A Scottish aid worker helping with the flood relief effort in Pakistan is urging Scots to dig deep to assist the 2.5 million affected people.

Habib Malik of Islamic Relief is in the north-west of the country where the worst floods in almost a century have seen entire villages swept away.

Following a few days respite, rain has started to fall again with monsoon conditions expected for the next 24 to 48 hours.

Aberdeen-based Habib spoke to STV News from Nowshera where he is assisting with a scheme to provide tents to displaced families. Around 90% of the city, which has a population of 1.4 million, was flooded.

“I’ve covered flooding and earthquake disasters before so I had a fair idea what to expect but I didn’t think I was going to find these small islands,” he said.

“Small villages are surrounded by water like small islands – bridges damaged; electricity cut; infrastructure destroyed; villages after villages submerged by rivers. Roads are blocked, there are landslides. Hundreds of children and women holding on to their loved ones in the same clothes they’ve been wearing for the last four or five days.”

After arriving at a camp set up at a polytechnic college in Nowshera on Sunday, Habib said he was astonished to see over 1,000 displaced people register just two and a half hours after it opened.

Travel within the affected regions is nearly impossible and communication networks have been almost completely wiped out. Habib took almost three hours to travel 20 miles out of the affected area to get a phone signal.

“When the waters came, many of these people thought there would be an air rescue, so they spent the night on top of their roofs – and that was the lucky ones. There are many who had their entire houses washed away.

“The government are trying their best to airlift those who are stuck, and there are thousands and thousands who are stuck, but they only have one or two helicopters”, he said.

Habib added that the mood is changing from one of relief to be alive, to desperation and frustration at the lack of aid.

“People haven’t eaten for the last four or five days. The majority don’t have any footwear. It’s turning into frustration and anger.

“We’ve been putting up tents and people were acting quite hostile. They were asking where the helicopters and the army were. Especially when they see their children crying because they haven’t got food or they’re injured and they can’t get medicine.”

He added: “There’s water everywhere but they can’t drink it because it’s contaminated. I’ve seen children start to drink the contaminated water and we all know what’s going to end up happening to them.”

Habib says he hopes the people of Scotland will once again act fast to donate money to the cause.

He said: “The international community needs to respond and respond urgently. I know there’s a recession on but my message to the Scottish people is - we’ve done it before for many disasters – I personally have collected millions of pounds from people from our small country with big hearts. I would ask them to give whatever they can.”

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Pledge support to the Pakistan flood relief:

• UNICEF
• Red Cross
• Oxfam
• Islamic Relief
• Save the Children