WFP begins to assist flood victims

WFP began distribution of 12 mt of food over the weekend to residents affected by last week’s devastating floods in northwestern Pakistan in which at least 200 people were killed, the agency said on Monday. “We wanted to provide aid as quickly as possible to help alleviate the suffering,” WFP’s regional public affairs spokesman, Khaled Mansour, told IRIN. Along with other donations from local and international NGOs, WFP has put aside seven and a half tonnes of wheat flour and four and a half tonnes of cooking oil for residents in the worst-affected Mansehra District in the North-West Frontier Province. “The food should last around a month,” Mansour said. With nearly half of the houses in the district completely destroyed and an entire village washed away, Mansour said the food agency wanted to act quickly. He added that its priority was to target those who had lost everything when torrential rains pounded the region. Mansour said WFP would also be donating four tonnes of cooking oil to residents in the capital’s twin city of Rawalpindi, the second worst-affected area in Pakistan. This donation would be complemented by a distribution of wheat from NGOs, he explained. Although the rainfall was the heaviest Pakistan had seen this century, it had not brought any reprieve from the ongoing drought, according to government officials. The floods took place downstream from the country’s two main reservoirs, allowing no chance of any water being harvested to mitigate the continuing drought in parts of the country.