Appeal Target: US$2,704,873
Balance Requested: US$1,522,116
Geneva, 26 November 2014
Dear Colleagues,
The heavy spell of monsoon rains which started at the beginning of September 2014, resulted in flash floods with exceptionally high levels of water in the rivers Indus, Chenab and Jhelum affecting many districts in Punjab, Azad Jammu Kashmir (AJK) and Gilgit Baltistan (GB), killing at least 357 people. According to the National Disaster Management Authority (NDMA) an estimated 47,799 houses were reported damaged or destroyed while over 1.7 million acres of crop-land were affected.
The heavy rain resulted in massive landslides and flooding in a number of districts in the mountainous province of AJK. Hundreds of thousands of people were reported to be affected indirectly as bridges and link-roads to markets were damaged or destroyed. The disruption of transportation and communication infrastructure made thousands of families food insecure and vulnerable. In Punjab, around 620,000 persons were evacuated from their homes. In Sindh, the Government issued high flood warnings to residents of the Katcha areas and those near the River Indus.
ACT Members Church World Service – Pakistan/Afghanistan (CWS) and Norwegian Church Aid (NCA), have been responding to the humanitarian needs of the affected population from the early days of the disaster. The appeal has been revised to include the revised programme of NCA and replaces the full appeal issued on 2 October 2014. To comply with back-donor funding specifications NCA has dropped the emergency phase and shortened the implementation period to six instead of eight months. Following assessments they have also reduced the number of beneficiaries and adjusted the target requested to income received. The CWS response remains unchanged.