VANCOUVER, CANADA – Indrika Ratwatte, the Deputy Head of the United Nations Assistance Mission in Afghanistan (UNAMA), says that recent floods in the north have affected 60,000 people in Baghlan alone. In a video released by UNAMA today, May 20, on X, Mr. Ratwatte said that Baghlan is one of the most devastated provinces by the floods, taking the lives of at least 182 people, most of whom are women and children.
Heavy spring rainfalls in recent weeks have washed up most of northern Afghanistan, leaving hundreds of people dead, thousands of houses destroyed, and large swaths of agricultural land ruined. Most of the affected areas are inaccessible by road as the floods have damaged highways and other transportation infrastructure.
According to the UN diplomat, after years of drought, the recent floods are yet another climate shock putting lives and livelihoods in Afghanistan at risk.
In addition to Baghlan, floods have damaged life and property in Ghor, Faryab, Balkh, Badakhshan and Bamiyan provinces.
A resident of Ghor province, in a message to KabulNow, said that the roads to the village of Jandak in Murghab district have been blocked for three days, leaving a thousand families trapped. According to him, the residents are in dire need of basic food for survival.
He said that the residents of the surrounding villages travelled a five-hour journey yesterday to deliver only 50 loaves of bread to the flood victims.
The blockade of road means that wounded people cannot reach hospitals on time. According to the resident we spoke to, a 12-year-old child, who was injured in a landslide, died the family had no way to take her to a hospital.
This morning, May 20, local Taliban officials in Ghor reported the arrival of several relief consignments, including emergency shelters, medicine, food, and clothing. The Taliban’s Directorate of Information and Culture in Ghor stated that so far, 20 million Afghanis in cash, five thousand blankets, 80 tents, 324 cartons of medicine, and a number of food items have reached the province.
According to the latest reports, the floods in the past three days in Ghor have completely destroyed more than two thousand houses and two thousand shops in Firozkoh City, the provincial capital. Local Taliban officials in this province confirmed the death of 50 people and said that the figures are changing as search and rescue missions continue.
Northern Afghanistan, some of the most fertile lands, have been experiencing severe droughts at least since 2019. The higher precipitation was welcomed initially by farmers who saw it a sign that the drought had finally come to an end.
The floods, however, show the vulnerability of a country to climate shocks that contribute nearly nothing to global warming. Environmental degradation, however, is pervasive. Decades of deforestation and conflict have left the country extremely unprepared against natural disasters.
As foreign funding dwindles in the midst of a deepening humanitarian and economic crisis, it is questionable whether the country will be able to mitigate the implications of the devastating floods.
