Monsoon rains and floods continue to ravage southern Pakistan, leaving tens of thousands of people displaced and vulnerable in Sindh province. In the coming days, a Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF) team of 13 will launch mobile clinics in camps for people displaced from their homes in southern Badin district and in the sub-districts of Tando Bago, Dadah and Chabralo.

The MSF team has conducted assessments throughout Badin in the past week. “We saw roads that were partially flooded. The roadsides are lined with makeshift tents made of plastic sheeting where displaced people were taking refuge. There were no latrines to be seen,” said Dr. Erwin Lloyd Guillergan, MSF’s emergency team field coordinator. “In such poor hygiene conditions, people are especially vulnerable to respiratory tract infections and water-borne diseases.”

Photo: P.K. Lee, MSF | MSF staff use a MUAC (middle-upper arm circumference) bracelet to monitor the nutritional status of children aged 6 months to 5 years. Around 200 families were displaced due to floods and take refuge at a camp for internally displaced people in Dadah, Badin District of southern Sindh province.

In the camps for displaced people there is a need for medical care. Acute watery diarrhea, suspected malaria, skin infections and respiratory tract infections are all common, while some children are suffering from suspected malnutrition.

In those camps which the MSF team visited, supplies of clean water and latrines were either non-existent or limited, with people often being obliged to defecate in the open.

The team will continue to identify the unmet needs in Tando Bago, Shahid Fazul Rahu and other sub-districts in the coming days. MSF’s team in Sindh province currently has four international staff and nine Pakistani staff, but they will be reinforced in coming days by additional members.

Since 1986, MSF has been working in Pakistan with Pakistani communities and Afghan refugees who are victims of armed conflict, lack of access to medical care and natural disasters. Our teams are providing free emergency medical care in Kurram Agency, Hangu and Peshawar, in the Lower Dir, Malakand and Swat districts of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Province, and in Baluchistan and Sindh provinces.

MSF's programs in Pakistan are funded exclusively with private contributions and no government funding.