China takes lead in int'l relief in flood-hit Pakistani province: rescue team head

China took the lead in international relief efforts in Pakistan's worst flood-hit province of Sindh, the head of a Chinese international rescue and relief team said Saturday.

Huang Jianfa told Xinhua that the 55-member Chinese team, which arrived in the southern city of Thatta on Friday night, would do their best to provide medical help for those affected by Pakistan's worst floods in decades.

Huang said Thatta, about 100 km northeast of the provincial capital of Karachi, was one of the worst-hit regions and was in dire need of help, as acute diarrhoea, and skin and respiratory diseases were quite common there.

The Chinese team is setting up field hospitals to provide timely and adequate treatment for patients, he said.

"The team members' morale is high. They are eager to get down to work as soon as possible, in total disregard of the foul conditions here," Huang told Xinhua.

Thatta witnessed a massive evacuation after the swollen Indus river burst its banks.

According to Chinese diplomats in Pakistan, about 1.3 million people were left homeless, 100,000 were evacuated, 10,000 still stranded and 130 villages submerged in Thatta. Cases of water-borne diseases such as acute diarrhoea are on a rapid increase.


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