ADRA's initial response is targeting the Badin District of the Sindh Province, a fertile region to the east of the Indus River. The Agency has established a mobile medical clinic that has already provided medical assistance to more than 400 patients upon the first day of operation. The clinic will remain open on a one-day-a-week basis for a total of five days. Additionally, ADRA is distributing tents, providing immediate temporary shelter, and mosquito nets as a precaution against the threat of insect borne diseases such as malaria.

In early September, ADRA's Pakistan office sent an assessment team to the Badin District to visit the hardest-hit areas. ADRA Pakistan Country Director, Leyn Gantare gave the following account of the flood-stricken region.

"Upon entering Shajawal, a 30 minute drive from Badin, we began to see people's fight for survival. Makeshift shelters had been instinctively constructed on higher ground just beside the street. Groups of men gathered along the road, stretching-out their hands asking for food and drink to cars passing by. As we continued driving, we noticed an increasing amount of water on the roads, which eventually made it impossible for our car to move any further. Contagious diseases were found in most of the visited areas. IDP's (internally displaced persons) suffered from diarrhea, malaria, eye and skin infections. Shortages of food and clean water have made the situation even worse."

According to Agency reports, parts of the affected areas are exposed to poor waste management, which has led to unhygienic environments in both temporary government camps and makeshift tent communities in livable areas. Survivors are finding themselves cooking and eating in an environment surrounded by garbage, mud, and livestock waste, greatly increasing their chances of contracting disease and illness.

A recent report posted by the NDMA states the heavy rains and floods have affected more than 39,000 villages, with more than half a million homes completely damaged. The report further details just over 2 million acres of cropland have been devastated, and has caused more than 90,000 livestock to perish. Crops that were soon to be harvested have been inundated with water and now lay lifeless. Numbers of abandoned animals such as buffaloes, goats, and dogs are adding to the dangerous level of unhygienic conditions.

This intervention is funded in part by the ADRA Trans European Office and its supporting offices, and ADRA Pakistan.

ADRA is a global non-governmental organization providing sustainable community development and disaster relief without regard to political or religious association, age, gender, race or ethnicity.