By Zeeshan Haider
ISLAMABAD (Reuters) - More than four million Pakistanis have been made homeless by nearly three weeks of floods, the United Nations said on Thursday, making the critical task of securing greater amounts of aid more urgent.
The U.N. had earlier said that two million people had lost their homes in the worst floods in Pakistan's history.
Aid agencies have been pushing for more funding as they try to tackle major problems such as food supplies, lack of clean water and shelter and outbreaks of disease.
Economic costs of the floods are expected to run into the billions of dollars, stepping up pressure on Pakistan's government just after it had made progress in stabilising the country through security offensives against Taliban insurgents.
Floods have ruined crops over an estimated area of more than 1.6 million acres, hammering the mainstay agriculture industry.
Flood victims are turning on each other as aid is handed out. The elderly sometimes take food from children as anger rises over the government's perceived sluggish response to the crisis. In the small town of Alipur in the agricultural heartland Punjab province, troops and police with batons charged flood victims trying to grab food unloaded from a helicopter.
Some waved empty pots and pans at a military helicopter, wondering, like millions of others, when food supplies will arrive.
Aninda Mitra, a Moody's Investors Service analyst for Pakistan, doubts the disaster will have short-term implications on sovereign ratings.
"But in the long term, to what extent the economy can bounce back and recover is going to be quite crucial and that is something we are interested in getting an assessment on."
The number of Pakistani flood victims in need urgent humanitarian relief has risen from six million to eight million, the U.N. said.
The Asian Development Bank said it would likely extend a $2 billion assistance package for emergency rehabilitation and reconstruction.
The National Weather Forecasting Centre expects scattered thundershowers or rain in Punjab, parts of the northwest, Kashmir, Sindh and Baluchistan.
Only a small minority of the 8 million Pakistanis desperate for food and clean water have received help after floods that have killed up to 1,600 people.
"According to rough estimates, over 4 million people in Sindh and Punjab still do not have a roof on their head," said Giuliano, referring to southern and central provinces worst hit by the flood. "This situation is of high concern."
U.S. Senator John Kerry said $200 million from the a $7.5 billion U.S. aid package for Pakistan over five years, which he co-authored, would be diverted to the relief effort.
The bill was unpopular in Pakistan as it ties some funds to fighting militancy, to cooperation in stopping nuclear proliferation and ensuring Pakistani civilian government dominance over the military.
"We have a lot of work to do," Kerry said, on a trip with President Asif Ali Zardari to a relief camp in Pakistan.
Aid funding has improved, with nearly half the $459 million needed to fund initial relief efforts secured. But the situation on the ground remained grim.
Child trafficking is a big business in Pakistan. Giuliano expressed concern that since the floods have made millions homeless, children were at an even greater risk.
"You may have families who take drastic measures because they need to survive," he said.
(Additional reporting by Faisal Aziz and Sahar Ahmed in Karachi, Kamran Haider in Islamabad, Rosemarie Francisco in Manila and Jonathan Thatcher in Singapore)
(Writing by Michael Georgy)
