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UN relief agencies pitch in to help Pakistan flood areas

UN relief agencies pitch in to help Pakistan flood areas

United Nations relief agencies have donated food and other supplies to two provinces in Pakistan hit recently by devastating floods, the UN Information Centre in the country said today.

Thanks to grants by Norway and Denmark, the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs has approved the disbursement of over $50,000 in relief goods. The supplies, which included rice, beans, milk, lanterns and candles, were handed over to relief authorities for distribution to the affected population in the provinces of Punjab and NorthWest Frontier that had been badly damaged by the 23 July floods.

Meanwhile, the World Health Organization (WHO) has launched an effort to assess the quality of drinking water in different parts of Rawalpindi and has provided 50,000 water purification tablets and $5,000 worth of medicine for distribution to the local population.

For its part, the World Food Programme (WFP) has sent 7.5 tonnes of wheat flour and 4.5 tonnes of edible oil to Mansera and 4 tonnes of oil to Rawalpindi. UNICEF, the UN Children's Fund, and UNHCR, the UN High Commissioner for Refugees, are also contributing to the relief effort.