The United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF) warned Friday that 10 million children are already in need of «urgent life-saving assistance» because of the catastrophic floods in Pakistan, following a visit by the organization’s director for South Asia, George Laryea-Adjei, to the affected areas.
«As this climate disaster continues to affect the lives of millions of children in Pakistan, in the end it is the most vulnerable children who pay the highest price,» lamented UNICEF’s regional director.
The Fund estimates that at least one in nine children suffers from severe acute malnutrition as a result of the floods, a tragedy that «has become an acute child survival crisis.»
«As winter approaches, children crammed into flimsy tents, when they are lucky enough to have one, will continue to succumb to diseases that in normal times are preventable and treatable,» he warned.
Laryea-Adjei lamented that the climate crisis encompasses many facets. «There are extreme heat waves that have scorched crowded cities in the region, with temperatures reaching up to 48 degrees, glaciers have continued to melt in Pakistan and Bhutan, while landslides in Nepal have wiped out children’s homes.»
«Children have played no role in creating the climate catastrophe in South Asia, but it is they who pay the highest price,» he has lamented. «Without urgent global action, the climate devastation we have seen in Pakistan, I fear, will only be a precursor to many more child survival catastrophes to come,» he concludes.
