Over 10m flood affectees still lacking access to safe drinking water: Unicef.

The United Nations Children's Fund (Unicef) warned on Tuesday that over 10 million flood affectees, including children, still lacked access to safe drinking water after last year's catastrophic floods.

The disastrous floods of 2022 were the tenth most expensive climate disaster to have buffeted a nation over the last decade, according to risk modelling firm RMS. The floods inflicted an estimated loss of $3 billion on the country, caused over 1,700 deaths and displaced eight million people.

In a press release issued today, Unicef said that deprived of safe drinking water, families in flood-affected areas were left with no choice but to drink and use 'potentially disease-ridden water'.

'Even before the floods, despite the country's drinking water supply system covering 92 per cent of the population, only 36pc of the water was considered safe for consumption.

'The floods damaged most of the water systems in affected areas, compelling more than 5.4m people, including 2.5m children, to solely rely on contaminated water from ponds and wells,' the UN agency said.

Unicef Representative in Pakistan Abdullah Fadil said safe drinking water was a 'basic human right' and not a privilege, adding that millions of children in the country were daily 'fighting a losing battle against preventable waterborne diseases and the consequential malnutrition'.

'We need the continued support of our donors to provide safe water, build toilets and deliver vital sanitation services to these children and families who need them the most,' the press release quoted him as saying.

Unicef warned that the prolonged lack of safe drinking water and toilets, along with the continued proximity of vulnerable families to bodies of stagnant water, was contributing to widespread outbreaks of waterborne diseases such as cholera, diarrhoea, dengue and malaria.

'At the same time...