Flood aid delivered to Samangan province

Government officials have started aid distribution to nearly 500 families affected by recent flooding in the northern Afghan province of Samangan, officials said on Tuesday in the capital, Kabul. Flooding caused by heavy rains in the Khuram Wa Sarbagh district of the province destroyed 30 houses and damaged another 76 last week. It also destroyed 750 hectares of farmland in the province, according to officials at the Ministry of Rural Rehabilitation and Development (MRRD). "Our office in Samangan, along with other governmental organisations such as the Afghan Red Crescent Society (ARCS), has distributed 30 tents, 108 plastic sheets, 216 blankets and other necessary utensils to the affected families," Abdurrahim Zarin, spokesman at the MRRD, said. Commenting on this, Ebadullah Ebadi, public information officer of the World Food Programme (WFP) in Afghanistan, said their teams were assessing damage on the ground. "WFP is working closely with government officials in flood-affected areas to reach the most affected families," Ebadi noted. "Before the result of a detailed assessment we have dispatched 7.7 mt of mixed food commodities as a first response to the flood-affected families," Ebadi explained. Meanwhile, Adrian Edwards, a spokesman for the United Nations Assistance Mission in Afghanistan (UNAMA), said the UN office was coordinating relief efforts with the ARCS to provide relief items for the most vulnerable in Samangan. In January 2005, floods and storms left 48 people dead and more than 1,000 injured in 13 provinces in various parts of Afghanistan. The worst-affected area was the northeastern province of Badakhshan where floods killed at least 40 people and left up to 1,000 homes destroyed in 65 villages.