Victims of the Pakistan floods will be forced by religious conviction to starve themselves for the Muslim festival of Ramadan, a Scots aid worker has warned.

Habib Malik from the Disasters Emergency Committee (DEC), the organisation that is co-ordinating the response to the disaster, revealed yesterday that families who have lost everything will still take part in the religious ritual.

Muslims all over the world will refrain from eating or drinking during the day for a month as part of the religious festival which starts tomorrow.

Mr Malik said: “When Ramadan begins those caught in the floods will be fasting on empty stomachs but they will fast whether there is food or not. They will have to live in extreme conditions.”

He travelled to the Nowshera region in north-west Pakistan last Monday to help relief efforts. The charity worker, who moved to Glasgow from Pakistan when he was 18 and now lives in Aberdeen, spoke of the effects of the contaminated water.

He said: “Every child I saw was covered in a nasty rash and they were scratching. The spots covered their bodies because of the contaminated water.

“It was so hard to see people suffering like this. Seeing the children in pain, starving and wet, really got to me.”

Mr Malik, who is manager of the DEC agency, Islamic Relief in Scotland, added: “It was heartbreaking to see the men go back to their homes to see if they could salvage some clothing or valuables. Some came back with a few things, others came back with nothing.”

Mr Malik described the psychological impact of the floods on communities. He said: “It is so hard for the women and men there, not only physically but also pyschologically. Many of the women do not have their burkas – their veils. Where I was is a very religious area and it upsets both the women and men that they are not covered. This is their culture and they are finding it very hard.

“People climbed on to their roofs to escape the floods and they cannot accept that there are not enough helicopters to save them, so they are just waiting there. It is an unimaginable disaster.”

The aid worker arrived back in Glasgow on Sunday but hopes to return to the flood-hit area soon. He said: “What we want to make sure is that the people of Pakistan have water, shelter, medical supplies and food.”

Judith Robertson, head of Oxfam Scotland, said: “This is the biggest disaster Pakistan has faced in 80 years. We need to get more aid to the people. It is making a difference. It is not something that happened last week, it is happening now and is unavoidable.”

Hanzala Malik, a Labour councillor in Glasgow, said: “This disaster is horrendous. Glasgow City Council has always worked closely with Pakistan and the Scottish community. The people of Scotland have been very generous so far.”

It is estimated that 16 million people have been hit by the flooding in Pakistan and 1600 are reported dead.

For information or to make a donation visit www.dec.org.uk or call 0370 60 60 900.

Also via www.sciaf.org.uk or call 0141 354 5555

Disaster has hit some 13 million

The number of people hit by the massive floods in Pakistan is estimated at 13.8 million.

That’s two million more than the combined total of the 2004 Indian Ocean tsunami, the 2005 Kashmir earthquake and the 2010 Haiti earthquake, the United Nations said yesterday.

The death toll in each of those three disasters was much higher than the 1600 people killed so far in the floods that first hit Pakistan two weeks ago.

But the comparison helps frame the scale of the crisis, which Pakistan’s prime minister, Yousuf Raza Gilani, yesterday called the worst in the country’s history.

It has overwhelmed the government, generating widespread anger from flood victims who have complained that aid is not reaching them quickly enough or at all.