STORY: Downpours, floods add to suffering of impoverished Afghans
SHOOTING TIME: April 18, 2024
DATELINE: April 19, 2024
LENGTH: 0:03:28
LOCATION: PARWAN, Afghanistan
CATEGORY: SOCIETY

SHOTLIST:
1. various of the flood-affected area in Parwan Province, east Afghanistan
2. SOUNDBITE 1 (Dari): QAND AGHA, Resident of Parwan Province
3. various of the flood-affected area in Parwan Province
4. SOUNDBITE 2 (Dari): MOHIBULLAH, Resident of Parwan Province
5. various of the flood-affected area in Parwan Province
6. SOUNDBITE 3 (Dari): GUL LALA, Resident of Parwan Province
7. various of the flood-affected area in Parwan Province

STORYLINE:

Standing inside his destroyed mud house and thinking about how to cope with the problems arising out of the destructive flood, the impoverished Qand Agha lamented that rebuilding his house requires at least 600,000 afghanis (about 8,333 U.S. dollars) which he does not have.

SOUNDBITE 1 (Dari): QAND AGHA, Resident of Parwan Province
"My house has been destroyed, and people know that each damaged house is worth 300,000 or 400,000 afghanis, but I don't have money to reconstruct it. We might be forced to live under tents if our houses are not reconstructed in time. I'm a farmer and could earn some 2,000 or 3,000 afghanis."

Almost half of Afghanistan's 34 provinces including Kabul and Parwan have been receiving heavy rains and snowfall since Friday, which have triggered flash floods leading to losses of life and damage to property.

At least 66 people including women and children have lost their lives and 36 others sustained injury due to heavy rains and flooding over the past couple of days, spokesman for the country's national disaster authority Mullah Janan Saeq confirmed.

More than 700 houses, according to the official, have been destroyed, and 400 cattle died due to storms and floods.

The country's metrological department has forecast more rains over the next few days.

The majority of Afghanistan's some 40-million population is largely relying on agriculture, livestock and gardening where any natural disaster could prove a catastrophe.

SOUNDBITE 2 (Dari): MOHIBULLAH, Resident of Parwan Province
"In this house that you have visited, three or four rooms were destroyed, and we cannot live there.
We have such a family economy to rebuild our houses. If we want to rebuild our houses, we need to have 700,000, 800,000 or 1 million afghanis."

SOUNDBITE 3 (Dari): GUL LALA, Resident of Parwan Province
"The economy is impoverished, and we cannot buy wood and rebuild a shelter. Our house is broken and could collapse at any moment, and we have already shifted to another place."

Xinhua News Agency correspondents reporting from Parwan, Afghanistan.
(XHTV)