The United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) has said that natural disasters have affected the lives of 97,320 people in Afghanistan since the beginning of this year until August 3. According to the agency, floods, landslides, snowfall and similar events, alongside poverty, hunger, fragile infrastructure and declining humanitarian assistance, have increased pressure on families.<\/p>\n
Based on OCHA figures, these incidents were recorded in all 34 provinces and at least 202 districts, affecting nearly 13,000 families. During this period, at least 97 people were killed and another 331 injured. Floods and flash floods accounted for the largest share of the damage, affecting nearly 88,000 people.<\/p>\n
OCHA said nearly 10,000 homes were damaged and more than 2,100 were completely destroyed. In addition to houses, agricultural land, livestock, roads, bridges and irrigation systems were also damaged in many areas. For rural families, especially in low-income areas, this means the simultaneous loss of shelter and a source of livelihood.<\/p>\n
Eastern Afghanistan has recorded the highest losses, with more than 51,000 people affected. According to OCHA, the mountainous terrain, narrow valleys and limited road network have made the region more vulnerable to flash floods and landslides. Nuristan has also reported some of the most severe damage among the affected provinces in the recent period.<\/p>\n
OCHA added that between July 20 and August 3 alone, nearly 5,000 people in 10 provinces \u2014 Ghazni, Kabul, Kapisa, Laghman, Logar, Nuristan, Paktia, Paktika, Panjshir and Parwan \u2014 were affected by natural disasters. The figures show that the scale of damage has continued in recent weeks and pressure on different areas has not eased.<\/p>\n
The United Nations has warned that floods do not only destroy homes, but also wipe out crops, livestock, irrigation canals and food transport routes. For many rural families with limited income and savings, losing a season’s harvest can mean months without earnings and greater dependence on humanitarian aid.<\/p>\n
The World Food Programme said this year 3.7 million children and 1.2 million pregnant and breastfeeding women could face acute malnutrition. The agency needs $540 million to continue food and nutrition assistance until January 2027.<\/p>\n
OCHA also said $1.71 billion is needed for the 2026 humanitarian plan to reach 17.5 million people in need, but only about a quarter of that funding has been secured so far. UNICEF has also estimated that in 2026 around 21.9 million people, including 11.6 million children, will need humanitarian assistance in Afghanistan.<\/p>\n
The report stressed that rising temperatures, the rapid melting of snow and glaciers, and changing rainfall patterns are increasing the risk of flash floods and drought. OCHA said that establishing early warning systems, evacuation routes, safe shelters and rebuilding flood-resistant roads, bridges and infrastructure are among the measures that could help prevent further deaths and losses. OCHA is the UN agency coordinating emergency relief, and its figures are usually used as the basis for planning by aid agencies in Afghanistan.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
OCHA says natural disasters have affected 97,320 people in Afghanistan since January, with floods causing the most damage.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":19837,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[17,8,3],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-19838","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-important-news","category-social-affairs","category-top-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/atlaspress.news\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/19838","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/atlaspress.news\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/atlaspress.news\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/atlaspress.news\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/atlaspress.news\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=19838"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/atlaspress.news\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/19838\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/atlaspress.news\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/19837"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/atlaspress.news\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=19838"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/atlaspress.news\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=19838"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/atlaspress.news\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=19838"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}