<div><span style="font-size: 1rem;">"Super floods" in Pakistan have left 3.4 million children in need of "immediate, lifesaving support," according to UNICEF.</span><br></div><div><br></div><div>The floods -- caused by record monsoon rains and dubbed by one minister as "the worst humanitarian disaster in a decade" -- have impacted 16 million children in total, UNICEF's Pakistan Representative Abdullah Fadil said following his visit this week to the country's southern Sindh Province.</div><div><br></div><div>That estimate came as the country's National Disaster Management Authority updated the death toll from the floods since mid-June to 1,545 people, 552 of them children.</div><div><br></div><div>Meanwhile, officials in the country warn that toll is likely to rise as deaths are being under reported and diseases like dengue fever are on the rise.</div><div><br></div><div>Azra Pechuho, health minister for the southern Sindh Province -- one of the hardest hit areas where many schools and other facilities remain shut, said there was now a "state of emergency" caused by the vast amount of standing water, which provides the perfect breeding conditions for Aedes mosquitoes to spread the dengue virus.</div><div><br></div><div>UNICEF's Fadil said the situation on the ground in Sindh was "beyond bleak" with many malnourished children battling diseases like diarrhea, malaria and dengue fever, as well as painful skin conditions.</div><div><br></div><div>"Girls and boys in Pakistan are paying the price for a climate disaster not of their making," Fadil said.</div><div><br></div><div>"Young children are living out in the open with their families with no drinking water, no food and no livelihood -- exposed to a wide range of new flood related risks and hazards," Fadil said. Mothers, many exhausted, anemic and malnourished, were also unable to breastfeed their babies, reports CNN</div><div><br></div><div>"Vital infrastructure ... has been destroyed and damaged, including thousands of schools, water systems and health facilities," he added.</div><div><br></div><div>bnbd24/fas</div>