The United Nations World Health Organization (WHO) just put out an emergency alert warning that 150,000 people may die from the consequences of diseases that may be unleashed any day now following the devastation from the tsunami waves that killed an estimated 150,000.

The WHO said 150,000 people are at “extreme risk” of dying from preventable diseases unless access to clean drinking water and other basic needs are restored within days.

“If basic needs, particularly access to safe drinking water, are not urgently restored to all populations by the end of this week, WHO (World Health Organization) fears that outbreaks of infectious disease could result in a similar number of fatalities as occurred due to the direct impact of the tsunami,” the agency said, appealing for $60 million to address immediate needs. With Secretary-General Kofi Annan already in Jakarta, Indonesia, for the launch of the flash appeal at the Tsunami summit on Jan. 6, U.N. agency heads also drew attention to disturbing reports of rape and abuse of women.

WHO has already sent millions of water purification tablets to Southeast Asia and mobilized health emergency kits containing basic medical supplies for more than 2 million people for the next three months.

“We are extremely concerned about the ongoing lack of access to basic needs,” WHO Director-General Lee Jong-Wook said in Jakarta.

“Five million people have been severely affected by the tsunamis. We now estimate that as many as 150,000 people are at extreme risk, if a major disease outbreak in the affected areas occurs.

“The most urgent need now is to make sure everyone has access to safe drinking water.”

“At a time when countless women have been left to head up households and to care for children and other survivors, their security must be a top priority of all affected governments and relief workers,” the agency’s U.N. Fund for Population Activities’ Executive Director, Thoraya Ahmed Obaid, said after a Sri Lankan-based women’s collective reported rape, molestation and physical abuse of displaced women and girls.

There have already been isolated but unconfirmed reports of possible child trafficking in areas severely affected by the quake-induced killer sea waves.