VANCOUVER, CANADA – The United Nations says that recent floods in Afghanistan have affected more than 1500 families across the country.
The organization stated today, April 18 in a report that 47 families have also been displaced due to these floods.
According to OCHA’s report, 35 people in Afghanistan have lost their lives and 47 others have been injured as a result of these floods. Other sources have reported the death toll as high as 70.
The central province of Uruzgan has witnessed the worst floods where 12 people have died. The neighboring Helmand and Kandahar provinces in addition eastern provinces of Nangarhar and the capital Kabul have also suffered damages.
Nearly 200 homes have been destroyed and almost 1000 more were partially damaged.
The floods came at a wet spring that initially made many farmers hopeful about the ending of a multi-year drought that had caused the decrease of crop yields by as much as 50 percent in some parts of the country.
Now, farmers have to deal with agricultural lands ruined by heavy rainfalls and floods in a country where weather conditions hardly allow for more than two seasons of harvest under the most ideal conditions.
OCHA says that 63,700 hectares of agricultural land have been destroyed and 470 livestock have perished. The Taliban figures put the number of destroyed or damaged houses as high as 2500.
According to the report, critical infrastructure, including roads, bridges, and culverts, has suffered damage, causing disruptions to transportation networks. Temporary road closures and landslides have been reported in various regions, hampering access to affected areas and hindering the delivery of humanitarian aid.
The report says that in Takhar Province, a landslide destroyed a vital road connecting multiple villages to the district center, impeding humanitarian assistance delivery. Similarly, in the western region, road destruction has limited community access to essential services.
Still, it is not yet the end of the rainy season. Weather forecasts show that many parts of the country, especially in Central, Southern, Southeastern and Western Afghanistan could witness new waves of heavy rainfalls.
