AFGHANISTAN: Floods kill dozens, destroy hundreds of homes in northeast*

16 May 2007 14:55:49 GMT
Source: IRIN

FAIZABAD, 16 May 2007 (IRIN) - Flash floods and heavy rainfall have
killed more than 24 people and damaged over 530 houses in several
districts of the northeastern Afghan province of Badakhshan, the
country's Interior Ministry reported on Wednesday.

Flooding also inflicted serious agricultural damage and killed dozens of
farm animals in the isolated and impoverished province.

"We call upon all national and international relief organisations to
dispatch urgent humanitarian assistance to the victims of Tuesday's
flash floods in Badakhshan," read a press release issued by the Interior
Ministry.

Talking to IRIN on the phone from a flood-affected district of Baharak,
a local resident, Gul Ahmad, said: "Everybody needs food. We have lost
everything".

Four assessment teams, comprising provincial government officials and
representatives from relief organisations, have been sent to the
affected areas to determine immediate needs and assess aid delivery,
Badakhshan's governor, Munshi Abdul Majid, told IRIN from the provincial
capital of Faizabad.

"Prolonged assessments"

Local officials doubted a quick assessment could be carried out in
rugged and inaccessible Badakhshan.

"People require urgent humanitarian assistance and I think we should not
turn that into rocket science by having prolonged assessments.
Obviously, after any disaster, people require food, medicine and shelter
urgently – and that applies to people in Badakhshan as well," said Majid.

Earlier, in an exclusive interview with IRIN, the United Nations
humanitarian affairs coordinator in Afghanistan, Ameerah Haq, defended
the assessments, which, according to her, ensure efficiency and
accountability.

Another Afghan official in Kabul agreed on the need for precise
assessments in order to make clear what is needed, where and in what
quantity. Nevertheless, Abdul Matin Edrak, the director of Afghanistan's
National Disaster Management Authority (ANDMA), said assessments should
not add to the affected peoples' problems.

"I think we should have mechanisms which enable humanitarian actors to
operate efficiently and in a timely fashion," Edrak said.

WFP to dispatch aid

In an effort to address these concerns the World Food Programme (WFP) is
to dispatch 23.2 metric tonnes of food aid to some affected districts
very soon, said Jamil Danish, a spokesman for the UN in Kabul.

Since December 2006, floods and avalanches have killed more than 50
people in Badakhashan province, according to governor Majid.

Afghanistan has suffered its worst natural disasters in 2007. In January
and February, flooding and avalanches inflicted extensive destruction
across many provinces of Afghanistan killing more than 100 people and
damaging thousands of houses, ANDMA reported.

In July 2006, a UN Disaster Assessment and Coordination (UNDAC) mission
called upon the government of Afghanistan and the UN to improve the
country's feeble humanitarian response capacity. However, both the UN
and the government of Afghanistan agree little has been done to assuage
UNDAC's concerns.

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