Emergency assistance reaches flood victims in Sar-e Pol

Following heavy flooding in the northern province of Sar-e Pol, food aid and emergency assistance has been dispatched to badly affected families, the United Nations Assistance Mission in Afghanistan (UNAMA) told IRIN on Thursday. According to UNAMA, residents of some five remote villages in the Kohistanat district of Sar-e Pol, recently hit by a flash flood, received emergency supplies provided by UNAMA, UNHCR (United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees) and the International Organisation for Migration (IOM). "The flood injured three women and took the life of another as well as those of five children," David Singh, a UNAMA media relations officer, told IRIN in the capital Kabul. Singh said the flood had been described by locals as the worst natural disaster in the last 70 years. "Four hundred houses were affected and 60 severely damaged or destroyed," he said, adding that some 50 sheep and goats, nine cows and five donkeys were lost. The flood also damaged more than 100 hectares of agricultural and pastoral land. UNAMA said the flood had taken place on 8 May but due to the lack of proper roads it took a long time to reach the affected villages for assessment. "A team from German Agro Action is in the villages distributing tents, blankets and non-food items, and is also conducting a detailed assessment of needs for reconstruction of housing and access to safe drinking water," Sigh said. UNAMA said they were currently in discussions with the Afghan Red Crescent Society (ARCS) to send a mobile medical team to the area to carry out disease surveillance and provide assistance for waterborne diseases that may have arisen in the aftermath of the flood, due to the lack of access to potable water. Meanwhile, to restore affected agricultural land, the UN World Food Programme (WFP) has started assessing the emergency food needs of the villages as well as food-for-work opportunities.