There's a cruel irony hanging over the vast tented camps of Pakistan. In the wake of the devastating floods which washed away nearly two million homes and impacted the lives of 20 million people just a few weeks ago-today what is needed most is clean water.

Raabya Amjad, Communication for Development Specialist from UNICEF in Pakistan said:"The needs of the people affected are many. But right now we need to focus on safe drinking water, hygiene andsanitation, because without these there is a serious danger of diseases spreading."

Here in Thatta UNICEF and its partners have set up a water filtration site to clean water from a local canal and are now providing clean water for up to four thousand affected families.

Women and girls are often walking one or two kilometers several times a day to get water. The filtration plant also distributes clean water to three large water bladders – huge plastic sacks used to store the clean water and strategically placed throughout the camp.

Raabya Amjad said: "The emergency is far from over. The flood waters in some areas are still rising but in the area where we are right now, Thatta, the flood waters hit last month and people have started going back. "

But for many there is little to go back to. The sprawling camps surrounding the town of Thatta are their make shift homes for now. The land is dusty and strewn with rubbish, flies are everywhere and the heat is suffocating.

Shazia is a twenty-two year old mother of five who came to this camp in Thatta with her husband and children more than a month ago.

A mother Shazia said: "Our house and the land where we lived are still covered with water up to here (points to her shoulder). Everything was washed away with the water; our crops and our animals, everything."

Across the flood-affected areas of Pakistan, UNICEF and its partners are now reach¬ing over 3.8 million people with safe water every day. But as the flood waters recede, funds are drying up. Only half of the money UNICEF needs to sustain its efforts over the next 12 months has been received and still more is urgently needed to stave off a potential second wave of suffering.

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