Aid workers have launched emergency responses to help people in rugged and poverty-stricken central and western Afghanistan, enduring what the United Nations is describing as "the harshest winter in nearly 30 years."
An Afghan refugee boy removes mud outside his makeshift home in Kabul, Afghanistan, Sunday.
Hundreds of deaths have been reported this winter as a result of the frigid temperatures, which have dipped to minus 30 degrees Celsius, or minus 22 degrees Fahrenheit.
The more mountainous regions have seen up to 180 centimeters, or nearly six feet of snow, and many of the regions slammed by the snow and cold are poorly accessible.
The United Nations says many entities are trying to deal with the problem: several U.N. agencies, Afghan provincial authorities, the Afghan National Disaster Management Authority, the Afghan Department of Rural Rehabilitation and Development, the Afghan Red Crescent Society, non-government organizations, provincial reconstruction teams, and NATO's International Security Assistance Force.
The U.N. Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs said in a recent report that "some 329 fatalities have been reported" in Herat, Farah, Badghis, and Ghowr provinces
The humanitarian group Oxfam said more than 500 people have died in the region. Oxfam is distributing blankets and coal and launched a program to employ 150 people to clear snow.
"While the snow has mounted and the temperature has plunged to the low teens in parts of Afghanistan, most of those who have lost their lives since December were either elderly people or children. And the extreme conditions continue to make life miserable for tens of thousands of others," Oxfam said in a statement last week.
The International Organization for Migration is distributing blankets, sweaters and shawls to 2,500 internally displaced families in three camps in Herat province,
Serena Di Matteo, head of the IOM sub-office in Herat, said, "many of these people live in incredibly poor structures with practically no protection from the cold and have almost nothing."
Bron:CNN
quote:Dodental kou Afghanistan blijft oplopen ook dieren bezwijken massaal door kou
Deze winter zijn in Aghanistan al zeker 654 mensen om het leven gekomen door de kou, sneeuwstormen en lawines. Ook zeker honderdduizend stuks vee zijn bezweken.
Dat meldde Afghaanse overheid vrijdag. In de Afghaanse provincie Ghazni zijn deze week in één etmaal 37 mensen bezweken door de kou en sneeuw. Twintig van de slachtoffers waren kinderen.
Faizan zei dat er voedsel en andere benodigdheden boven de getroffen gebieden gedropt moeten worden, omdat wegen geblokkeerd zijn door de sneeuw.
Afghanistan is een van de armste landen ter wereld. Bewoners van afgelegen dorpen verwarmen hun huizen doorgaans door mest of hout te verbranden, als ze dat kunnen betalen.
Deportaties
Afghanistan heeft er eerder bij Iran op aangedrongen om de deportatie van Afghaanse vluchtelingen gedurende de wintermaanden op te schorten, om zo een humanitaire ramp te voorkomen.
Veel mensen vluchten naar Iran omdat ze in Afghanistan niet aan werk kunnen komen. Nu ze worden teruggestuurd hebben ze geen manier om in levensonderhoud te voorzien en vaak geen woning.
Dus eigenlijk is deze conclusie doordat grenzen gesloten blijven zijn honderden mensen ook onderweg bevroren omdat ze vaak weer werden teruggestuurd vanwege de dichtgehouden grenzen....
quote:===========================[quote]Op zondag 13 januari 2008 20:32 schreef aloa het volgende:
Koudegolf in Afghanistan eist tientallen doden
Een koudegolf met hevige sneeuwval heeft in het westen van Afghanistan al aan meer dan 52 mensen het leven gekost.
Volgens cijfers van de overheid stierven in de afgelopen dagen alleen al in de provincie Herat 52 mensen door onderkoeling en lawines en 17 mensen worden nog vermist. Niet eerder heeft men - zover herinnerd kan worden - dergelijk bar winterweer meegemaakt
"We hebben reddingsploegen naar de getroffen regio's gestuurd en vrezen dat het aantal slachtoffers nog zal stijgen", zei een woordvoerster van de gouverneur van Herat, Farzana Ahmadi, zondag.
Ook internationale hulporganisaties zijn onderweg naar de moeilijk toegankelijke berggebieden aan de grens met Iran. Uit de aanpalende provincies Ghor en Farah werden tot nog toe twaalf doden gemeld. In de zuidelijke provincie Uruzgan stierven volgens officiële cijfers minstens 20 mensen door het barre weer.
vwk
Je hoort hier maar weinig over in het Nederlandse nieuws. (Qua weer dan)
Hoe zou het gaan met de militairen in Uruzgan? Hopelijk hebben ze winterkleding
KABUL, Afghanistan (CNN) -- More than 900 people have died as a result of the bitter cold and blizzards engulfing central and western Afghanistan this winter -- considered the worst in three decades, Afghan authorities said on Friday.
An Afghan refugee boy stands outside his makeshift home as it snows in Kabul, Afghanistan.
Shikeeb Amraz, spokesman for the National Disaster Management Commission, said 926 people have lost their lives, 231 people were injured, and more than 1,000 houses were destroyed or damaged.
Around 316,000 animals -- mostly sheep, goats, and cattle that are herded by the poor peasants throughout the rugged and poverty-stricken region -- have died, he said.
Temperatures in the mountainous regions hit hard by the cold snap have reportedly been as low as minus 30 degrees Celsius, or minus 22 degrees Fahrenheit. Remote regions have been hit badly by heavy snowfall and avalanches. Many people live in poor structures without protection and many of the animals have no shelter at all.
Now that the snow is thawing and roads are slowly re-opening, authorities are gradually gaining access to the most affected areas and are collecting more accurate figures of the deaths and damage.
The Public Health Ministry said more than 170,000 patients with pneumonia and other acute respiratory infections have been diagnosed and treated at hospitals around the country in the past two months. Many people lost fingers and toes to frostbite.
Aid workers from the government, non-governmental organizations, and foreign troops and provincial reconstruction teams have been responding to the emergency. Among the provinces hard-hit are Herat, Farah, Badghis, and Ghowr.
quote:aan de andere kant: hoe koud zou het daar geweest zijn zonder opwarmingOp maandag 11 februari 2008 19:51 schreef i2Them2 het volgende:
650 doden... Omg. Hoezo klimaatsverandering.... Kijken wat wij qua extremen nog gaan beleven hier...
quote:MEDIAWATCH: Threat of food shortages as Tajikistan faces the worst winter in decades
The Central Asian country of Tajikistan, the poorest in the region, is in the grips of an energy shortage that threatens to cause a severe humanitarian crisis. With all of Central Asia experiencing one of the coldest winters in decades, Tajikistan's energy resources are particularly strained because of the country's dependence on hydroelectric power, according to the Institute for War and Peace Reporting.
Frozen rivers mean turning to neighbouring countries for energy supplies, but these imports have now been reduced as Uzbekistan and Turkmenistan face their own increased demand. While the main Tajik hydropower stations don't have enough water to run their turbines, frozen pipes have left much of the population without drinking water, the BBC reports.
Power supplies have been severely rationed and people in the villages are receiving only one or two hours of electricity per day, Radio Free Europe reports, while the BBC says it's possible electricity could cut out altogether. Authorities in the capital city of Dushanbe say they're concerned about water-borne epidemics if a minimum power supply operating the city's water system cannot be maintained. People in some neighbourhoods are using ditches as toilets as their water supply isn't working, Action by Churches Together says.
Heavy snowfall has blocked roads and left tens of thousands of people stranded in mountain villages. Radio Free Europe reports that at least 80 people have been stranded on a mountainous road for nearly three weeks after an avalanche wiped out a section of highway linking the capital to the country's north.
About two-thirds of Tajikistan's people live below the poverty line. Price rises means that what used to be the entire budget for a family's survival is now barely enough to buy fuel this season. Now that they have to spend more on fuel or wood, there's not much money left over to eat on, and the United Nations warns that food shortages are becoming severe.
The U.N. World Food Programme (WFP) estimates that half a million local people are now unable to afford even minimum food purchases and the severe weather has destroyed the potato harvest. As a WFP official says to the Ferghana Information Agency: "Cattle is butchered because the population needs to eat. What will happen to these people tomorrow? Cattle is often their primary source of income and nourishment."
Tajikistan appealed to the international community for aid in early February and the U.N. has now issued an appeal for $25m in aid for the country. The U.N. children's agency and the World Health Organisation have already responded with blankets, petrol and food, but it may not be enough to solve the food shortage.
A post by blogger Vadim on Neweurasia's Tajikistan blog asks why should the international community care about the crisis in Tajikistan? Help from other countries could be a temporary cure, but the blogger blames the emergency on the Tajik government. He says authorities are willing to accept humanitarian aid in this time of crisis, but when the same international community pushes for the promotion of democracy, it's dismissed as interference in internal affairs. The BBC cites a Tajik journalist saying that the government is in denial about the crisis. With the population's finances already strained, Radio Free Europe reports that Tajik officials still went ahead with an electricity price hike of 20 percent in order to repay debts to the World Bank.
Looking ahead, the heavy snowfall that today blankets Tajikistan could lead to spring flooding, creating new problems once the country manages to make it through the winter. There are also concerns that the spring crop of fruit and vegetables, one of the country's few exports, may have been destroyed by the severe weather.
Niet dat ik dat erg vind, de laatste strenge winter die ik me kan herinneren vond ik maar niks.