Aid workers say the flooding in Pakistan that has forced millions from their homes will get worse before it gets better.
Rahul Singh, of the aid group Global Medic, told Â鶹´«Ã½ Channel that he and his fellow aid workers are trying as quickly as they can to get help to the people displaced by floodwaters.
"Ever since we pulled in we've been in a race against time," he said in a telephone interview from northern Pakistan. "When you come in along the roads from outside the town you see people scattered along the high ground on the side of the road … people whose homes have been flooded out and this is the only open patch of ground that they can get to that's above the floodwaters."
About 150,000 Pakistanis had to flee to higher ground Saturday as fresh flooding from the swollen Indus River swelled over dozens more towns and villages in the south.
Already, 600,000 people are in relief camps set up in Sindh province during the flooding over the past month, but government spokesmen said the latest surge covered new areas in the province.
"We evacuated more than 150,000 people from interior parts of Sindh in the past 24 hours," said Jamil Soomro, a spokesman for the provincial government.
The floods have affected about one-fifth of Pakistan's territory, straining its government as it also struggles against al Qaeda and Taliban violence.
At least six million people have been made homeless and 20 million affected overall. The economic cost is expected to run to billions of dollars.
Singh said his group has been all but overwhelmed by the numbers of people needing their help.
"We've been treating an average of about 900 to 950 people a day," he said. "This is a massive disaster. It's the entire country … that's been hit and destroyed."
"We're pretty much at max capacity here … but the need is immense. You cannot drive down a single road in this country without seeing thousands, upon thousands upon thousands of people scattered along that road."
"There's no stretch of land without them."
Global Medic is focusing on trying to provide clean water to the flood refugees to forestall outbreaks of disease.
"Right now, 35 per cent of our patients now are coming to us with diarrhea because the water's bad," Singh said. "The next few days are going to tell. If we can really massively increase the amount of water we get out, we can turn the tide … if that doesn't happen I don't want to tell you how bad it will get here."
Singh said his group brought three million water purification tablets with them into the disaster zone, but they are being used up quickly.
"I'm going to lose that in about two more days: It's a drop in the bucket," he said. "And this will get worse before it gets better."
Officials expect the floodwaters to recede in the next few days, but survivors may find little left when they return home. The flooding has washed away houses, roads, bridges and crops vital to their livelihoods.
The United Nations has appealed for $460 million in emergency assistance, and the U.S. has promised $150 million. Pakistan said it would even accept $5 million in aid from India, its archrival.
The Canadian government has scheduled a news conference for Sunday morning to announce further humanitarian assistance for Pakistan, but there was no early indication of what form that aid will come in.
Last weekend Ottawa announced $31 million in additional aid for a total of $33 million to date.
Foreign Affairs Minister Lawrence Cannon has said the government wasn't closing any options to provide further assistance, suggesting to some that a matching program for donations may be in the offing.
The floods began in late July in the northwest of the country after exceptionally heavy monsoon rains, expanding rivers that have since swamped eastern Punjab province and Sindh province in the south.
A slew of aid groups have been trying to help the government in its relief effort by providing food, medicine, shelter and other crucial assistance. Poor weather and the destruction of roads and bridges have hindered the distribution.
The United Nations said it needs at least 40 more helicopters to reach the large number of people cut off by the flooding.
"We need more of these lifesavers," said the World Food Program's Pakistan country director, Wolfgang Herbinger.
The floods have torn through Pakistan's breadbasket regions, further weakened the already unstable country and inflicted more economic pain on its people.
The floods devastated millions of hectares of crops in the country's "breadbasket" in Punjab and the Sindh.
The country was already facing soaring food costs, chronic unemployment, crumbling schools and hospitals and rolling power cuts. About 60 per cent of its 170 million get by on less than $2 a day. Last year, the economy was kept afloat by a $7.6 billion loan from the IMF.
With files from The Associated Press
