The rains come after a chronic drought in Afghanistan.
Kabul:
Recent floods killed 66 individuals in northern Afghanistan, a provincial official stated Sunday, after weeks of flooding that has inundated farms and villages and swept away swathes of communities.
A whole lot of individuals have died in flash floods this month which have additionally swamped agricultural lands in a rustic the place 80 p.c of the inhabitants relies on farming to outlive.
The newest heavy floods hit a number of districts of Faryab province on Saturday night time and “resulted in human and monetary losses,” stated Asmatullah Muradi, spokesman for the Faryab governor, in a press release.
“As a result of floods 66 individuals had been killed,” he stated, including that a minimum of 5 individuals had been injured and others had been nonetheless lacking.
The flooding broken greater than 1,500 homes, swamped greater than 1,000 acres of agricultural land and killed tons of of livestock, he stated.
The floods got here a day after provincial police stated greater than 50 individuals had been killed in flash flooding within the western province of Ghor.
Simply over every week in the past, greater than 300 individuals had been killed by torrents in northern Baghlan province, based on the UN World Meals Programme (WFP) and Taliban officers.
Taliban officers have warned the loss of life counts would go up in areas impacted by flooding, as destroyed infrastructure hampered help supply and efforts to seek out the lacking.
The loss of life rely from the Ghor flooding rose from 50 to 55 on Sunday, based on Abdul Wahid Hamas, a spokesman for the provincial governor.
“Greater than 3,000 properties had been completely destroyed as a result of floods” in Ghor, he added.
Movies shared on social media platform X by the WFP confirmed currents of brown water crashing by partitions of properties and churning by streets in Ghor.
‘Washed away our life’
Residents in Baghlan, Ghor, Faryab and different affected provinces discovered themselves with out shelter, stripped of their properties and livelihoods.
“We had been inside our residence when rain began and rapidly, a flash flood got here, we had been attempting to get issues out but it surely washed away our residence, our life, every little thing,” Ghor resident Jawan Gul instructed AFP on Saturday.
The flooding additionally sparked concern for the revered Twelfth-century Jam minaret, situated in a distant a part of Ghor, provincial officers stated.
Pictures circulated to media confirmed brown torrents crashing across the base of the UNESCO World Heritage Website.
“The state of affairs of Jam was very regarding,” Abdul Hai Zaeem, data and tradition director in Ghor, instructed AFP, including that mud was nonetheless piled excessive across the brick minaret.
The WFP warned that the latest floods have compounded an already dire humanitarian state of affairs within the impoverished nation.
Spring floods usually are not unusual in Afghanistan, a rustic of greater than 40 million individuals, however above-average rainfall this yr has sparked devastating flash flooding.
Even earlier than the newest spate of floods, about 100 individuals had been killed from mid-April to early Might because of flooding in 10 of Afghanistan’s provinces, authorities stated.
The rains come after a chronic drought in Afghanistan, which is among the least ready nations to deal with local weather change impacts, based on consultants.
(Aside from the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV employees and is revealed from a syndicated feed.)