ISLAMABAD, Pakistan, Aug. 9 (UPI) -- As many as 6 million people have been affected by floods in Pakistan, the United Nations said.
During the weekend floodwaters reached the province of Sindh after traveling around 600 miles south and east along the course of the River Indus. The raging floods are threatening dams in the province at Guddu and Sukkar.
Weather forecasts say heavy rain will continue in Sindh for the next three days or longer.
The Pakistani government has been sharply criticized for its poor response to the disaster, as President Asif Zardari last week continued on a previously scheduled trip to Britain and France, including a visit to his Normandy chateau, as his country was besieged by raging waters.
The floods, triggered by massive monsoons, are considered the worst in the country's modern history.
Pakistan's military, for its part, has rescued some 100,00 people.
"(The floods) have exposed the weakness and poor management by the civilian government," Hasan Askari Rizvi, a political analyst based in Lahore, was quoted as saying by The Guardian newspaper.
Pakistani Prime Minister Yousaf Raza Gilani also has been criticized for his lack of involvement as he campaigned for by-elections as hundreds of thousands of people lost their homes.
When last week he visited Mianwali in the province of Punjab, he had unintentionally inspected what later was reported as a staged aid center organized by officials for his visit.
In a visit to Sukkar Sunday, Gilani admitted the government's limitations in responding to the disaster.
"It is beyond our capacity," said Gilani, the Guardian reports.
"We didn't expect such a high flood, a super-flood. It is beyond imagination."
Just in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, more than 50 bridges have been washed away, the chief of the Pakistan's national disaster Management authority told Dawn newspaper.
"We are particularly concerned about the needs of 600,000 people, who remain completely cut off in the north of (Khyber Pakhtunkhwa)", said Wolfgang Herbinger, Pakistan country director of the World Food Program in a release.
Bad weather has prevented helicopter deliveries for three days to the area, home to some 3.9 million of the people affected by the disaster, Herbinger said Sunday.
Relief workers in some areas are moving aid on foot and by teams of mules and donkeys.
"Things will probably get worse before they start getting better. We are working at full speed to respond to the most urgent needs of the affected populations," said Martin Mogwanja, the U.N. humanitarian coordinator in Pakistan.
