ISLAMABAD: A team of flood management experts from the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organisation (Unesco) arrives here on Sunday for a scientific mission as part of the organisation’s response to the natural disaster. The Unesco mission will help upgrade Pakistan’s flood management capacity, including use of satellite images in flood mapping and evacuation plans, latest computer models for flood forecasting, analysis of landslides, etc.
The team will also identify aquifers to provide drinking water to flood-affected areas. Unesco has said it is working closely with other UN agencies and the government of Pakistan in rescue and prevention efforts.
An inter-sectoral task force of experts based at the Unesco headquarters in Paris and its office in Islamabad are coordinating the organisation’s activities.
Early estimates indicate that 5,457 schools have been damaged of which 4,419 are in Punjab and Sindh. At least one million schoolchildren have been affected by the floods. Most schools are closed and access is extremely difficult.
Unesco is preparing a range of initiatives to respond to the crisis, including projects to be submitted to the revised Pakistan Initial Floods Emergency Response Plan being prepared by the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs.
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