clean water

Three months after widespread flooding that has affected over 5 million people in southern Pakistan, a critical shortage of funding and broad international disinterest has left millions of people at risk of illness, malnutrition and cold as the winter closes in.

As rains continue to lash the flood ravaged Sindh province in Pakistan, Oxfam warns of a severe risk of a public health crisis if clean water and sanitation is not urgently provided.

Oxfam is today scaling up its aid effort to reach 200,000 people affected by the severe floods that have hit Colombia in recent weeks. The floods have affected more than two million people in 28 out of 32 districts in the country.

The international community urgently needs to inject more funds and effort to stem a spiraling crisis in flood-hit Pakistan. A new United Nations appeal for funds will be issued on Friday.

Oxfam today warned of a public health catastrophe in flood-hit Pakistan. While funding had stalled in recent weeks, the number of cases of reported disease, numbers of people displaced, and numbers of people affected by the floods continue to rise each day.

World champion boxer Amir Khan is in Pakistan where he met families made homeless by the devastating floods and took part in an Oxfam distribution of aid.

Floods and heavy rains across Niger have destroyed crops less than two months before harvest, compounding the country's existing food crisis. Flooding has killed at least six people, left thousands homeless, ruined crops and forced hungry families to crisis point.