Nearly 27.7M Children Vulnerable to Devastating Floods

News Desk

Islamabad: Nearly 27.7 million children in 27 countries around the world are impacted by flooding in 2022, with the number of children affected by flooding in Pakistan, Bangladesh, Chad, and the Gambia is at its highest level in more than 30 years; according to a recent UNICEF report.

The children are among the most vulnerable and are at high risk of a variety of threats, including drowning deaths, disease outbreaks, a lack of access to safe drinking water, malnutrition, interruption of learning, and violence; UNICEF stated as COP27 gets underway in Egypt.

“This year, flooding has reached unprecedented levels throughout the world, and with it, the number of hazards to children has skyrocketed,” said head of the UNICEF delegation for COP27 Paloma Escudero.

“The climate crisis is here. The flooding is worst than it has been in many areas in a generation or more. Already, our children are going through hardships that their parents never experienced.” Children are frequently killed by floods more frequently than by the intense weather events that generated the floods. By 2022, significant killers of children like hunger, malaria, cholera, and diarrhoea would have spread more widely due in part to floods.

Children’s Situation in Pakistan, Malawi & Chad

In Sindh and Balochistan, which are ravaged by floods, more than one in nine children under the age of five are admitted to medical facilities. The already grave condition of food insecurity in Chad is made worse by the destruction of 465,030 hectares of farmland.

Tropical storm Ana caused torrential downpours and flooding in Malawi in January 2022; which severely damaged the country’s water and sanitation systems, and paved the way for a cholera outbreak.203 people have died as a result of the pandemic, including 28 children. 1,631 kids have contracted cholera to this point.

Floods, along with other climate shocks and the conflict, are expected to result in a greater number of children in South Sudan experiencing severe food insecurity than there were during conflict in 2013 and 2016.

Additionally, the UN recently issued a warning that if humanitarian aid is not maintained and climate adaption measures are not scaled-up, certain people risk hunger. Millions of children’s lives are at risk, and the flood waters have also disrupted vital services and uprooted countless families.

Nearly 27,000 school buildings were damaged or destroyed by the recent floods in Pakistan, which kept 2.0 million kids out of class. Floods in South Sudan have hampered the provision of 92,000 children with life-saving and preventative malnutrition interventions at UNICEF-supported nutrition centres. Recent floods in Nigeria resulted in the displacement of nearly 840,000 children. Heavy rainfall and flooding in Yemen severely damaged shelters at displacement sites. 24,000 households were displaced, and up to 73,854 households were impacted.

The COP27 Summit

“COP27 offers a chance to build a realistic road map with clear milestones for financing climate adaptation and solutions for loss and damage, and deliver at least $300 billion per year for adaptation by 2030,” said Paloma Escudero.

“Youth from the most vulnerable regions of the planet are drowning in climate inaction. It’s enough already. Children require immediate intervention because lives are at stake.

UNICEF implores decision-makers to act right away to safeguard kids from the effects of climate change by modifying the vital social services they rely on. Lifesaving adaptation measures include developing water, health, and education systems that can withstand flooding and drought.

Developed nations decided last year to boost their financing for adaptation to $40 billion annually by 2025.APP