AFGHANISTAN: Floods kill 40 in Urozgan province
Pastor Dale Morgan
*AFGHANISTAN: Floods kill 40 in Urozgan province*
22 Nov 2006 20:40:09 GMT
Source: IRIN
KABUL, 22 November (IRIN) - At least 40 people, including women and
children, have been killed and hundreds of houses destroyed after recent
flash floods triggered by torrential rains hit southern Urozgan
province, local officials said on Wednesday.
"According to our information from the area, floods have killed 40
people and injured 20 others in Choraee, Khas Urozgan, Char Chino and
Dehrawat districts," Abdul Qauim, Qauimi, spokesman for Urozgan's
governor, told IRIN.
Some 300 houses and hundreds of acres of farmland have also been
destroyed in the past three days in several districts of Urozgan
province, local authorities said.
"Flood-affected people are in urgent need of assistance but we don't
have the means or resources to help them," Qauimi asserted."
Quaimi said that a recently built bridge which linked Char Chino
district with Dehrawat district was also destroyed during the flooding.
Last week, deadly flooding in the western Badghis province killed some
60 people in Balamurghab and Ghormach districts, while 100 more people
are still missing. In total, nearly 5,000 families were badly affected
by the floods.
While commenting on this, Ehsan Zia, Minister of Rural Rehabilitation
and Development (MRRD), said that they have sent a team to the
flood-affected areas in Urozgan to assess the damage.
Dan McNorton, United Nations Assistance Mission in Afghanistan (UNAMA)
public information officer, said that 3.5 mt of medical supplies from
the World Health Organization (WHO) and the Ministry of Public Health
(MoPH) had been dispatched to the area to assist flood-affected families.
Meanwhile, local officials in the western Farah province have also
called for assistance for hundreds of flood-affected families. The
floods there killed 18 people and destroyed a number of houses in
Purchaman district this week.
On 10 November, floods also killed at least nine people in Behsoud
district of eastern Nangrahar province, officials said.
Besides flooding, the impoverished, war-torn country has also suffered
harsh drought this year affecting some 1.9 million people. The UN World
Food Programme (WFP) in Afghanistan on Monday called for US $48 million
to buy 74,000 mt of food for drought-affected people and those facing
food shortages during the forthcoming winter.