said. In the Swat district in the northwestern province of Khyber-Pakhtoonkhwa, temperatures are already below freezing….

A foggy winter morning in Lahore, shot by Jugni, Wikimedia Commons, under the Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 3.0 Unported license