Pakistan's Flood Victims Return to Devastation, Shortages of Construction Materials and Threat of Winter

As flood waters recede and hundreds of thousands of displaced families return to devastated towns and villages in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, Punjab and Sindh, the government and aid agencies face massive challenges in meeting their shelter needs ahead of the upcoming winter.

According to the National Disaster Management Authority (NDMA), some 20.36 million people have been affected by the floods, with over 1.9 million houses damaged or destroyed. Over 75 per cent of the overall affected population is in Sindh and Punjab.

This week the IOM-led cluster of over 70 aid agencies providing shelter and the NDMA agreed a flexible "early recovery" shelter strategy combining "core shelter" reconstruction of damaged and destroyed homes based on individual needs and "transitional shelter" solutions for families unable to return to their land.