The Pakistan Red Crescent Society has distributed relief to at least 55,000 families countrywide since 21 July, with support from Red Cross partners including New Zealand Red Cross.

Thirty-two Red Crescent field medical teams are now working up and down the flood zone and have treated more than 48,000 people, including - with epidemic fears growing - nearly 12,000 cases of diarrhoea.

"Since the start of this disaster we have been channelling international aid through our colleagues in the Pakistan Red Crescent Society," says Ted Itani, who is leading the Federation's Islamabad-based field assessment and coordination team (FACT).

Reinforcement

"But Red Crescent medical and relief teams have been on the go without a break since the last week of July - now they need reinforcement.

"For all its magnitude, this has actually been a slow-onset disaster, as the flood water has taken about three weeks to run the entire length of the country."

The Pakistani government has not confirmed any cases of cholera, but tens of thousands of people are said to be suffering from the acute diarrhoea that invariably follows major floods, which instantly contaminate natural water sources.

Sindh worst hit

Sindh itself - where a vast area is underwater - is emerging as the worst-hit province, according to Pakistani officials. Nationwide, the damaged territory is now estimated to be about the size of the UK.

On the move

Hundreds of thousands of people in Sindh - most recently around the town of Shahdadkot, near the border with Baluchistan - are on the move or have set up camp beside roads and railway lines, on the dykes where they first made landfall as they fled the rising water, and in school buildings.

The most recently completed FACT assessment, in Punjab province, upstream from Sindh, reported a similar picture - huge areas underwater and countless thousands of people displaced by the flood.

Camping on the road

In one location, on a main road leading out of Muzaffargarh, the Red Cross team of health, shelter and recovery specialists found 2,000 people camped on the road's median strip.

The Red Crescent is shipping tents to displaced people, and giving them food, including milk for young children, some basic medicines, and soap and disinfectant. 

Behind its embankments, the river is now several metres above the level of Hyderabad city, and the centre of the huge expanse of water is still a boiling torrent.

The international Red Cross has quadrupled its appeal from $23 million to $103 million to help 2 million people for 18 months. Read the revised appeal here.

What can you do?

New Zealand Red Cross International Programmes Manager Glenn Rose says the scale of the disaster demands an extraordinary response.

The Red Cross and Red Crescent operation will give each family basic shelter equipment, a family kit and a food basket with enough food for a month containing 50kg flour, 20kg rice, 24kg lentils or black chickpeas, 15kg ghee, 5kg sugar, 1kg tea and a jute bag.

Donations buy: kitchen set $40; hygiene kit $20; tarpaulin $20; family tent $330; shelter kit with tools $33; water container $10; blanket $13.

Donate online now.

Find out more  

New Zealand Red Cross urges supporters to donate cash, not goods, so that the right relief items can be sent to people in need as quickly as possible. Find out more here.

See new photos of the Red Cross Red Crescent operation here.

Find out about people affected by both floods and conflict here.