IRIN
AFGHANISTAN: Floods kill dozens, destroy hundreds of homes in northeast
16 May 2007


FAIZABAD, 16 May 2007 (IRIN) - Flash floods and heavy rainfall have 
killed more than 24 people and damaged over 530 houses in several 
districts of the northeastern Afghan province of Badakhshan, the 
country's Interior Ministry reported on Wednesday.

Flooding also inflicted serious agricultural damage and killed dozens of 
farm animals in the isolated and impoverished province.

"We call upon all national and international relief organisations to 
dispatch urgent humanitarian assistance to the victims of Tuesday's 
flash floods in Badakhshan," read a press release issued by the Interior 
Ministry.

Talking to IRIN on the phone from a flood-affected district of Baharak, 
a local resident, Gul Ahmad, said: "Everybody needs food. We have lost 
everything".

Four assessment teams, comprising provincial government officials and 
representatives from relief organisations, have been sent to the 
affected areas to determine immediate needs and assess aid delivery, 
Badakhshan's governor, Munshi Abdul Majid, told IRIN from the provincial 
capital of Faizabad.

"Prolonged assessments"

Local officials doubted a quick assessment could be carried out in 
rugged and inaccessible Badakhshan.

"People require urgent humanitarian assistance and I think we should not 
turn that into rocket science by having prolonged assessments. 
Obviously, after any disaster, people require food, medicine and shelter 
urgently - and that applies to people in Badakhshan as well," said 
Majid.

Earlier, in an exclusive interview with IRIN, the United Nations 
humanitarian affairs coordinator in Afghanistan, Ameerah Haq, defended 
the assessments, which, according to her, ensure efficiency and 
accountability.

Another Afghan official in Kabul agreed on the need for precise 
assessments in order to make clear what is needed, where and in what 
quantity. Nevertheless, Abdul Matin Edrak, the director of Afghanistan's 
National Disaster Management Authority (ANDMA), said assessments should 
not add to the affected peoples' problems.

"I think we should have mechanisms which enable humanitarian actors to 
operate efficiently and in a timely fashion," Edrak said.

WFP to dispatch aid

In an effort to address these concerns the World Food Programme (WFP) is 
to dispatch 23.2 metric tonnes of food aid to some affected districts 
very soon, said Jamil Danish, a spokesman for the UN in Kabul.

Since December 2006, floods and avalanches have killed more than 50 
people in Badakhashan province, according to governor Majid.

Afghanistan has suffered its worst natural disasters in 2007. In January 
and February, flooding and avalanches inflicted extensive destruction 
across many provinces of Afghanistan killing more than 100 people and 
damaging thousands of houses, ANDMA reported.

In July 2006, a UN Disaster Assessment and Coordination (UNDAC) mission 
called upon the government of Afghanistan and the UN to improve the 
country's feeble humanitarian response capacity. However, both the UN 
and the government of Afghanistan agree little has been done to assuage 
UNDAC's concerns.

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