United Nations humanitarian agencies in Pakistan are on standby after sustained rains have reportedly affected up to 750,000 people in Punjab and Sindh provinces, killing up to 25 and displacing some 50,000 others. The UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) conducted informal assessments last week in some areas where there had been a significant loss of homes, and district authorities were already relocating families to shelters. The current flooding from this year's monsoon season has stemmed from heavy rains across the country, as opposed to last year when torrential downpours in the north sent a series of floods cascading through the country as rivers overflowed their banks on their journey south in one of the worst such disasters in history, killing some 2,000 people but affecting 20 million others, destroying or damaging more than two million homes and causing $10 billion in damage. In Sindh, according to local news reports and humanitarian actors, between 500,000 and 750,000 people have been affected and some 50,000 people have been displaced internally in camps in the Badin area. In Punjab, the heavy rains caused flash flooding in the districts of Sialkot and Kasur as well as urban flooding in Lahore and other cities. BM/UN
