Heavy floods kill three, destroy homes

Three people were killed and 30 houses destroyed as a result of heavy rainfall and floods in northeastern Afghanistan. "The floods occurred last Monday in Baghlan, Konduz and Takhar provinces," Manoel de Almeida e Silva, a spokesman for the United Nations Assistance Mission for Afghanistan (UNAMA), told IRIN in the Afghan capital, Kabul, on Thursday. According to the office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR), the floods occurred near the town of Pol-e Khomri, the capital of the Baghlan Province, in an area occupied by internally displaced people and, as a result, 30 houses were completely destroyed and 70 partially damaged. "Most personal belongings and food reserves were destroyed or buried in mud," Nader Farhad, a public information assistant with UNHCR, told IRIN, adding that according to the reports from the government’s Department for Rural Rehabilitation and Development, three people had died as a result of the incident. The UN refugee agency reported that under a relief plan agreed on by different aid agencies in the area, UNHCR had supplied tents, soap and food items to affected families through the local disaster management structure. Meanwhile UNAMA reported that preliminary information from the other flood-affected areas had indicated that some houses had been damaged and household items covered in mud in Khanabad district of Konduz, Narin and Dushi districts of Baghlan, and Taloqan District of Takhar. "Large swathes of arable land are also covered in mud following the floods," the UNAMA spokesman said. He noted that the road between Taloqan and northwestern city of Feyzabad had been blocked for three days earlier this week by rocks and mudslides as a result of the heavy rain. "The Food and Agriculture Organisation of the United Nations, FAO, is providing advice on remedial action which can be taken by farmers to salvage their crops," de Almeida e Silva said. After consecutive years of drought, Afghanistan has experienced heavy floods and rainfall in the last couple of months, leading to flash floods as the barren earth is unable to absorb large amounts of water. In March this year, 11 people were killed and about 2,000 affected by floods in the same district of Khanabad in Konduz Province. Meanwhile on 20 April at least 30 people were killed after powerful floods washed away their houses in the southern province of Helmand.