Herat: Twenty-nine people died in two provinces in Afghanistan due to hail and heavy rains, officials announced on Tuesday.
“Twenty -one people were killed and six others were injured” due to hail in the western province of Farah, said Mohammad Israel Sayar, head of the province’s disaster management department.
The victims were members of two families who had made a picnic, he said.
In southern Kandahar, the local disaster management department said in a statement that eight people – including women and children – had been killed in several places due to heavy rains.
“Today, four women who were busy washing clothes were swept away by flood waters … and only one woman survived,” the statement said.
He added that a child drowned in Kandahar, while a roof collapsed on a family, killing a woman and three children.
Among the poorest countries in the world after decades of war, Afghanistan is particularly exposed to the effects of climate change, which, according to scientists, stimulates extreme weather conditions.
It is classified as the sixth country most vulnerable to climate change.
Drought, floods, land deterioration and the decline in agricultural productivity are key threats, said the representative of the United Nations Development Agency in Afghanistan, Stephen Rodriques, in 2023.
Sudden floods in May of last year killed hundreds and overwhelmed vast agricultural land areas in Afghanistan, where 80% of people depend on agriculture to survive.
