After The Floods.

The ongoing floods have caused unprecedented devastation across the country, so far taking the lives of more than 1000 people, displacing more than 30 million, and wrecking property and infrastructure worth billions. Alarmingly, experts are of the view that the damage has only just begun-and that the actual floods are just half of the problem. A host of issues and crises relating to health are bound to emerge after the floods.

In the past, floods have been deadly but a larger number of lives have been lost due to the aftermath of floods, which leave the population vulnerable to water-borne diseases. We have already started seeing the impact now with these 2022 monsoon floods-the Sindh Health Department confirmed in a statement that over 170,000 people, including 52,000 suffering from diarrhoea, have been recorded from flood-affected areas, and 72 snake-bite cases, which also are common in flooded areas.

What is alarming is that such diseases spread like wildfire, and places like highly crowded refugee and relief camps provide conditions ripe for deadly diseases and epidemics like malaria, dengue fever, and gastroenteritis. This is even...