Contact: Bjørg Mide, acting head of International Programmes, Norwegian Church Aid, +47 918 13 308; Arne Grieg Riisnæs, press officer, +47 932 50 257

MEDIA ADVISORY, July 11 /Standard Newswire/ -- Hundreds of thousands are in dire need of relief aid in the flood-affected regions of Pakistan. Norwegian Church Aid has now opened an emergency donor hotline for the flood victims, and is now appealing for donations.

"People are living in the most dreadful conditions. Aid is required urgently and for many, time is running out," says Bjørg Mide, acting head of International Programmes at Norwegian Church Aid.

Over the last week, Norwegian Church Aid has been a part of a comprehensive assessment mission in the Balochistan and Sindh provinces of southern Pakistan. The mission’s concluding report describes inhuman conditions and overwhelming need following the cyclone and flooding that have left over 1.5 million people homeless.

"Entire villages have been washed away, and a great number of survivors have lost everything they owned. There is now a pressing need for clean drinking water, food supplies, shelter, medical assistance and medicines. The risk of malaria infection has increased considerably and many of the affected are also suffering acute skin conditions due to prolonged exposure to water, which in many cases has become contaminated," says Bjørg Mide.

Together with partner organisations through ACT (Action by Churches Together) International, Norwegian Church Aid is already hard at work delivering relief supplies to the region. The organisation is also awaiting a response from the Norwegian Ministry of Foreign Affairs to its application for NOK 1.5 million (roughly US$ 260,000) towards the initial emergency response phase of the operation. Norwegian Church Aid is monitoring the situation hour by hour and has a water engineer on standby to be dispatched to the region if required.

Norwegian Church Aid has been very busy in Pakistan since the country was struck by a huge earthquake in October 2005, during which over 80,000 people lost their lives and 3.5 million people were left homeless. Norwegian Church Aid still runs a large-scale aid and reconstruction programme in the country.

"Pakistan has again been subjected to the violent forces of nature, and hundreds of thousands of people have once again been rendered entirely dependent upon emergency and long-term aid if they are to survive. There are still large stretches of land within the flooded regions that are entirely cut off – no rescue teams have as yet been able to reach them, and so the true extent of this disaster remains unknown. It’s a great challenge just to get around in this remote landscape when large chunks of the road network have been washed away," says Mide.