In Toronto, ShareLife is accepting donations at www.sharelife.org/humanitarian.html. ShareLife relief funds will be directed to Caritas Internationalis through Development and Peace.

“With continuing rains and floods spreading to more areas, the challenge before us is growing by the day,” said Carolyn Fanelli, head of programming and acting country representative for Catholic Relief Services in Pakistan, the U.S. bishops’ relief agency.

“We have already distributed emergency relief material to 6,400 people and our target is being regularly revised upward.”

The devastating floods that began in late July in the mountainous north under incessant monsoon rains have claimed more than 1,600 lives and affected more than 13 million people.

The United Nations said the floods have affected more people than the 2004 Indian Ocean tsunami, the 2005 earthquake in the Kashmir region of Pakistan and the January earthquake in Haiti combined.

Fanelli noted that floodwaters are expanding into new regions, including the plain provinces of Punjab and Sindh, forcing the agency to raise its estimates of people needing assistance.

She said the agency may need to provide emergency shelter and hygiene supplies to as many as 100,000 people.

“We were able to distribute nearly 100 relief kits as the fresh supplies reached us,” said Nasrullah Khan, head of the CRS office in mountainous Besham, north of Pakistan’s capital, Islamabad.

“Our staff have covered up to 40 km on foot to remote areas where the people are in great suffering.       

Mules remain the only option for us to (get) the material to those in remote areas made inaccessible by landslides,” Khan said Aug. 10.

As the flood-affected area grows, roads and bridges have been washed away and much of the country’s communication network has been destroyed. An official of Caritas Pakistan said some supplies, including plastic sheeting for shelter, water purification tablets, cooking utensils and food items have gotten through.

“The destruction and human suffering caused by the floods is colossal. Thousands have nothing left and are living in the open,” Anila J. Gill, national executive secretary of Caritas Pakistan, said from her office in Lahore.

Gill said all Catholic dioceses in Pakistan are involved in the relief work.

By Aug. 9, the agency had assisted 4,800 families with tent materials, and hygiene and kitchen kits.

“For the next three months, we will concentrate on the relief work,” Gill explained.

“The people are in trauma. The challenge now is to support them to survive and overcome the tragedy.”

An outbreak of disease and diarrhea because of the lack of safe drinking water is affecting the population in flooded areas.

“Medical personnel have not reached many areas and our challenges are increasing day by day,” Gill said.