IDPs face cholera, difficult camp conditions - ICRC warns

After prayer time at mosques in Peshawar, the provincial capital of Pakistan’s North West Frontier Province (NWFP), donations are collected for charity during Ramadan, the Islamic month of fasting and giving to those in need.

Among those for whom funds are being allocated this year are internally displaced persons (IDPs) from conflict-affected Bajaur Agency, on Pakistan's border with Afghanistan. While a ceasefire between the army and the militant groups they have fought over the past month has been called over the Ramadan period, some 300,000 people remain displaced, according to the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC).

Most have fled to Lower Dir district, lying adjacent to Bajaur to its northwest, while others have fled to Malakand district to the west or to Mardan district just beyond that. Some are living with relatives but most stay in makeshift camps set up in government schools or other available buildings.

Conditions in many camps remain grim. The ICRC reported that cholera had broken out among the IDPs and as such its top priority was providing clean water and sanitation.

"Cholera has started in certain areas. It is a major concern," Pascal Cuttat, head of ICRC's delegation in Pakistan, told a news briefing in Geneva. "The most immediate need remains access to clean water and sanitation. No food, health care or shelter is going to be of any good if people get water-borne diseases," he said.

Outbreaks of cholera, an acute gastro-intestinal infection spread through contaminated food and water, have been reported in the past in northern areas and elsewhere.

"I don't know what illness they are suffering, but the situation is very bad,” said Muhammad Jamshed, 45, a mechanic who had been based until a week ago at a camp in Lower Dir but has now moved to Peshawar to look for a job and place to stay. “Many people, especially children, are falling sick with severe stomach problems. The food being served is substandard. These people need help. The hygiene conditions are appalling because there are no toilets."

The Pakistan government has recently allowed humanitarian agencies, including the ICRC and the UN Refugee Agency (UNHCR), to operate in Lower Dir district. Help has also begun to come in from other governments, with France delivering food supplies for 12,000 IDPs.

kh/at/ar/ed