Flood-stricken Pakistan urgently needs more international aid to combat potential instability and extremism, influential US senator John Kerry said, as hunger and disease threaten millions of victims.
In a commentary in the International Herald Tribune, Kerry, who heads the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, said that the international community was not meeting its responsibilities towards Pakistan, where floods have killed more than 1,600 people and left at least six million homeless.
"The danger of the floods extends beyond a very real humanitarian crisis," Mr Kerry wrote in today's edition.
"A stable and secure Pakistan, based on democracy and the rule of law, is in all of our interests. Pakistan has made enormous strides in combating extremism and terrorism - at great sacrifice. But its ability to keep up the fight requires an effective response to this crisis."
Pakistan has struggled with its response to the massive flooding, which has left one-fifth of the country under water, an area the size of Italy. Pakistanis have grown increasingly angry with the sluggish government response, and are turning to Islamist charities, some of them tied to militant groups.
The United States worries that the battle against Islamist militants may have got harder in Pakistan, with a weakened administration battling economic meltdown and public anger.
Mr Kerry is a co-sponsor of the Kerry-Lugar-Berman aid package, which would funnel $7.5 billion over five years in civilian development money to Pakistan. Last week, the head of the United States Agency for International Development said $50 million from the package would be diverted to immediate flood relief.
The floods began in late July after torrential monsoon downpours over the upper Indus basin in the northwest. In Jampur, in southern Punjab, about 500km southwest of Islamabad, waters have begun to recede but thousands of people still live in relief camps.
"In about two weeks' time, when the river returns to normal, that's when we expect movement in the population (to go home)," a Pakistan army official told Reuters.
Further south in Thatta, in Sindh, the flooding that threatened the city of 300,000 has been largely stanched, said Saleh Farooqi, director general in Sindh for National Disaster Management Authority, but Sajwal to the east is under water.
The United Nations said aid workers were increasingly worried about disease and hunger, especially among children, in areas where even before the disaster acute malnutrition was high.
The receding floods have left behind huge pools of stagnant water, which in turn are breeding disease. UN officials say an estimated 72,000 children, affected by severe malnutrition, were at high risk of dying.
Reuters