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Devastating floods across Pakistan that have killed 1600 and disrupted the lives of one in eight Pakistanis, are set to worsen in places with widespread rains and heavy showers forecast.

The floods, triggered by heavy monsoon rain, have forced 2 million people from their homes and affected about 14 million people.

The country’s National Disaster Management Authority, quoted by Reuters Alertnet, said water levels may rise dangerously on Friday and again early next week along stretches of the Indus in the central province of Punjab and in Sindh, where the waters have not yet crested.

Floods have now inundated hundreds of square kilometers of Asia – from Pakistan’s northwest, to southern coastal states of India - and are likely to worsen. The Pakistan floods have affected more people than the 2005 Kashmir earthquake, the 2004 Asia tsunami, and the Haiti earthquake combined.

Pakistan’s rolling earthquake

Described as a ‘rolling earthquake’, reflecting the fact the waters are moving downward through the country, are Pakistan’s worst ever, covering over 132,000km2. The United Nations today has warned of a second wave of deaths from disease and food shortages unless help arrived soon. It has appealed for $459 million in aid for the country.

Transport and communications have been widely disrupted. Many areas remain inaccessible and thousands of people have yet to receive assistance. Countless villages and farms have been inundated, crops destroyed and livestock lost. In some places, families are grouped on tiny patches of water-logged land with their animals.

The floods have extensively damaged the country's main crops, including about half a million tones of wheat and of sugar. Cotton supplies have also been hit. Pakistan President Asif Ali Zardari today overflew flood-hit regions, two weeks after the crisis began.

Efforts to provide assistance continue. People continue to be evacuated from homes and off land, losing not only their homes but also their sources of income and sustenance, ACT member Church World Service Pakistan-Afghanistan reports.

Sindh province alone has lost three million acres of crop land worth US$176 million. “While it remains clear that collective efforts are needed to help people recover from the massive devastation, the pledged support from local, national, and international efforts provide hope for over 13 million people in Pakistan,” CWS-P/A said. Just over US$100 million has been pledged so far from the international community, however much more is needed.

ACT’s response continues

ACT has issued a US$ 4.1 million appeal for relief goods for Pakistan. ACT members working in Pakistan have been working to distribute food, emergency shelter, other relief goods and to provide health services. CWS-P/A aims to reach a total of nearly 238,000 people in Khyber Pakhtunkwa, Balochistan and Sindh. Norwegian Church Aid is distributing food and other goods to 31,500 people over three months in Khyber Paktunkhwa and Balochistan. Diakonie Katastrophenhilfe started relief within a few days after the floods started, with clean drinking water and clearing debris, and will get aid to 60,000.