ISLAMABAD, July 28: New research shows that child labour has risen in the country in the aftermath of last year's floods, 'Save the Children' says in its latest report on Thursday.

Published to mark the first anniversary of 2010 floods, the report says that children were being sent out to work in hazardous environments like factories and garages because their parents can no longer make a living.

Every third parents in parts of Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa and Sindh reported that their children were doing more paid work in the year after floods.

The situation in Punjab is little better where children of one parents in five are reportedly doing labour.

The last year's devastating floods ruined local economy and massively weakened the education system.

The 'Save the Children' surveyed over 2,300 households in the three hardest-hit provinces for its report, “Pakistan: One Year On”.

It shows families have seen their incomes plummet by up to 70 per cent and on average a third of households have been unable to rebuild their homes.

Many of the 10 million children are struggling to survive as a result of the disaster. The report shows that in some flood-affected areas 23 per cent of children are acutely malnourished.

Nearly half of parents surveyed reported that their children were suffering phobias, nightmares and other signs of psychological trauma and in one district of Punjab one in ten families reported their children had turned to hashish or glue to cope with their feelings.

David Wright, the country director of Save the Children in Pakistan, said: “A year on from the floods and many of the children caught up in the disaster are struggling to survive. This is an ongoing nightmare for many of them. We need to get them out of work and back at school.”

'Save the Children' launched its biggest ever emergency response in Pakistan, and over the last year its aid has reached 4 million people, 1.8 million of them children. It has treated 25,000 children for malnutrition.

However, the charity said that despite the size of its response, there was still a huge amount of work to be done.