Pakistan struggles to avert danger as floods rise, death toll tops 1,300

But water levels in the lake, to the west of the Indus river in the southern province of Sindh, remain dangerously high.

“The water level at Manchar lake has not come down”, Jam Khan Shoro, the provincial minister for irrigation told Reuters.

He declined to say if another attempt to drain water from the lake would be made.

The floods are a huge burden for an economy already needing help from the International Monetary Fund.

The United Nations has called for US$160 million in aid to help the victims of the floods but Finance Minister Miftah Ismail said the cost of the damage was far higher than that.

“The total damage is close to US$10 billion, perhaps more”, 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 from abroad is arriving.

Relief flights from the United Nations and countries including Turkmenistan and the United Arab Emirates arrived on Monday, the foreign ministry said in a statement.

Elsewhere in the region, floods are also threatening crisis-hit Sri Lanka, while rains have disrupted life in India’s technology hub, Bangalore.

The northern summer is the rainy season across much of Asia.