Islamabad

The World Health Organization (WHO) has expressed grave fears and serious concerns over what it termed to be a "second disaster" in flood-hit Pakistan.

The country has massive areas left with standing water triggering water-borne diseases which are infecting thousands of the displaced people.

Referring to the grave situation in Sindh province, where the flood water continues to flow through villages, towns and cities the WHO has warned of a potential wave of diseases and deaths.

"Consumption of contaminated water in flood-hit areas was leading to a surge in diseases including cholera, malaria, dengue and diarrhoea," said WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus.

"Health centres have been flooded, their supplies damaged, and people have moved away from home, which makes it harder for them to access their normal health services."

"All this means more unsafe births, more untreated diabetes or heart diseases and more children missing vaccination, to name but a few of the impacts on health," he added.

Ghebreyesus highlighted that health workers in Pakistan are already working beyond their capacity and are stretched to their limit as they try to provide critical healthcare to millions affected by the floods.

The catastrophic floods have destroyed over 2,000 healthcare facilities, adding up to the mounting challenges for health workers in the coutry.

At least 35 million people have been affected by the floods in Pakistan. About 16 million of them are children while over 1.6 million females are in immediate need of pregnancy and menstrual relief kits and aids.

ALSO READ: 16 mn children in Pak affected by floods

Some 3.4 million children are in urgent need of life saving healthcare.