Sandstorms affect over ten thousand people

The United Nations in Kabul reported this week that more than 12,000 people living in 57 villages had been badly affected by serious sandstorms in the Lash Juwayan and Shib Koh districts of western Farah province. "Up to 20 villages had to be evacuated because they were covered in sand which was banked up against the walls of homes and compounds," Manoel de Almieda el Silva, spokesman for the United Nations Assistance Mission in Afghanistan (UNAMA), told IRIN. The UN spokesman said the storms had left hundreds of people homeless, destroyed crops and contaminated water supplies. According to the UN, the disaster was described as the worst sandstorms in living memory. "More than 300 families have already left the area," Silva said, noting that displaced families were reported to have gone to Nimruz Province and to neighbouring Iran. He said the remaining families were relying on existing stocks of food and water from the limited number of wells, which were not contaminated. The UN said the Afghan Ministry of Rural Rehabilitation and Development, with the support of UNAMA, other UN agencies and non-governmental organisations, was spearheading efforts to help the people affected. "A mobile health team from the Afghan Red Crescent is on the ground visiting the villages affected," the UN spokesman said, adding that World Food Programme food deliveries and non-food items were expected to leave Herat in the coming days. "Families will receive one month’s food supplies," he said. "The Office of the UN High Commissioner for Refugees and the International Committee of the Red Cross will be providing blankets, plastic sheeting, wheelbarrows and shovels," said Silva, adding that work to clean out the sand-filled wells and irrigation canals, and restore water supplies could not start until the end of August because of continuing storms and winds. According to UNAMA, many tens of kilometres of irrigation canals have been completely filled with sand, harvests have been destroyed and livestock is now dying because of a lack of fodder and water. "As part of the response to the disaster, UNAMA is working with government departments, UN agencies and aid organisations to establish a provincial local disaster management group in Farah which will prepare a response to this and future disasters," the spokesman said. The UN said that strong winds were still gusting across two districts, adding to the extensive damage already caused by fierce sandstorms that blighted the area in early June. In early July serious flooding in southern and northeastern provinces of Afghanistan left more than 100 dead and many more missing. Also more people were feared killed after serious mudslides in the Shibar district of the central Bamian Province recently.