‘We have nothing left' With no homes, food or aid, Pakistan's flood victims are losing hope

After several attempts, Zameer Ali, his son and his brother were finally heaved up on to the deck of a wooden boat. Early that morning, the exhausted 48-year-old had waded out of his home with his family near the city of Khairpur Nathan Shah in Pakistan’s Sindh province to look for their livestock. As the water around them got deeper, they were forced to swim for six hours, using a bamboo stick for support, and had tired quickly.

- Shah Meer Baloch Dadu

“We held on to the electricity tower and waited for someone to help,” Ali said from onboard the boat. “We screamed our hearts out for help … When no one stopped to help, I felt we would die.”

This part of Sindh’s Dadu district is now indistinguishable from a lake, with water as far as the eye can see. Ali’s house, like hundreds of thousands in the area, has been submerged. Between 5% and 10% of the city’s population of 350,000 are still stuck in their flooded homes. Those who can, travel by boat. Others swim with a stick to get about. Sewage and flood waters have mixed to a dirty green.

Interviews with local people paint a picture of a disaster on a scale that the government and NGOs have been unable to cope with. Torrential monsoon rains that began in mid-June have devastated much of the country, washing away bridges, roads, livestock and people. One-third of Pakistan is underwater, more than 1,250 people have died and more than 35 million are affected in some way.