DERA MURAD JAMALI: The country chief of the World Health Organisation (WHO), Dr Palita Mahipala, assured the flood-affected people in Balochistan on Monday that his organisation would do its best to protect them from water-borne diseases.

Dr Palita gave the assurance during a day-long visit to a tent city in Nasirabad for flood-stricken people.

He held meetings with officials of the local administration and the health department to assess the most pressing needs of the displaced people.

Dr Palita said floods had caused massive destruction in Balochistan and the affected people badly needed special health facilities and attention.

He said the WHO had deployed teams in areas devastated by the floods to help the people protect themselves from malaria, diarrhoea and skin diseases.

“We will not leave the flood-stricken people alone in this difficult time,” Dr Mahipala assured families,

The WHO had established medical camps in several areas of Balochistan and other parts of Pakistan.

The director general of Balochistan’s Health Department, and the deputy commissioner of Nasirabad attended the meetings.

The two officials briefed Dr Mahipala about the flood situation and stressed the need for urgent measures to fight the spread of diseases in camps.

The WHO representative was informed that the provincial health department, the Pakistan Army and the Frontier Corps had established medical camps in all flood-hit areas and were providing the best available medical facilities to flood-stricken people.

At the same time, they said the magnitude of the devastation was so big that relief and rehabilitation work cannot succeed without the participation of organisations like the WHO.

Published in Dawn, September 13th, 2022