FROM THE FIELD
A British Red Cross emergency response team is flying to Pakistan to promote sanitation and hygiene following severe floods that have affected 1.5 million people.This is the first time the mass sanitation unit (MSU) has been deployed. It is a new initiative set up this year to save lives by reducing disease from poor sanitation following a disaster.The four-person team is led by Vendela Fortune, with sanitation engineer Phil Weatherill, public health expert Jean Gilardi and Ruth Aggiss providing administrative support.I think it is quite exciting to be the first team to go out as the mass sanitation unitVendela Fortune, British Red CrossThe team will be working for four weeks in Kambar-Shadadkot district of Sindh province, in close cooperation with the Pakistan Red Crescent and other National Societies. It is then expected to be replaced by a second sanitation team."I think it is quite exciting to be the first team to go out as the mass sanitation unit," said Vendela, from Brighton."Our role is to assess public health needs focusing on sanitation. At least tens of thousands of people have been displaced by the floods and are living on roadsides in public buildings such as schools. They are using floodwater for drinking and washing which is a health hazard. Respond"It is going to be a complex situation but I'm confident we will respond well," she said.The team has a wealth of expertise. Jean Gilardi, from south London, worked as a public health expert in Rwanda following the genocide and Ruth Aggiss, also from London, was in the British Red Cross emergency response team in Yogyakarta, Indonesia following last year's earthquake."A lot of these people have lost everything," Jean said. "We will work closely with the communities to come up with solutions. A lot of latrines have been destroyed so everybody has to use the open and women, in particular, have to wait until night-time or go to dangerous places."The British Red Cross is supporting an appeal for Pakistan by the International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent SocietiesRead more about the floods in Pakistan[ Any views expressed in this article are those of the writer and not of Reuters. ]
