Many have been left marooned on tiny islands formed when the deluge swept away virtually everything in its path. Others are trapped in impromptu refugee camps waiting for aid helicopters to bring them the most basic of provision.
The UN warned today that the floods could affect more people than the world's last three great disasters combined. It said the toll could exceed the 2004 Indian Ocean tsunami, the 2005 Kashmir earthquake and the 2010 Haiti earthquake.
Desperate: Pakistani villagers chase relief supplies dropped from an army helicopter in the heavily flood hit area of Mithan Kot
Cut off from the world: Individual houses stand isolated above the flood waters on the outskirts of Sukkur
Deaths in each of those were much higher than the 1,500 people killed so far in the floods that first hit Pakistan two weeks ago. But the Pakistani government estimates that over 13 million people have been affected - two million more than the other disasters combined.
The comparison helps frame the scale of the crisis, which has overwhelmed the Pakistani government and has generated widespread anger from flood victims who have complained that aid is not reaching them quickly enough or at all.
'It looks like the number of people affected in this crisis is higher than the Haiti earthquake, the tsunami or the Pakistan earthquake, and if the toll is as high as the one given by the government, it's higher than the three of them combined,' a spokesman for the UN Office for the Co-ordination of Humanitarian Affairs said.
Battle for survival: Families have been left stranded on tiny islands of land after the water swamped the southern Punjab province
Landscape: More than 1500 people across Pakistan have been killed and hundreds of thousands stranded due to flash floods triggered by the ongoing spell of monsoon rains
The UN has provided a lower number of people who have been affected in Pakistan, about six million, but does not dispute the government's figure. The UN number does not include the southern province of Sindh, which has been hit by floods in recent days, and the two sides have slightly different definitions of what it means to be affected.
The total number of people affected in the three other large disasters that have hit in recent years is about 11 million - five million in the tsunami and three million in each of the earthquakes.
Many of the people affected by the floods, caused by extremely heavy monsoon rains, were located in Pakistan's north-western province of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa.
Rescue workers have been unable to reach up to 600,000 people marooned in the province's Swat Valley, where many were still trying to recover from an intense battle between the army and the Taliban last spring.
Stranded amid the ruins: A Pakistani family trapped amid the rubble of their semi-submerged home in Mithan Kot
Battle against the elements: A family huddles on another island in the flood (left) while villagers swim through the flood waters to collect supplies
Bad weather has prevented helicopters from flying to the area, which is inaccessible by ground.
'All these people are in very serious need of assistance, and we are highly concerned about their situation,' said the UN spokesman.
Hundreds of thousands of people have also had to flee rising floods in recent days in the central and southern provinces of Punjab and Sindh as heavy rains have continued to pound parts of the country.
One affected resident, Manzoor Ahmed, said today that although he managed to escape floods that submerged villages and destroyed homes in Sindh, the total lack of government help meant dying may have been a better alternative.
Villagers wade through flood waters with their livestock as they hunt for higher ground
Determined: A father wades through the water to carry his two children to a rescue boat while another clambers aboard a helicopter as he finally escapes the deluge
'It would have been better if we had died in the floods as our current miserable life is much more painful,' said Ahmed, who fled with his family from the town of Shikarpur and spent the night shivering in the rain that has continued to lash the country.
'It is very painful to see our people living without food and shelter,' he said.
Thousands of people in the neighbouring districts of Shikarpur and Sukkur camped out on roads, bridges and railway tracks - any dry ground they could find - often with nothing more than the clothes on their backs and perhaps a plastic sheet to keep off the rain.
'I have no utensils. I have no food for my children. I have no money,' said Hora Mai, 40, sitting on a rain-soaked road in Sukkur along with hundreds of other people. 'We were able to escape the floodwaters, but hunger may kill us.'
Pakistan's government faced rising national anger as it continued to appear overwhelmed by the scale of floods, the worst in the country's end.
The government is already struggling with a faltering economy and a war against the Taliban that has killed thousands of people.
The West has stepped in to support the government by donating tens of millions of pounds and providing relief supplies and assistance.
But the UN special envoy for the disaster, Jean-Maurice Ripert, said that Pakistan will need billions more from international donors to recover from the floods, a daunting prospect at a time when the financial crisis has shrunk aid budgets in many countries.
A faltering relief effort could open the door to hard-line Islamist groups, which have already been delivering aid in the north-west - an area still trying to recover from an intense war between the army and the Taliban last spring.
The disaster could also have serious repercussions for Pakistani President Asif Ali Zardari, who has been criticised for going through with a planned trip to France and Britain despite the devastating floods at home. ( dailymail.co.uk )
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