About 166,000 people are still displaced six months after devastating floods swept away homes and drowned livestock in Pakistan, the UN refugees agency said Tuesday.

"Six months after devastating floods first hit Pakistan in July 2010, some 166,000 people are still displaced and living in over 240 camps and spontaneous settlements," said Andrej Mahecic, spokesman for the UN High Commissioner for Refugees.

"This is substantially down from the peak levels in September and October when 3.278 million people were living in camps, but it still represents a substantial population in need of help," he added.

Most of those who are still homeless are located in the southern province of Sindh, one of the hardest hit districts by the flood.

About 20 million people were affected in the natural disaster and 1.7 million houses were damaged or destroyed, said the UNHCR.

The flood also wiped out more than 2.2 million hectares of arable land, depriving rural communities of food and resources, said the Red Cross.