Islamabad: At least seven million people
are still without shelter in Pakistan nearly three months
after catastrophic floods devastated huge parts of the
country, the United Nations said on Tuesday.
Torrential monsoon rains began falling in northwestern
Pakistan in July, causing floods that moved steadily south,
wiping out villages and farmland and affecting an area roughly
the size of England.
"At least seven million people are currently without
shelter in the flood-affected areas," UN spokeswoman Stacey
Winston told a news conference in Islamabad.
She said that the floods destroyed and damaged over
1.9 million homes.
The United Nations has issued a record
two-billion-dollar appeal for funds to cope with the disaster,
which UN agencies say affected 21 million people.
Only around 35 percent of the appeal has already been funded.
Winston estimated that 14 million people were in need
of immediate humanitarian assistance, saying that the United
Nations distributed food rations among 2.5 million people this
month in 39 flood-affected districts.
PTI
