SUJAWAL, Pakistan: Two of Fatima Bibi’s children have died of mosquito-borne malaria, and she fears her next child will be her three-year-old.

Her younger child, Fizza, has been diagnosed with a life-threatening illness for the second time in a month. The local hospital sent him home with some medication, but his mother fears it’s too little, too late.

Fatima lives with her five children in Pakistan’s Sujawal district in a small mud house with no toilet or running water. The nearest source of clean drinking water is a 30-minute walk away.

“There is a lot of dirt and garbage everywhere in our village. There are also a lot of mosquitoes,” Fatima told CNA.

“What can we do? We are poor and have to live here; where do we go? “We do not have the resources to settle in the city and take care of the children there.”

Every family in the village, located in the country’s southern Sindh province, has at least one child suffering from skin disease, diarrhoea, cholera, dysentery or malaria.

Many of these are a result of devastating floods in 2022 that will submerge a third of the country and affect 33 million people. Many are still struggling to put their lives back together two years later.

One of their biggest challenges is the constant and persistent spread of waterborne diseases, especially among children.

While cholera and dysentery are spread through contaminated water and food, malaria is spread by infected mosquitoes that breed in stagnant water.

While people are demanding urgent action to combat the crisis, health officials are warning of a looming public health emergency in the coming months if the situation does not improve.