In Pakistan's Sindh province, engineers had to dig a diversion channel to drain water from the near-to-overflowing Lake Manchar, which threatened the towns of Sehwan and Bhan Saeedabad, whose combined population is approaching the half a million souls.
But the canal is in flood and the population of Sehwan is mobilizing to contain the rising waters: the inhabitants are storing stones to reinforce the bank which protects the city.
>> To read: Under water, does Pakistan risk bankruptcy like Sri Lanka?
“We are doing this by hand because it is urgent,” said Hussein Pawar, an engineer at the Sindh Regulatory Authority, as hundreds of families had to flee their homes and now live in makeshift camps.
"I have been here with my family for ten days, explains Zameer Hussain, a survivor. There are mosquitoes and scorpions. We are afraid of catching malaria. Two children have been bitten. Nobody is helping us."
Pakistan receives monsoon rains essential for irrigating plantations and replenishing water resources, but often destructive.
However, it had not seen such heavy rains for at least three decades.
Islamabad blames the devastating floods on climate change, which is increasing the frequency and intensity of extreme weather events across the planet.
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