UN: Months after Pakistan floods, millions lack safe water

By MUNIR AHMED
Associated Press

ISLAMABAD (AP) — The United Nations children’s agency says that after last summer’s devastating floods, 10 million people in Pakistan, including children, still live in flood-affected areas without access to safe drinking water. Tuesday’s statement underscored the dire situation in this impoverished country where the floods killed 1,739 people, including 647 children and 353 women. UNICEF says the floods damaged most of the water pipelines systems in affected areas, forcing more than 5.4 million people, including 2.5 million children, to rely solely on contaminated water from ponds and wells. UNICEF representative Abdullah Fadil says that “safe drinking water is not a privilege, it is a basic human right.”