Japan aid agency sends mosquito nets for flood-hit

Staff Writer

Islamabad: The Japan International Cooperation Agency’s (JICA) Pakistan Office this week provided 9,000 mosquito nets, 80,000 ORS and 400,000 water purification tablets to support the people affected by recent floods in districts of Punjab and Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa.

On the request of governments of Punjab and KP, the Japanese government and JICA Pakistan Office decided to support the worst affected districts of the two provinces.

In Punjab the target districts are Dera Ghazi Khan and Rajanpur, while in KP, the target districts are Kohistan, Dera Ismail Khan, Tank, Nowshera and Charsada.

The expected beneficiaries of this support are around 80,000 families with pregnant or lactating women and children under five, a press release by Japanese embassy said on Tuesday.

According to the Post Disaster Need Assessment (PDNA) on Pakistan Floods 2022, around 650,000 pregnant women are facing challenges in getting access to maternal services, nearly four million children lack access to health services and substantial increase of communicable diseases such as diarrhea, malaria, dengue and cholera has been observed.

JICA is utilising its ongoing technical cooperation projects “the Project for Strengthening Maternal and Newborn Health Care in Punjab” and “the Project for Strengthening Continuum of Care for Mothers, Newborn and Child Health in Primary Health Care Settings in Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa” to provide support to flood-affected districts of the two provinces.