Afghanistan snow storms kill more than 80, but ease drought fear

Mirwais Harooni at the Thomson Reuters Foundation via Reuters: More than 80 people have been killed in Afghanistan in avalanches following heavy snow, officials said on Wednesday, with the bad weather set to last for two more days after an unusually dry winter led to fears of drought.

Officials warned of an imminent humanitarian emergency in areas most severely hit by the bad weather, with snow sweeping through villages and blocking off roads.

"We haven't seen this much snow, or this many avalanches, for 30 years," said Abdul Rahman Kabiri, acting governor of the mountainous province of Panjshir, north of Kabul, where more than 30 people were killed in avalanches.

"If the central government doesn't provide humanitarian support, machinery and food soon, this will turn to a disaster," he said, adding that more than 20 people had been injured.

Despite bringing death and misery to so many people, the snow is vital for Afghanistan, where much of the rural population dependent on agriculture relies on snow melting in the mountains to sustain crops in the spring and summer....

Snow in "K-G" Pass in Afghanistan, a shot by the US military

Flooding in Afghanistan kills 80 people and leaves thousands homeless

The Guardian (UK) via AP:  Flooding in a remote part of northern Afghanistan has killed more than 80 people and forced thousands to flee their homes, officials have said. It was the latest in a string of deadly flash floods, landslides and avalanches in Afghanistan's rugged northern mountains, where roads are poor and many villages are virtually cut off from the rest of the country.

Lt Fazel Rahman, police chief in the Guzirga i-Nur district of Baghlan province, said on Sunday that the death toll had climbed from 54 to 81 and that police and villagers were still searching for missing people after flooding hit several villages on Friday.

Rahman said 850 houses were completely destroyed and more than 1,000 were damaged by the heavy rain and flooding, leaving thousands of people in need of shelter, food, water and medicine. He said the death toll could climb to 100 and called for emergency assistance from the central government.

...General Mohammad Zahir Azimi, spokesman for the Afghan defence ministry, said two army helicopters had been sent to the area to provide assistance. The Afghanistan natural disaster management authority began shipping out stockpiles of food and other supplies in Baghlan province to the affected area, said Mohammad Aslim Sayas, deputy director of the agency. He said a delegation was sent to the affected villages to assess their needs....

Afghan workers remove loads of sludge from the river below the Kuk Chenar (Dutch) Bridge in Baghlan Province. Shot by isafmedia, Wikimedia Commons via Flickr,  under the Creative Commons Attribution 2.0 Generic license 

Afghanistan landslide: Over 2,000 feared dead in remote north-eastern village

Lewis Smith in RAWA News: Officials in Afghanistan have said that at least 2,000 people are feared dead after a mountainside collapsed causing a massive landslide in a remote region of the country. Seven people were pulled alive from the mud and debris that flattened 300 homes but rescuers were pessimistic about anyone else being alive beneath the piles of earth.

Many victims were villagers who dashed to help their neighbours when
a landslide struck but were then caught in a second wave of mud. It was reported that a wedding was taking place in the village. “Now we can only help the displaced people. Those trapped under the landslide and who have lost lives, it is impossible to do anything for them,” said Major General Faziluddin Hayar, the Badakhshan provincial police chief.

Those who were caught by the catastrophic landslip were from the village of Hobo Barik, about a third of which was wiped out, and most would have been at home rather than at work because it was a day of worship. Up to 600 people from nearby villages made their way to Hobo Barik, in the north east of the country, to try to help the rescue operation but were severely hampered by a lack of shovels and machinery. The mud covering the devastated village was said to be several metres thick.

The landslide is believed to have been triggered by heavy rain which has swept the region for several days. Landslide and avalanches are common in the province but are rarely so deadly. Ari Gaitanis, of the United Nations Assistance Mission in Afghanistan, said 350 people had been confirmed dead and that the UN is trying to help the rescue operation....

The Kokcha River in Badakhshan Province of Afghanistan -- no idea of its proximity to the landslide in the same province. Shot by Julian-G. Albert, Wikimedia Commons via Flickr, under the Creative Commons Attribution 2.0 Generic license  

Tens of thousands of Afghans displaced after deadly floods

Nita Bhalla at the Thomson Reuters Foundation: Flash floods in northern Afghanistan have killed more than 120 people and forced tens of thousands from their homes, aid agencies and the United Nations said on Monday. Triggered by several days of heavy rainfall, the floods have washed away houses and roads and destroyed crops in parts of six provinces - Jawzjan, Faryab, Sar-e-Pul, Balkh, Samangan and Takhar.

The U.N.'s Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) said many people were still missing and authorities and aid agencies were trying to assess the damage and provide aid to survivors. "The foremost priority at the moment is saving lives. Whilst search and rescue operations continue ... assessments in flood-hit areas have been initiated to determine the full extent of the damage caused, as well as responding to the immediate needs of the population," said a statement from OCHA.

"With some areas still difficult to access, it may be some time yet until a clear picture of the full extent of the damage is known."

Aid workers said Afghan army helicopters had been evacuating people to safer areas on higher ground. Some of the displaced had taken refuge in madrassas (Islamic schools) while others remained living out in the open.

The charity Save the Children estimated that at least 40,000 people - 25,000 of whom were children - had been affected by the deluge which began last week. It said there was an urgent need for clean drinking water, medicines, food rations and emergency shelter materials such as tarpaulin sheets...

Afghanistan, UNEP launch USD $6 million initiative to help communities adapt to effects of climate change

AlertNet: The Government of Afghanistan, through its National Environmental Protection Agency (NEPA), has launched a USD $6 million climate change initiative, the first of its kind in the country's history.

This landmark scheme - to be implemented by the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) and funded mainly by the Global Environment Facility (GEF) - aims to help communities that are vulnerable to the effects of climate change, such as drought, and to build the capacity of Afghan institutions to address climate change risk.

"The Government of Afghanistan is showing a remarkable commitment to working with communities for a landscape approach to dealing with climate change in the country," said Michael Keating, UN Afghanistan Resident Coordinator, speaking from Bamyan in the Central Highlands, some 200km west of Kabul. "We also welcome the opportunity to help Afghan institutions better deal with shocks and hazards, and increase resilience at a decentralized level," he added.

UNEP identified Afghanistan as one of the countries most vulnerable to climate change, because of the potential impacts and its current limited capacity to react to these impacts. Climate change adaptation is especially important in developing nations, since those countries are predicted to bear the brunt of climate change effects. The overarching goal is to reduce the vulnerability of biological systems to these impacts….

An invader travels a road in Afghanistan's Tagab Valley, US Navy photo

Asia to face fresh water challenge over the next decade

Qaisar Zaman in the Nation (Pakistan): Water is a vital, finite and irreplaceable resource and is essential to all life. It brings good harvests, health, prosperity, and ecological abundance. ...

As the economic success of many Asian nations is celebrated worldwide, water-the most fundamental resource for human survival deserves immediate attention. Water stress is expected to worsen in Asia over the next decade with experts predicting as a result of factors including urbanization and population growth, increasing food production, changing consumption patterns, industrialization, water pollution (lack of control on the pollution of rivers, irresponsible construction of dams and barrages, lack of access to drinking water free from toxin or other contaminants, increased use of agro-chemicals/pesticides, storage and transportation of dangerous goods in package forms and pollution due to noxious liquid substances), and climate change etc. From disappearing lakes and dwindling rivers to military threats over shared resources, water is a cause for deep concern in many parts of the world as well.

...Scarcity as a result of land degradation is of great concern across Asia, but its linkage to food security is perhaps most acute in China and India. The secretariat of the UN Convention to Combat Desertification estimates that some 27 per cent of China’s land mass is decertified, with an average of 2,460 square kilometres of land being lost to advancing deserts each year. Nearly 400 million people live in these areas, and the economic loss to China has been estimated at around $6.5 billion a year. Other Asian countries are also encountering huge cataclysmic effects due to rapid desertification.

According to the Ministry of Irrigation, Water Resources and Environment of Afghanistan, some 40 per cent of forests have been cut down, while desertification and pollution of underground water represented other serious challenges. Deforestation in the Himalayas has also caused subsoil streams flowing into the river to dry up. Most of the degradation of forests has been caused by the timber mafias. Wastewater management has become a major challenge due to rapid urbanization such as that seen in megacities like Dhaka, Bangladesh; Jakarta, Indonesia; and Karachi.

Wastewater collected from cities is often discharged to nearby rivers, lakes or oceans with little or no treatment, which heavily contaminates water bodies around urban canters and is already causing health and environmental problems. Unfortunately poor management of water resources has led to poverty, disease, environmental degradation, and human conflict. One in three Asians lack access to safe drinking water. Half the people living in Asia and the Pacific do not have access to adequate sanitation....

At a water pump in Pakistan, shot by Mo, Wikimedia Commons via Flickr, under the Creative Commons Attribution 2.0 Generic license

Afghanistan's Kabul Basin faces dry and thirsty future

Environment News Service: In Afghanistan's Kabul Basin, at least half the shallow drinking water wells supplied by groundwater are likely to become dry or inoperative within 50 years as a result of climate change, according to new research by U.S. and Afghan scientists. A combination of higher temperatures due to global warming and the increasing demands of a larger population is predicted to stress the basin's water.

These are the findings of a new study conducted by the U.S. Geological Survey in collaboration with the Afghanistan Geological Survey, a division of the Afghanistan Ministry of Mines, and the Afghanistan Ministry of Energy and Water. "Training with USGS scientists has helped our engineers to modernize their skills and improve their capabilities," said Afghanistan Geological Survey Director Mohammed Omar. "Our engineers are using these improvements as they monitor groundwater levels and water quality in the Kabul Basin."

…Over the next 50 years, the researchers estimate that drinking water needs in Afghanistan's Kabul Basin will increase sixfold due to population growth as refugees return. At the same time, future water resources in the basin will be reduced as a result of increasing air temperatures associated with global climate change.

In some areas of the basin, such as in the north along the western mountain front and near major rivers, water resources are generally adequate for current needs. In the east and away from major rivers, the available water resources may not meet future needs….

A tomb-shrine in Afghanistan, shot by Steve Evans, Wikimedia Commons via Flickr, under the Creative Commons Attribution 2.0 Generic license