Heavy rains flood more than 200 houses in capital

Floods caused by heavy rains rushed through the Tajik capital Dushanbe on Saturday, damaging hundreds of homes. "Flooding caused by prolonged heavy rain affected more than 200 houses in several streets of Dushanbe on Saturday," Mahmadullo Halimov, Tajik deputy emergency minister, told IRIN from the capital, adding that no casualties had been reported. The flooded houses were seriously damaged and could possibly collapse given their construction, while mud brick homes in the area were no longer suitable for habitation, according to the Tajik Emergency Ministry. Flood victims were working to retrieve their belongings, much of which were destroyed, Halimov said. His comments came four days after another flood claimed the lives of four people in the northern Tajik province of Soghd. Four shepherds were going from the Manchi district of Soghd province to Ganchin district where their pastures were. "They stopped for the night at junction of two roads where the mudflow caught them. They were carried away with some 2,000 heads of livestock," the emergency official reported. The flood also damaged fields, gardens and trees in the area. "It's a mountainous region and people and houses were not affected," he added, noting that a government commission was working on the ground to estimate the scale of the damage. Meanwhile, local media reported that rescue workers were retrieving the carcasses of dead animals in the Dakhanasay reservoir, used by some people in Ganchin district as the main source of drinking water in the area. It was feared that the incident could spur outbreaks of infectious diseases. "The sanitary and epidemiological bodies and Emergency Ministry are taking the necessary measures and working on the issue," Halimov said, adding that no cases of infectious diseases had been reported to date. Calling for international assistance, he said: "International organisations can contact us and we will show them the affected houses and people as all the information comes to us first." Regarding the possibility of further floods through June, Halimov said that every year there were floods at this time of year, "even when we don't expect them". Tajikistan, an impoverished mountainous nation of some 6.5 million, is prone to various natural disasters, including earthquakes, avalanches, landslides and floods.