Afghanistan Times
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AT-KABUL: The civil society, aggregate of nongovernmental organizations, has launched relief aid collection campaign to help the avalanches affected people in the country.
The one-week campaign was launched on Tuesday in the capital city of Afghanistan where seven camps were set up. Through the camps the civil rights activists would appeal for aid.
Abdul Sami Daraiee, a member of the Mobilization Council of Panjshir who set up the camp in Pushtunistan Watt, told newsmen that the society would distribute the collected humanitarian assistances in areas hit by heavy snowfall and floods.
He said they would coordinate with the government when distributing the relief goods. Daraiee said that they have already discussed the coordination mechanism with the spokesman of President Ashraf Ghani.
Locals and businessmen in Sarai-e-Shamali, Kot-e-Sangi, Wazir Muhammad Akbar Khan, Macrorayan, the Karzai International Airport locality and some other areas of the capital would be asked to donate and help their brethren who need humanitarian assistance at this critical juncture.
Giving first-hand information after his return from the disaster hit areas he said that still many people are buried under snow. The government was unable to rescue them. Aid in Bazarak, capital of Panjshir province, could not be distributed due to closure of roads. Around 95 percent of cultivable lands had been destroyed. He urged the government to construct apartments for those who lost their homes.
Humaira Qaderi, another activist busy in collection of donations, said that 308 persons lost their lives in floods and avalanches while 4,000 families lost their homes.
Meanwhile, a number of civil society activists from Panjshir province in a press conference on Tuesday claimed that the humanitarian aid provided by different welfare organizations for the affected people were not distributed transparently.
They said the distribution process was not transparent and it is unclear that where the aid went.
“The aid was shifted through illegal bodies to the areas. The government shall coordinate the humanitarian assistance through one particular organization,” said Sayed Nasir Taqadusi, Chief of the Welfare and Development Body.
He said that many remote villages and districts including Kazak and Parian in Panjshir had no telecommunication link with Bazarak and the roads were blocked.
“Hundreds of families are suffering from the blood-freezing cold in these parts of the province. However, there is no one on the ground to help them,” he lamented.
Abdul Aziz Azizi, a member of the Youth Council, told reporters that it is feared that more natural disasters could hit the province. “The people who have lost their lives are not the end, we are afraid about more avalanches in other parts of the province,” said Azizi.
The civil society activists of Panjshir province asked the government to take prompt measures to avoid untoward situation.
Ministry of Public Works (MPW) said that rescue teams and volunteers have been dropped by helicopters in the area and edibles were also transferred.
Deputy Minister of Public Works, Ahmad Shah Waheed, told Tolo News that teams are busy in clearing the roads of snow. He said that medical teams and relief goods were already dispatched.
