Pakistan floods hit 2.5 m people -Red Cross

PAKISTAN: Pakistan faces the risk of a public health disaster with up to 2.5 million people affected and 1,500 killed by devastating floods that have washed away entire villages, officials said.

The death toll was expected to rise Tuesday in northwest Pakistan after the floods and landslides triggered by record rain last week obliterated homes and farmland in one of the country's most impoverished regions.

Aid officials said clean drinking water and sanitation were urgently needed to stop diseases such as cholera spreading among the survivors of Pakistan's worst floods in 80 years.

"Thousands of people are living in miserable conditions," Ateeb Siddiqui, director of operations with the Pakistan Red Crescent Society, said.

"Providing clean water and sanitation is an absolute priority if we are to avert a public health disaster," he said. Flood victims have condemned authorities over sluggish relief, shouting "give us aid sent by foreign countries" and "death to the corrupt government".

At a camp set up by the army for around 640 families in the northwest area of Nowshehra, women and children ran after vehicles bringing food and water, pushing and shouting.

People at the camp said there were no proper toilets or bathrooms and that the only respite from the crushing heat was plastic hand fans. Most of them fled in the clothes they were wearing and many children roamed naked.

The United Nations said around 980,000 people had lost their homes or been temporarily displaced by the floods and the figure was likely to rise above a million.

An assessment by the UN World Food Programme in four districts - Nowshera, Charsadda, Mardan and Peshawar - found that around 80,000 homes had been destroyed and another 50,000 damaged. Peshawar, AFP