9 March 2012 | Kabul, Afghanistan
The International Organization for Migration (IOM) is in the frontline delivering relief and rescue assistance to the avalanche-affected population of Dispay, a small village in Afghanistan’s north-eastern Badakhshan province hit by a massive avalanche that killed 39 and injured 7 of the 199 inhabitants. Some villagers were away at the time, but many were trapped in their houses, and have been rescued by people from neighboring villages working with police.
With a population of 25 families, the village of Dispay and its neighbouring districts remain unreachable by road except through Tajikistan or helicopter, hampering rescue efforts.
Working closely with the provincial governor and the Afghan National Disaster Management Authority (ANDMA), IOM is coordinating an important part of the emergency response from the provincial capital of Faizabad and from across the border in Tajikistan by dispatching 120 winter kits containing warm clothes, blankets, winter boots and hygiene kits to aid the survivors of the avalanche through FOCUS, a local NGO and key IOM partner, which is also providing sufficient tents, plastic sheeting, shovels and pickaxes.
Further avalanches delayed the response team to reach the village by road, and assistance was delivered by two Afghan Ministry of Defense helicopters on March 7 and 8. The assistance included 40 IOM winter clothing kits with hygiene kits, as well as emergency food and medical supplies from the UN and a team of doctors and nurses from the Afghan Ministry of Public Health.
Surplus assistance will be prepositioned in neighboring villages as a preparedness measure, and to reduce the vulnerability of local populations to existing harsh winter conditions.
“Rising temperatures this week and snow predicted for next week in Badakhshan puts the region at high risk of further avalanches,” warns Marco Boasso, IOM’s Chief of Mission and Special Envoy to Afghanistan. “When the snow begins to melt, there will be floods: we are on stand by to respond to any further incidents," he added.
According to IMMAP, a data-analysis and mapping company, 15 percent of Afghanistan’s population and 22 percent of settlements are at high risk of being affected by flooding this spring.
Located near the Tajikistan border, Badakhshan is one of the country’s most remote and poorest regions blocked off by snow for at least half of the year, making humanitarian assistance very difficult to deliver.
IOM supports the Afghan government in coordinating the response of emergency shelter and non-food items to natural disaster-affected and natural disaster-displaced populations in Afghanistan. This effort is largely funded by the Office of US Foreign Disaster Assistance (OFDA).
Between 2008-2011 alone, IOM assisted over 90,000 families (over 6.3 million individuals, with an estimated 3,780,000 women) countrywide by providing warm clothing kits, emergency shelter kits, family revitalization kits and tarpaulins. The contents of these kits are designed to address the specific needs of women, children and men and prevent families from being displaced and reduce their vulnerability while they are displaced.
For more information, please contact akhurana@iom.int or +93 (0)7 93 20 60 76 .