Pakistani authorities are trying to widen a breach in one of their biggest lakes to prevent it bursting its banks and engulfing nearby towns.
Record monsoon rains and melting glaciers in Pakistan's northern mountains have brought floods that have affected 33 million people, and killed at least 1,314, including 458 children.
The unprecedented flooding has followed record-breaking summer temperatures, and has left the Manchar freshwater lake, in the northern Sindh province, massively swollen.
Authorities decided to displace up to 100,000 people from their homes in the hope of draining enough water to stop the lake bursting its banks and swamping more densely populated areas.
But water levels remain dangerously high.
Both the Pakistani government and the United Nations have blamed climate change for the extreme weather and the devastation it has brought.
International response
The floods have led to a growing humanitarian crisis, with officials especially concerned about the wellbeing of pregnant women and young mothers.
More than 100,000 pregnant women in badly affected Sindh province have been displaced by the floods, with only 891 making it to relief camps, according to data from the provincial government released today.
The relief effort is a huge burden for an economy already needing help from the International Monetary Fund.
A delegation of three US politicians, who visited the flood-hit areas on Sunday to assess the damage and explore ways of assisting Pakistan in its recovery efforts, met Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif yesterday, his office said.
Mr Sharif told the politicians that given the challenges and enormous resources involved in the reconstruction efforts,"continued support, solidarity and assistance from the international community was critical," the office said.
The United Nations has called for $160 million in aid to help the flood victims but Finance Minister Miftah Ismail said the damage was far higher.
"The total damage is close to $10 billion, perhaps more," Mr Ismail said in an interview with CNBC.
"Clearly it is not enough. In spite of meagre resources Pakistan will have to do much of the heavy lifting."
Nevertheless, help kept pouring in with the foreign ministry reporting arrivals of relief flights from the United Nations and individual countries, including Turkmenistan and the United Arab Emirates.
Regional danger
Elsewhere in the region, floods are also threatening crisis-hit Sri Lanka, while rains have disrupted life in India's technology hub, Bengaluru, where authorities used tractors to rescue residents of housing estates marooned by floods after two days of torrential rain.
Many parts of the city in which several global companies and home-grown startups are based were under water as more rain fell in an unusually wet monsoon season, which has brought 162% more rainfall than average since 1 June.
"Things are bad. Please take care," Gaurav Munjal, founder of the Softbank-backed education technology firm Unacademy said on Twitter after he, his family and his dog were rescued on a tractor from his neighbourhood.
Family and my Pet Albus has been evacuated on a Tractor from our society that's now submerged. Things are bad. Please take care. DM me if you need any help, I’ll try my best to help. pic.twitter.com/MYnGgyvfx0
— Gaurav Munjal (@gauravmunjal) September 6, 2022
With city streets submerged and traffic in chaos, many companies asked staff to work from home.
Environmentalists blamed the flooding on poor planning as the city has expanded and climate change.
"When you start building on this kind of a landscape and you start paving and crusting the area with homes and roads, the run-off starts to increase," Bengaluru-based water conservationist S Vishwanath told Reuters.
India could expect more intense weather in future, said Leo Saldanha of the Environment Support Group.
"Extreme weather events are predicted to be a part of climate change impacts," he said.
Bengaluru's water supply company said on Monday it would stop the supply of water to more than 50 areas in the city for two days after a pumping station that brings in water from 100km away was flooded.
Rain was expected to fall in the city and neighbouring areas until Friday, an official with the Indian Meteorological Department said.
