Southern Pakistan crippled by rains

Flooding and heavy rains over the last month in Pakistan's Sindh province have killed approximately 226 people, and crippled the financial hub of Karachi reports CNN. According to reports, 5.3 million people have been affected, and 1 million homes and 80 percent of the nation's crops have been damaged, CNN reports.

In Karachi, Pakistan's biggest city few have people able to go to work because of the floods, reports Al Jazeera.

Worse, it seems the rains are not over. A storm system developing over central India may cause more heavy rainfall in Pakistan as the week progresses, meteorologists predict on a disaster agency's website. Flash flooding is expected in all four of Pakistan's provinces, CNN reports.

The International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent (IFRC), has appealed for $12 million for urgent relief and medical support, reports Dawn, an English daily in Pakistan. The United Nations is providing the country with food supplies, and tents. The UN Secretary General, Ban Ki Moon, is monitoring the situation himself, Dawn reports.

China has presented Pakistan's National Disaster Management Authority with $50,000, and has pledged $4.7 in aid, including tents, to flooded areas. Iran will be donating $100 million to the Sindh province, and interior minister of Iran, Mostafa Mohammad Najar, said that he will bring relief goods from Iran in the upcoming week, CNN reports.

Al Jazeera's Kamal Hyder reports that the people of Pakistan have little faith in their government:

"The authorities are known to sleep at the time of urgency. These rains have been going on for several weeks now, which the government saw coming, but they've been caught napping, and any action is seen as too little too late," he said.

The country is still attempting to recover from the heavy rains and floods of last years. More than 800,000 families still do not have shelter, reports Reuters, and more than a million still need food aid.