At least 39 dead, 3,000 families affected by floods in Afghanistan
Kabul, Aug 5 (EFE).- At least 39 people were killed and another 16 injured in the recent floods in Afghanistan, which also left more than 3,000 families affected, aggravating the humanitarian crisis in the Asian country since the Taliban’s return to power last year.
“Between 24 July and 1 August, flash floods have reportedly killed 39 people,” while another 16 people were injured in Afghanistan, the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) said in a statement Friday.
The most affected provinces were Ghazni (center), with 10 dead and three injured; Kandahar (south), with nine dead; and Nangarhar (east) with eight dead and 11 injured.
The eastern regions of Paktya, Khost and Laghman accounted for the remaining deaths, in addition to the western province of Herat, where two people died, and the central Daykundi, with one death.
The floods also damaged or destroyed at least 1,206 houses across the country, affecting more than 3,000 families, OCHA said.
It also destroyed more than 3,600 hectares of crop and arable land in several provinces, and caused a severe loss of biodiversity in the region, killing some 1,500 livestock.
The destruction caused by the floods also includes numerous roads, bridges and irrigation systems that were rendered useless, the humanitarian agency added.
Afghanistan has witnessed several spells of heavy rain in the last month. On July 25, at least 20 people in just 48 hours.
Another 57 people died between July 7 and July 12 in the Asian country due to rainfall and flooding that mainly affected the eastern provinces.
Afghanistan frequently suffers from natural disasters resulting in significant human losses, such as landslides that killed 2,000 people in May 2014 in northeastern Afghanistan, a situation aggravated by nearly two decades of war.
Since the arrival of the Taliban in power almost a year ago, the country is experiencing a severe humanitarian crisis, with an increasingly vulnerable population. EFE
lk-hbc/sc
