Afghan officials said on Monday they plan to build new houses for hundreds of families made homeless by a landslide that entombed a northeastern village and killed at least 300 people.A torrent of mud and rocks swept down a deep valley and levelled the village of Aab Bareek last Friday following heavy rain.At least 300 people were killed, according to local authorities, who warned that the toll could rise by hundreds more.Initial reports suggested that as many as 2,500 people may have died in the area, part of the mountainous province of Badakhshan which borders Tajikistan, China and Pakistan.
The landslide left around 700 families homeless, with some
finding shelter in neighbouring villages and others sleeping in tents provided
by humanitarian organisations.Abdullah Homayun Dehqan, head of the provincial
disaster management authority, said a commission has been set up to look for
land to build houses for affected families.“We are in touch with the locals in
adjacent villages, the government is even ready to buy land for them so that
they can move in,” the official said.Matthew Graydon, an International
Organisation for Migration spokesman involved in helping victims, said basic
needs in Aab Bareek “have been fairly adequately met”.“Now we’re looking more
toward long-term solutions. Shelters have been provided... but we need also to
look at solutions for finding housing for people,” he said.Presidential
candidate Ashraf Ghani visited the scene of the disaster on Monday and rival
candidate Abdullah Abdullah was due on Monday night, officials said.
Ghani, a former finance minister, urged officials to take
“immediate action” to boost the distribution of aid and promised to relay the
demands of the homeless to local and international organisations and governments.Afghanistan
is in the middle of presidential elections, with former foreign minister
Abdullah and Ghani due to compete in a run-off vote on June 7.Abdullah led the
first round but failed to secure the 50 percent needed to avoid a run-off.
Afghans also used social networks to appeal for relief, with a
“Badakhshan Needs You” Facebook page and a Twitter account aimed at
fund-raising and providing information on victims.The landslide, which crushed
the mud huts of Aab Bareek, “underscores the need for development policies and
projects that are based on thorough research and assessments” in a country
where such houses are common, said analyst Bilal Askaryar.
“You can’t prevent natural disasters, but you can conduct
thorough research to understand the threat and likelihood of a disaster
occurring,” Askaryar said.“Once you have that information, you can use it to
educate the people at risk, raise awareness about early warning signs, make
sure development projects in the area take the risk into consideration, and
have a response plan established in advance,” he added.The landslides follow
recent severe flooding in other parts of northern Afghanistan, with 159 people
dead and 71,000 people affected by floods in Jowzjan, Faryab and Sar-e-Pul
provinces.Flooding and landslides often occur during the spring rainy season in
northern Afghanistan, with flimsy mud houses offering little protection against
rising water levels and torrents of mud.
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