In Pakistan, 6 million at risk of disease

ISLAMABAD, Pakistan, Aug. 16 (UPI) -- About 6 million people, most of them infants and children, are at risk of lethal diseases transmitted through dirty water in flooded Pakistan, officials said.

As the death toll from the flooding climbed to more than 1,400, the United Nations said it had received only a third of the $460 million it sought in an emergency appeal for donations, The New York Times reported.

"Clean water is an urgent need," Maurizio Giuliano, a U.N. spokesman, told the newspaper. "There was a first wave of deaths caused by the floods themselves. But if we don't act soon enough, there will be a second wave of deaths caused by a combination of lack of clean water, food shortages and water-borne and vector-borne diseases.

"The picture is a gruesome one."

Costs for essential aid are expected to continue increasing even after the rains stop.

More than two weeks of rain has destroyed more than 895,000 homes, government officials said Monday. Pakistan's Disaster Authority said about a fifth of the country was underwater, CNN reported.

U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon, who toured the country with President Asif Ali Zardari, said the monsoon-driven flooding in Pakistan was worse than the 2004 Indian Ocean tsunami and the 2005 Pakistani earthquake combined.

"Thousands of towns and villages have simply been washed away," Ban said. "Roads, buildings, bridges, crops -- millions of livelihoods have been lost. People are marooned on tiny islands with the floodwaters all around them. They are drinking dirty water. They are living in the mud and ruins of their lives. Many have lost family and friends. Many more are afraid their children and loved ones will not survive in these conditions."

Zardari's office said Pakistan needs greater international involvement to help officials address immediate recovery efforts, and longer-term reconstruction and infrastructure development, CNN reported.

The United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs in Islamabad said at least 36,000 cases of acute watery diarrhea have been reported.

Ban said he is allocating an additional $10 million from the organization's Central Emergency Response Fund, raising its contribution for the crisis to $27 million, CNN reported.

Reports indicate more than two dozen countries, organizations and individuals pledged about $305 million to Pakistan. The United States has pledged more than $86 million and has sent helicopters, rescue boats and other supplies.