Death toll rises to 190 as floods wreak havoc in Afghanistan

Kabul, Sep 1 (efe-epa).- Afghan authorities on Tuesday raised the death toll to 190 and announced that 12 people were still missing after flash floods struck over a dozen provinces over the past week, destroying more than 1,000 houses.

“Unfortunately in last week’s floods 190 people were martyred,” in 13 provinces of the country, Ghulam Bahauddin Jilani, the deputy minister for national disaster management, said in a press conference on Tuesday.

Heavy rains that began on Wednesday across 15 of Afghanistan’s 34 provinces had “fully destroyed” more than 1,000 houses and partially damaged around 3,000 buildings, the minister added.

The number of casualties has risen steadily over the past week as rescue works have progressed in remote regions.

“The assessment and survey is still underway and the number of casualties and affected houses may change in coming days,” Jilani warned.

Government agencies and humanitarian organizations are engaged in efforts to send food and other aid to people affected by the rains and floods.

Authorities are also trying to restore public utilities and reopen roads cut off by the floods.

The northern Parwan province has been hit the hardest by the natural calamity and “search and rescue operations are still going on” there, the minister said.

Afghanistan frequently suffers from natural disasters that cause numerous human losses, such as the landslides that killed 2,000 people in May 2014 in the northeast of the country.

The country also has many of the lowest development indicators in the world and has been at war for decades. EFE-EPA

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