As it emerged that 3.2 million people have been affected by floods in north-west Pakistan, experts warn that the Taliban could take advantage of the situation to strengthen their grip on the region.
Pakistan faces a public health disaster with up to 1,500 killed by devastating floods that have washed away entire villages, officials said.
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The death toll is expected to rise in northwest Pakistan after the floods and landslides triggered by record rain last week obliterated homes and farmland in one of the country's most impoverished regions.
Aid officials said clean drinking water and sanitation were urgently needed to stop diseases such as cholera spreading among the survivors of Pakistan's worst floods in 80 years.
Professor Samina Yasmeen is Director of Centre for Muslim States and Societies and lectures in Political Science and International Relations in the School of Social and Cultural Studies, the University of Western Australia (UWA), Perth.
She told SBS any government would find it difficult to deal with a crisis of this magnitude.
"The problem is worsened by the fact the areas where the floods have been so destructive are the ones that were already suffering from the militancy undertaken by the Taliban and their supporters," she told SBS.
"So now the government has to ensure that they save the people but also ensure that they do not strengthen the hand of the militants," Prof Yasmeen told SBS.
"What we could see is that militant groups would use this crisis as a way of further creating a gulf between the government -- whether local or provincial -- and the people, by seizing on the fact that the government is not able to take care of the people and that they (the Taliban) would provide assistance to these people".
"In that sense it would increase the avenues for them to recruit people," she told SBS.
The long term emotional impact of the floods is going to be something that needs to be kept in mind and whatever assistance is given shouldn't be seen as an instant solution to the problem, Ms Yasmeen said.
"Otherwise we might see that some groups that feel absolutely left out and not supported, come back and haunt the government. Because if people are disenchanted they might start becoming more critical and therefore more willing to cooperate with anyone who gives them an alternative way of living," she said.
World Vision Head of Policy and Programs Cony Lenneberg told SBS the organisation will take security precautions when delivering aid to the flood-affected areas as they know the Taliban presence is strong there.
Ms Lenneberg says very poor communities had already been impacted by conflict in recent years.
"We had several million people displaced by fighting in the Swat Valley and these areas again have been affected by the flooding, so certainly the insecurity in that area will pose a challenge, but they are challenges that we are well posed to address," she told SBS.
She said geography also poses a big challenge to aid delivery, especially in KPK, where infrastructure was already lacking.
