Heavy rain and flooding kill 82 across India, Pakistan and Afghanistan
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Vehicles wading through a waterlogged street after heavy monsoon rains in Ajmer, India, on July 22.
PHOTO: AFP
- At least 82 people have died due to heavy rains and flooding across north-eastern India, Pakistan, and Afghanistan, causing widespread damage to homes, farmland, and infrastructure.
- Assam in India reported 36 deaths and over 650,000 affected, with floods caused by heavy rainfall in neighbouring Nagaland leading to high river flows.
- In Afghanistan and Pakistan, floods killed 46 people and injured over 100, with local residents describing complete devastation and ongoing rescue efforts amid climate vulnerability.
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At least 82 people have died after heavy rains across north-eastern India, Pakistan and Afghanistan this week, the authorities said, as flooding caused widespread damage to farmland, infrastructure and public facilities.
At least 10 people have died in floods in India’s north-eastern state of Assam over the last 24 hours, in what the authorities said was “unprecedented devastation”, taking the total death toll during the week to 36.
More than 650,000 people have been affected by heavy rainfall across 11 districts of Assam, the state’s disaster management authority said in a bulletin on July 22.
The floods in Assam were primarily caused by very heavy rainfall in its neighbouring state of Nagaland between July 18 and 20, resulting in unusually high river flows, a state government report said.
Assam, home to the Brahmaputra, one of the world’s largest rivers, sees damage from the increased flow of water nearly every year during monsoons.
At least 46 people have been killed and at least 100 injured in floods across Afghanistan’s north-eastern province of Nuristan and Pakistan’s Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province over the last 72 hours, disaster management authorities in both countries said.
“The floods swept away houses and hotels. Everything is gone. It is complete devastation. Machinery is being used to rescue those who are still trapped,” Mujib ur Rahman, a resident of Nuristan’s provincial capital, told Reuters.
Despite contributing little to global emissions, Afghanistan and Pakistan are among the countries most vulnerable to climate change, with intensifying floods, droughts, glacier melt and water shortages putting millions at risk, experts say. REUTERS
