Publication Date August 9, 2010 | The Telegraph

Pakistan floods: disaster is the worst in the UN's history

Pakistan
Fazal Mowla stands in front of his collapsed house in Faizabad village in Swat. Photo: Oxfam International
Fazal Mowla stands in front of his collapsed house in Faizabad village in Swat. Photo: Oxfam International

The United Nations has rated the floods in Pakistan as the greatest humanitarian crisis in recent history with more people affected than the South-East Asian tsunami and the recent earthquakes in Kashmir and Haiti combined. Although the current 1,600 death toll in Pakistan represents a tiny fraction of the estimated 610,000 people killed in the three previous events, some two million more people - 13.8 million – have suffered losses requiring long or short-term help.