Relief effort to flash flood victims underway

Relief efforts continued on Thursday, one day after a devastating flash flood ripped through the village of Dasht, 524 km east of the Tajik capital, Dushanbe. The early morning disaster, which killed 28, left hundreds of people homeless. "There has been an immediate response by the international humanitarian community here," Andrea Recchia, humanitarian affairs officer for the Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Assistance (OCHA), told IRIN from the Tajik capital, Dushanbe. "Despite the distance in reaching the affected area, we have been able to support local authorities in reacting quickly." Dasht,located in a mountainous region along the Shokhdara river, close to the administrative centre of Roshtqala - 45 km southeast of Khorag in Tajikistan's autonomous Gorno-Badakshan province - was reportedly devastated by Wednesday's flood. "The village has been completely washed away," Recchia said, adding according to an assessment by the NGO Global Partners, in conjunction with the Tajik Ministry of Emergency Situations, the town was "a mass of mud and stone." According to the government, 75 homes had been completely destroyed in Dasht and five in the nearby hamlet of Langar, while many more were damaged. 250 families were said to be in need of shelter with most being hosted in nearby villages. Two bridges, one school building and four km of road had also been affected but access to the area remained open. Regarding response, Tajik authorities immediately put in a request for international assistance including tents, food, bed linen and first aid kits. "Local authorities are engaged 100 percent as are the people from the ministries," Recchia said, adding: "The international community is supporting the response." The Tajik-based Rapid Emergency Assessment and Coordination Team (REACT) and OCHA were alerted and coordinated an early assessment and identification of available stocks of non-food items, while assessment teams were sent to the region by the Tajik Ministry of Emergency Situations, the National Red Crescent Society of Tajikistan and the NGOs Focus and Global Partners. According to the aid official, three trucks carrying relief supplies, including tents and blankets, would be dispatched to the affected area Thursday afternoon from the capital. The World Food Programme would also be releasing emergency food aid to the affected families from its warehouse in Khorag, he added. Asked what the main priority was at the moment, Recchia said shelter for the homeless staying in neigbouring villages was a major concern. Such communities were very poor making such temporary measures unsustainable in the long term, he noted. "These people have limited coping capacity so we [OCHA] are working to coordinate and mobilise efforts here in Dushanbe to get as much assistance to those affected as possible," he explained. While road conditions to Dasht were said to be poor, the affected people who had relocated should be able to be reached in their host communities, he added. Meanwhile in Khorag, Tajik emergency staff officer for Gorno Badakhshan, Yusuf Qurbonbekov told IRIN the mudslide had blocked the Shokhdara river near the villages of Dasht, Bar Roj, and Anjin, adding if the river was to burst through the dam, nearby villages might be submerged by the flow. According to the government and cited in an OCHA report on Thursday, there was a potential threat that the earth moved by the flash flood could obstruct the course of the river with the risk of a sizable build-up of water. This had not yet occurred, but the situation was being closely monitored, it added. At present, representatives from the local authorities led by Alimamad Niyozmamadov, chairman of the Gorno Badakhshan Autonomous Region (GBAO) were at the site of the disaster. Experts from the ministry of emergency situations were also on the scene in an effort to prevent further complications that might be caused by blockage in the river. "This is a natural phenomenon of Tajikistan," Recchia said. "The increased volume of water due to either seasonal rain or the thawing of mountain snow creates additional volumes of water for the river and because the banks are not properly supported, it means there will be periodic flashfloods." OCHA is currently awaiting for a complete assessment of the situation to provide a accurate picture of the additional needs on the ground.