Seasonal rains, floods kill 46 in Afghanistan

Rainstorms and flash floods have killed at least 46 people including women and children in east Afghanistan over the past week, officials have confirmed, reported Xinhua.

The deadliest natural disaster has been registered in Wardak province as 32 people were killed with 23 in Jalrez district early Sunday, provincial director for Natural Disaster Management Authority Mawlawi Faizullah Jalali Stanikzai said.

Besides causing the casualties, the floods have also partially damaged or utterly destroyed 500 houses and hundreds of fruit gardens, the official added.

Stanikzai, who has inspected the affected areas and overseen the distribution of humanitarian aid to the affected families, told Xinhua that he has been in contact with local and foreign aid agencies and trying to get assistance.

A total of 21 people including women and children were killed from one family in the badly affected Takana village of Jalrez district, according to locals and officials.

"We need assistance to reconstruct our house. The village has been destroyed and we have no money," villager Noorudin, who lost 21 members of his ill-fated family in the horrible flood in Takana village, told Xinhua.

Another villager of Takana village Zukrullah also said, "I hope the international relief agencies help people rebuild accommodations, build water dams and water canals as the people are vulnerable to natural disasters."

Earlier on Thursday and Friday, heavy rain and flash floods claimed four lives in the Paghman district of Kabul and one more in the eastern Khost province, according to Shafiullah Rahimi, spokesman for the country's Natural Disaster Management Authority.

The seasonal rains and flooding also left 74 injured and 41 others missing in the flood-affected provinces, Rahimi said.

At least nine people have been confirmed dead and seven others injured due to flash floods in the eastern Parwan province on Tuesday, provincial government spokesman Sayed Hekmatullah Shamim said on Wednesday.

The floods swept through several villages in Siagard and Shimorti districts on Tuesday afternoon following heavy rains, destroying 200 residential houses, 1,000 acres of agricultural land, 36 km of road and some water canals, said Shamim.

Similarly, seasonal rains and flooding inflicted damages to thousands of acres of agricultural farms in Achin, Lalpor, Spinghar and Momandara in the eastern Nangarhar province on Monday.

Afghanistan's meteorological authorities have forecast more rains and floods in parts of the mountainous country in the coming days.