The monsoon-type rains are continuing in Pakistan, where the government aid agency says 12 million people have been affected, but expects that number could rise to half a million.
BBC News quotes Gen. Nadeem Ahmed of Pakistan’s National Disaster Management Authority as saying, “This will be the biggest disaster in the history of Pakistan.”
On the blog for Catholic Relief Services, the U.S. bishops’ international relief and development agency, staffers talk about the need for clean water, especially for drinking. Their headline: “In Pakistan, Water Everywhere — and Not a Drop to Drink.”
“We have to drink water from the river but it is so dirty. But we have no other options because the floodwaters damaged our water source and washed away our pipes,” the CRS blog reports, quoting a man in the northern town of Besham whose home and land were swept away. “My family is getting sick. Today, I took my 15-month-old son to the hospital because he has diarrhea and a high fever. If the water problem is not solved, I do not know what I will do.”
Filed under: CNS
