ReliefWeb

Summary of major revisions made to emergency plan of action:

Another round of continuous heavy rains started in most part of the country on the week of 20 August 2020 until 3 September 2020 intermittently. The second round of torrential rains caused urban flooding in the Sindh province and flash flooding in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa (KP). New areas have been affected by the urban flooding including the districts of Malir, Karachi Central, Karachi West, Karachi East and Korangi (Sindh), and District Shangla, Swat and Charsadda in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa. This Operation Update is issued to inform stakeholders of revisions made to the DREF Operation and second allocation of the budget of CHF 339,183 based on current immediate humanitarian needs and priorities identified from government and PRCS rapid needs assessments that are still ongoing in the areas affected by the Monsoon Flood. This comprises the following changes:

• Water, sanitation and hygiene (WASH): inclusion of water and hygiene promotion interventions, distribution of hygiene kits and household water filters to additional targeting to 14,350 people (2,050 HH) in KP and Sindh provinces.

• Replenishment of 1,500 hygiene kits and 2,050 household water filters.

• Cash and Voucher Assistance (CVA): additional target to a total of 28,000 people; 17,500 people in five most affected districts in Sindh Province and 10,500 in KP for cash assistance for one-month period.

• Expand the coverage to support 28,000 more people (4,000 HH) in addition to the 68,250 people initially covered under the first allocation of this DREF Operation. Keeping in view the evolving situation and geographical locations,
  PRCS aims to extend the DREF timeline to six months.

A. SITUATION ANALYSIS

Description of the disaster

First spell of heavy rainfall started in Sindh and Baluchistan Province from 6 August and continued until 7 August 2020 with intermissions. Continuous rain over a period of 24 hours caused massive flooding in Karachi, Hyderabad, Shaheed Benazirabad and Dadu districts of Sindh province, with Tehsil Johi in Dadu district as the area greatly affected by flash floods. It has been reported that floods are not only damaging infrastructures and houses but also destroyed crops in Johi Tehsil. Government of Sindh has declared 80 villages in Dadu district as “Calamity Affected Areas’’.

The floods also hit different parts of Baluchistan including Kacchi, Sibbi, Harnai, Naseerabad, Jafferabad and Jhal Magsi districts where Jhal Magsi and Jafferabad districts as the most affected areas according to the rapid need assessment report. On 18 August 2020, the Government of Baluchistan also declared emergency in Jhal Magsi district. Besides the recent floods, COVID-19 outbreak is also a threat to the affected population. However, the number of positive cases reported so far in the targeted district are on lower side. As of 7 September 2020, Dadu district reported 1,184 positive cases, Jhal Magsi and Jaffarabad (Baluchistan) 328 and 71 reported positive COVID-19 cases respectively.

Another heavy spell of Monsoon rain started in most part of the country on 20 August 2020 and continued until 3 September 2020 with intervals. This resulted in urban flooding in Karachi and other parts of Sindh, while flash floods reported in district Shangla, Swat and flooding in Charsadda, Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province. Karachi experienced heaviest rains in almost a century, killing at least 41 people in the city. Thousands of people were trapped due to waterlogging in low-lying slums. In some part of the city people were without electricity for days as urban flooding badly affected infrastructure. The second spell of flooding has displaced hundreds of thousands of people. Despite the best efforts of the government, the living conditions of the displaced are appalling, with very limited access to safe water and food and with limited shelter. In the meantime, they have no safe water or livelihoods.