With an estimated one million people uprooted by the latest
flooding in southern Sindh, IOM has delivered 500 emergency shelter
kits to the government for distribution in Thatta district.

"The needs are huge and thousands of families in Thatta are
still camped out under open skies, wherever they can find a dry
spot," says IOM Emergency Response Manager Brian Kelly.

IOM has already distributed 6,000 of the kits, each of which
contains two 4 x 5 metre plastic sheets, rope, two blankets, a
jerry can, a bucket and a kitchen set, to flood-affected families
in Sindh.

It is currently shipping a further 3,000 kits to Thatta
district, where Pakistan's National Disaster Management Authority
(NDMA) is setting up a displacement camp for flood victims.

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On Saturday, IOM and local NGO partners distributed 1,108 of the
kits to displaced families in Sukkur district, in northern
Sindh.

The latest mass displacements in Sindh follow a major breach of
flood defences near the town of Sarjani, south of the Kotri
barrage, last week. On Sunday advancing floodwaters also entered
the district of Dadu, forcing thousands more to flee and leaving an
estimated 40,000 people stranded in 40 outlying villages.

They bring the total number of people directly affected by the
floods to 17.6 million, with 1.2 million homes damaged or destroyed
across an area of 160,000 km2, according to the NDMA.

The Emergency Shelter Cluster of 40 aid agencies working with
the NDMA to provide emergency shelter and non-food relief items,
which is coordinated by IOM, has already provided shelter for some
1.13 million flood victims.

Shelter materials for another 2.5 million people are currently
in the cluster's procurement pipeline. But there are not enough
tents or plastic sheets available in Pakistan to meet the vast
need, and shipping them in from outside the country takes time.

"IOM is now regularly acting as consignee for incoming aid
flights in Islamabad, Karachi and Multan and trucking the aid to
the worst hit areas of Punjab and Sindh. But the needs are huge and
still growing," says IOM Regional Representative for West and
Central Asia Hassan Abdel Moneim Mostafa.

"IOM and our Shelter Cluster partners are racing to boost our
capacity to deliver. But as the number of flood-affected families
who need our help grows, so does our need for funding," he
adds.

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:
"https://sites.google.com/site/shelterpak2010/" target="_blank"
title="">https://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