July 23 (Reuters) – At least 82 people have died after heavy rains across northeastern India, Pakistan and Afghanistan this week, authorities said, as flooding caused widespread damage to farmland, infrastructure and public facilities.
• At least 10 people have died in floods in India’s northeastern state of Assam over the last 24 hours, in what 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 Wednesday.
• 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 northeastern 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.
(Reporting by Tora Agarwala in Guwahati, Saud Mehsud in Dera Ismail Khan and Mohammad Yunus Yawar in Kabul; Writing by Shanima Aniyeri; Editing by Christian Schmollinger)
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