For two weeks many children in Pakistan's Swat Valley have been isolated from their parents and the sick unable to get medical help as all the bridges over the river Swat were destroyed by the heavy flooding.

The military has taken the lead in trying to restore transport links but for now locals have created large baskets on pulleys to move people across the river, with 700 people a day using it.

Al Jazeera's Bernard Smith reports from Swat in northwest Pakistan.