Wales begins task of helping Pakistan flood survivors
Aug 6 2010 by Lisa Jones, Western Mail
As survivors of the floods in Pakistan continued to count the cost of the humanitarian disaster, work started thousands of miles away in Wales to help its victims. Lisa Jones reports
FLOOD survivors loaded down with possessions fled for their lives in Pakistan yesterday as the scale of the humanitarian crisis facing the nation started to become apparent.
Flood warnings were still being issued for Punjab province in Pakistan’s east and Sindh province in the south, where rivers were rising to dangerous levels.
More than 1,500 people have been killed by floods in the country over the last week and three million others affected.
In Wales, efforts have been rapidly mobilised to send aid to stricken parts of the Asian country.
Pakistani communities in Wales have begun the task of organising aid for the millions of people affected by the crisis.
The deluge, which has worst affected the north-western region of the country, in Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa province, has been described as the worst flood in Pakistan’s history.
And the threat of more rain looks set to spread the misery southwards across the country.
In the aftermath of the floods there is a serious risk to survivors from potentially deadly diseases which will spread as a result of contaminated surface and drinking water.
Food, clean drinking water, tents and medical services remain the biggest priorities for aid.
Two doctors who worked to raise thousands of pounds when a massive earthquake hit Pakistan in 2005 are in the process of organising how best to target their experience for the millions whose lives have been devastated by the water.
Doctors Nawab Khan and Tayyab Tahir, who work in Penarth and Cardiff, are part of South Asian Immediate Action Network (SIAN) Cymru, which helped raise more than £50,000, which was channelled to help victims of the earthquake.
In conjunction with the Khanbahadur Lallbibi Welfare Trust (KLWT), they helped arrange the delivery of tents, blankets and medical aid to the remote Bhunja Valley, in the north-western Frontier province.
But the scale of the flood has meant the need for careful consideration on how people can best be helped, said Dr Tahir.
He said: “We are negotiating with other people to find out what they are doing and see what we can do to support them.
“We are trying to think of something to support the work that we did in 2005.
“The death toll is much bigger this time and the area affected is much larger. The magnitude is huge. Lots of villages and cities have been totally flattened. We’re trying to assess what people are doing over there and then we’ll decide if we want to pick one area as it would be very difficult to respond in a huge way.
“We have to think carefully of a viable project that we can sustain.”
Dr Ayaz Khan, programme director of KLWT, based in Islamabad, which channelled funds raised by Echo readers directly to those who needed it, said the trust was funding volunteers on the ground.
A medical and relief camp was being set up on the outskirts of the city of Nowshera, around 27 miles from Peshawar, by local doctors. Help was also being given to people in Dera Ismail Khan and Attock, which have also been devastated.
He added: “The existing situation in the area is very drastic and a lot of damage has been reported. Some people are missing and most are displaced from their homes to the open areas; there is a loss of livestock and damage to agricultural land, besides infrastructure damage.
“We are working in collaboration with others and are doing what we can to support their efforts on ground.”
In Newport, around 100 members of its Islamic Society for Gwent have already flown over to north west Pakistan, to help look for families swept away by the flood.
Chairman Latif Mohammed said the society was hoping to raise more than the £30,000 it collected for the earthquake appeal in 2005, as well as dispatching medicines, tents, blankets and clothing.
Chairman Naseem Babur said: “It usually happens every year but not like this. We haven’t seen anything like this since 1972.”
Mr Babur, whose brother and sister live in the Bahawalpur area of Pakistan, added: “Let’s hope that it dies down and that the world comes to the aid of these people.”
Ashgar Ali, a Cardiff councillor and chairman of Madina mosque in Cathays, Cardiff, said its members would begin raising funds for those affected in Pakistan this evening.
He added: “We will be collecting money constantly and will send the money to a non-governmental organisation called the EDHI Foundation, which is staffed by volunteers. Our members are really worried about their families in Pakistan but you can’t go there and stop the flood, so there’s nothing you can do except collect money and send it over to help.”
To donate to the DEC Pakistan Floods Appeal, visit
DEC or to donate to other NGOs, visit
KLWT: Khanbahadur Lallbibi Welfare Trust or
Edhi Foundation - Home.
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