Floods wash away homes and leave up to 30 Afghans dead

AT least 30 people have been killed after powerful floods washed away their houses in southern Afghanistan’s Helmand province, a local official said yesterday.

On Friday in Baghraan district, “due to heavy floods five houses in the Sha Gho valley were destroyed completely,” Haji Mohammad Wali, spokesman for Helmand governor Mullah Shir Mohammad, said from the provincial capital Lashkargah.

“Thirty people were killed, they’ve found five bodies, but they couldn’t find the bodies of the other 25,” who were washed away.

Days of heavy rain had triggered the deadly floods which also destroyed farmland in the Baghraan area 250 miles southwest of Kabul.

“District elders say they haven’t seen such bad floods in 25-30 years,” he said.

Meanwhile, three children were missing and 200 families had to be evacuated by helicopter after flood waters swept through their homes on the Shomali plain just to the north of Kabul.

“Around 200 families had to be rescued by helicopter yesterday after water levels in the Gorband river rose overnight on Friday,” UN spokesman David Singh told reporters. “Some people managed to escape to higher areas north and south of the river, but many people were trapped in their homes as water levels rose quickly.”

The rescue operation began on Saturday morning using a Ministry of Defence helicopter.

One of the worst-hit villages was in Jabul Seraj district, some 38 miles north of the Afghan capital.

Singh said that an emergency meeting was being held yesterday at the Ministry of Rural Rehabilitation and Development with UN agencies and non-governmental organisations to co-ordinate relief for the 200 families which were displaced by the flooding. Those affected were likely to be provided with tents, blankets and food aid, he said.

Parts of the Shomali plain, which was the frontline in fighting between the Taliban and Northern Alliance, are regularly flooded with the arrival of the wet season in spring.

Singh also said emergency aid had finally reached two remote villages in the Hindu Kush mountain range, which were hit by an earthquake on April 11. Yaka Baghi and Sad Baghi villages in Takhar province, which borders Tajikistan, were affected by the earthquake, which measured 4.6 on the Richter scale.

A consignment of tents, blankets and shoes only arrived on Friday, which was more than a week after the quake, due to the remote and inaccessible location of the mountain villages, he said.

Neighbouring Baghlan province was hit by a large quake last year which left hundreds dead and thousands of people homeless.