United Nations Radio

The United Nations humanitarian agency (OCHA) says the situation of people affected by floods in Pakistan is extremely difficult and warns that it could worsen.

Pakistan floods

OCHA estimates that the people affected by the floods are now close to 17 million people and the number of those in need of emergency shelter has increased from two to six million people.

OCHA spokesman Maurizio Giuliano says the situation in Sindh, which is now being described as the country's worst hit province, is of "high concern" because the number of people affected continues to rise.

"So we will only be able to know in the coming days how many people have been affected altogether in Sindh. The floods in Sindh are ongoing now as we speak. Entire cities are going to be evacuated. Shahdadkot was evacuated over the weekend. So we have over 100,000 people on the move in Sindh at the moment."

United Nations agencies are continuing their work to provide relief in Pakistan.

A United Nations spokesman says to date the World Food Programme has reached about 1.3 million people with a one-month emergency ration of food.

However the agency says that approximately 6 million people in all are expected to require food assistance over the next three months.

Meanwhile, the World Health Organization (WHO) says that the number of reporting disease cases is increasing.

WHO has reported more than 200,000 cases of acute diarrhoea, over 260,000 cases of skin diseases and more than 200,000 cases of acute respiratory diseases in flood-affected provinces.

Dianne Penn, United Nations Radio.

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