WHO staff and volunteers carry boxes of medicines and supplies while they cross flooded areas to reach a health facility in Aroma locality, Kassala, East Sudan. A. Alhassan/WHO 21 August 2013 – Floods affecting parts of the Eastern Mediterranean Region have killed hundreds of people and left thousands more homeless.

As the monsoon season begins, heavy rains have triggered flash floods in Pakistan, claiming the lives of 154 people, destroying entire villages and leaving thousands homeless. In Punjab and Baluchistan, the floods have also caused damage to health facilities, although the extent of the damage has not yet been determined.

WHO has established an emergency flood operations centre and is working with local health authorities and partners to ensure an effected and coordinated response to the floods. Nine camps have been set up for more than 2500 internally displaced people, and 15 mobile clinics and medical camps have been set up in areas where health services are inaccessible or unavailable.