KABUL (Xinhua) – The number of flood-related casualties in eastern Afghan Wardak province has increased to 26 deaths, with 44 people injured, said Shafiullah Rahimi, spokesman for the Natural Disaster Management Authority on Sunday.
“A total of 26 people were killed, 44 others injured, and 36 more people went missing in rainstorms and flooding that swept through parts of eastern Wardak province late Saturday,” Rahimi told reporters.
Rahimi confirmed that the rainstorms and flash floods had also claimed four lives in the Paghman district outside Kabul and another in the eastern Khost province over the past three days.
At least 250 cattle have been killed, 400 houses were partially or utterly destroyed, and dozens of acres of land were submerged in floods, the official asserted.
The provincial governor’s office also said in a statement that hundreds of homes had been damaged or destroyed and the missing people were believed to be under the rubble of collapsed homes.
It added that hundreds of hectares of agricultural land were washed out and destroyed and the floods closed the highway between the capital Kabul and the central Bamiyan province.
Afghanistan lies on the western edge of the Asian monsoon footprint, leading to flash floods to happen regularly every year during the wet season as heavy rain courses down dry riverbeds.
Last year in Afghanistan, the death toll from flooding after the annual monsoon reached 192 people.
The vast extent of death and damage prompted the ruling Taliban to appeal for aid from the international community.
Following the Taliban takeover in August 2021, Afghanistan has been largely cut off from international aid.
The lack of sufficient funding plunged the poverty-stricken nation into dire economic straits.