Pakistan's worst flooding on record has severely damaged health
services in vast areas, leaving flood victims, particularly in
Sindh and Punjab, without access to essential treatment.

IOM, which is a member of the WHO-led group of aid agencies
working in the health sector, has now stepped in to open two
clinics in southern Punjab's Muzaffargarh and Rajanpur
districts.

"These facilities are part of a health-system strengthening
approach, helping the government to fill gaps in health care in
these badly affected areas," says IOM Pakistan Senior Migration
Health Physician Dr. Pavlovic Zeljko.

"We know that at least 450 health facilities have been damaged
or destroyed by the floods. At the same time, displaced people
living in poor conditions and without proper hygiene need more, not
less, health care and medicines," he adds.

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IOM doctors and nurses this week treated 513 patients at the
clinics, which opened on September 3rd. They included children,
women and elderly people, many of them suffering from diarrhea,
skin diseases and suspected malaria.

The clinics, which are funded by Canada and the UN's Central
Emergency Response Fund (CERF), currently employ three doctors and
are recruiting two more female doctors to improve primary
healthcare services for women.

While the government and aid agencies continue to respond to the
worst natural disaster in Pakistan's history, floodwaters that
broke away from the main flood stream along the Indus River after a
breach at Thori in Kashmore district in early August continue to
submerge towns and villages in the south.

Dadu district in central Sindh is on flood alert, leading to a
series of fresh evacuations from villages threatened by a series of
breaches in canals and dykes.

According to the government's National Disaster Management
Authority (NDMA), over 21 million people have now been affected by
the disaster, with 1.8 million houses damaged or destroyed. This
brings the number of people currently in need of shelter nationwide
to at least 10 million.

In Sindh, where the number of displaced continues to grow, some
1.3 million flood victims are now living in government relief
camps, according to the NDMA.

Others still lack emergency shelter and other essential aid. On
Wednesday, IOM delivered shelter materials and household items to
nearly 100 displaced families living in desperate conditions in a
spontaneous settlement at Cattle Colony near Larkana town.

The plastic sheets, jerry cans and blankets were distributed
with the help of the international NGO GOAL and its local partner
Sindh Rural Support Organization (SRSO).

"We've lost everything," said Mugham Chandio, a father of six,
who was queuing for emergency shelter materials. Mugham fled his
home in Jaccobabad with his family when the floodwaters submerged
the town a month ago.

He said he needed shelter to protect his children from the
scorching sun. He also wanted more water, some medicines and
clothes.

"It's very sad. We have nothing to celebrate Eid," he said,
ahead of Islam's most important holiday.

For more information on IOM's activities in Pakistan, to
download the IOM Appeal or to donate to IOM's flood response,
please go to: "/jahia/Jahia/pakistan" target="" title=
"">http://www.iom.int/jahia/Jahia/pakistan.

For information on the Emergency Shelter Cluster, please go to:
"http://sites.google.com/site/shelterpak2010/" target="_blank"
title="">http://sites.google.com/site/shelterpak2010/.

For additional information please contact:

Saleem Rehmat

IOM Islamabad

Tel: +92.3008560341

E-mail: "mailto:srehmat@iom.int">srehmat@iom.int

or

Eliane Engeler

Tel: +92.300 852 6357

E-mail: "mailto:engeler.iom@gmail.com">engeler.iom@gmail.com