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Asia
IRIN-AS Weekly Round-Up 118
2 - 8 April 2007


CONTENTS:

AFGHANISTAN: Lack of development in Helmand revives Taliban
AFGHANISTAN: Aid yet to reach all flood-affected provinces
AFGHANISTAN: Flood response highlights limited humanitarian capacity
NEPAL: Tuberculosis threat to carpet weavers
PAKISTAN: Avalanches kill more than 40 in north
PAKISTAN: 50,000 fishermen at risk of losing livelihood
TAJIKISTAN: Earthquake and avalanches hit the country
TAJIKISTAN: Mine action and awareness day marked
TURKMENISTAN: President pushes ahead with education and agricultural
   reform


AFGHANISTAN: Lack of development in Helmand revives Taliban

More than five years after the ousting of the Taliban regime in 
Afghanistan, residents of the southern province of Helmand say their 
lives have become more insecure. The Taliban were ousted from power in 
October 2001, but its fighters have maintained a hit-and-run guerrilla 
war against US-led coalition forces and Afghan forces. According to 
analysts, the lack of development in Helmand is the key factor giving 
rise to new Taliban recruits and sympathizers. But the local population 
feel that their province has been largely neglected by central 
authorities.

http://www.irinnews.org/Report.aspx?ReportId=71136


AFGHANISTAN: Aid yet to reach all flood-affected provinces

Azeem Khan, 48, doesn't remember the exact time, but it was early Sunday 
morning when his seven-year-old daughter woke him up shouting "Water! 
Water!" Rain started around 8p.m. in Afghanistan's eastern Kunar 
province and was so heavy the eight-member Khan family had not got to 
sleep until midnight. Khan's daughter raised the alarm because she was 
sleeping on the floor and water was pouring in. Khan's family is among 
thousands waiting for help after flash floods and avalanches left them 
homeless in at least 13 provinces of Afghanistan, officials in 
Afghanistan's Department for Disaster Preparedness (DDP) say. DDP 
estimates of more than 80 deaths are impossible to confirm.

http://www.irinnews.org/Report.aspx?ReportId=71138


AFGHANISTAN: Flood response highlights limited humanitarian capacity

Flood assessments are continuing in Afghanistan's remote provinces 
almost a week after rainstorms and melting snow caused flooding across a 
third of the country's provinces. The United Nations acting humanitarian 
coordinator, Rick Corsino, told IRIN on Thursday the total relief 
requirements were not high, but the wide distribution of flooding was 
the problem. A report by Afghanistan's Department of Disaster 
Preparedness (DDP), issued on Wednesday, listed damage in 10 provinces, 
including thousands of destroyed and damaged houses. Floods also damaged 
roads, bridges, irrigation works and farmland, as well as destroying 
livestock.

http://www.irinnews.org/Report.aspx?ReportId=71202


NEPAL: Tuberculosis threat to carpet weavers

Laxmi Tiwari is desperate to hold her three-month old daughter but they 
have been separated to prevent the child catching the tuberculosis 
Tiwari was diagnosed with last week. She contracted the infection at a 
carpet factory in the capital, Kathmandu, to which she and her 
impoverished family had come barely a month ago to escape the poverty in 
their village. There are about 80,000 TB patients in Nepal and 40,000 
people are infected with the disease every year, according to the 
Ministry of Health. Despite the treatment available, TB kills about 
5,000 people annually

http://www.irinnews.org/Report.aspx?ReportId=71198


PAKISTAN: Avalanches kill more than 40 in north

Forty-one people are feared dead and 13 remain missing after a spate of 
avalanches struck Pakistan's northwestern Chitral district this weekend. 
Heavy snows are hampering relief efforts to the affected region, 
officials said on Monday. According to local authorities in Chitral, the 
worst affected area was the village of Wasij, where 23 bodies were 
recovered and 26 homes were destroyed after an avalanche swept through 
the tiny village on Saturday.

http://www.irinnews.org/Report.aspx?ReportId=71130


PAKISTAN: 50,000 fishermen at risk of losing livelihood

Mai Raheema, 80, has lived on Bhundal Island in the Indus River delta 
since she was a little girl. She and her husband are among the few 
long-term residents of the island, but with up to 50,000 other fishermen 
depend on the delta area for their livelihoods. However, a new tourism 
development threatens to force them out of their homes and out of work. 
According to the World Conservation Union, the world's largest 
conservation network, at least 45,000 fishermen fish around the tiny 
islands of Bhundal and Dingi, near Pakistan's port city of Karachi. 
Depending on fishing conditions and tides, fishermen spend differing 
periods of time actually living on the 7,000 acres of island land.

http://www.irinnews.org/Report.aspx?ReportId=71179


TAJIKISTAN: Earthquake and avalanches hit the country

Tajikistan was on Tuesday hit by an earthquake measuring up to 6.2 
points on the Richter scale, the country's emergency ministry reported, 
adding that avalanches two days earlier killed 10 people in the 
northeast. Seismologists say Tajikistan is hit by an average of 
2,000-2,500 tremors annually. With some 93 percent of Tajikistan's 
territory covered by mountains, avalanches are common in winter and 
spring. In the first two months of 2006, 21 people were killed by 
avalanches in the country. In 2005, a spate of 400 avalanches caused 
damage worth at least US $3 million.

http://www.irinnews.org/Report.aspx?ReportId=71165


TAJIKISTAN: Mine action and awareness day marked

Tajikistan marked International Day for Mine Awareness and Assistance in 
Mine Action on Wednesday as the country strives to clear its territory 
of landmines by 2010. A special event to mark the day was organised by 
the Tajikistan Mine Action Centre (TMAC) and supported by the United 
Nations and other donors. The event sought to raise awareness of 
landmines and make progress toward their eradication. Tajikistan has the 
largest landmine problem in Central Asia, with more than 25,000 square 
km of land in need of mine clearance - an area more than half the size 
of Switzerland.

http://www.irinnews.org/Report.aspx?ReportId=71187


TURKMENISTAN: President pushes ahead with education and agricultural 
reform

Turkmenistan's president has announced a salary hike for teachers as he 
pushes ahead with an overhaul of a deteriorated education system and 
announced plans to reform the country's ailing agricultural sector. 
Introducing a 40 percent pay rise for teachers and 40 percent increase 
in scholarships for students, effective from 1 September, Turkmen 
President Gurbanguly Berdymukhammedov said better pay would allow 
teaching staff to concentrate on their core work. Until now, low wages 
in Turkmen schools and universities have forced many teachers to find 
ways to supplement their incomes.

http://www.irinnews.org/Report.aspx?ReportId=71184


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