WFP delivers aid to flood-affected families

In response to appeals from the government, the World Food Programme (WFP) has dispatched nearly 45 mt of emergency food aid to hundreds of communities devastated by recent floods in northern Afghanistan, the UN food agency confirmed on Tuesday in the Afghan capital, Kabul. Flash floods on 30 April caused by heavy rains and melting snow in the northern provinces of Baghlan and Faryab killed at least 16 people and left hundreds of families in urgent need of assistance, officials said. The floods caused havoc in villages across Gurziwan district in Faryab, where surging waters killed nine people and injured 25, as well as destroyed around 200 homes and buildings, 71 small dams, two electric mills and 21 water mills. Over 3,000 livestock were also killed, according to a WFP rapid assessment team. “WFP dispatched 20 mt of food aid to the Gurziwan district, enough to provide a one-month relief ration to 322 of the worst affected families, or over 1,930 beneficiaries,” Ebadullah Ebadi, an agency public information officer, said. In addition, the UN agency has so far sent 7.3 mt of wheat, pulses and oil to Doshi district of Baghlan province and 1.3 mt of mixed food commodities to Kohistanat district in Saripul province. The aid package will cover the food needs of 774 people for a period of four weeks, according to the UN food agency. In April, WFP also distributed 15 mt of food aid to 1,500 flood-affected people in Obeh district in the western province of Herat - enough to cover their needs for the next month following a separate bout of flooding. The UN food agency warned earlier that it was facing a severe funding crisis which was threatening the agency’s relief operation to provide food aid to over 3 million Afghans and called for US $40 million to fund its activities until the end of 2006. “Our food stocks are running low. If funds are not available soon we expect the 3.5 million impoverished people will face disaster,” Ebadi said. Meanwhile, the impact of spring flooding continues to be felt throughout the country. In late April, heavy flooding caused by rains in the Khuram Wa Sarbagh district of the northern province of Samangan destroyed 30 houses and damaged another 76, according to officials from the Ministry of Rural Rehabilitation and Development (MRRD). In January 2005, floods and storms left 48 people dead and more than 1,000 injured in 13 provinces across the country. The most badly 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.