Flash floods in Afghanistan’s Baghlan province, in the country’s north, killed at least 50 people, including women and children, according to a local official.
“So far, the number of dead is 50 as per the hospital authorities of Baghlan-e-Markazi district of Baghlan province,” said Hedayatullah Hamdard, the head of the provincial natural disaster management department, adding the toll could rise.
The flooding was caused by severe seasonal rains, which caught locals off guard. Emergency workers were “searching for any possible victims under the mud and rubble, with the help of security forces from the national army and police,” Hamdard said late Friday.
According to authorities, flash flooding and other disasters have killed approximately 100 people in ten provinces of Afghanistan since mid-April, with no region spared.
Farmland has been swamped in a country where 80 percent of the more than 40 million people rely on agriculture for survival. Afghanistan, which experienced a relatively dry winter, making it harder for the soil to absorb rainfall, is sensitive to climate change.
The country, wrecked by four decades of war, is one of the poorest in the world and, according to scientists, one of the least prepared to deal with the effects of global warming.
According to experts, Afghanistan ranks sixth on the list of countries most vulnerable to climate change, despite accounting for only 0.06 percent of global greenhouse gas emissions.
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