Undeniably man has rendered hapless before monstrous natural calamities that have ever hit hard civilian population and ruined well built cities. The calamities such as cyclone, earthquakes, volcanic eruptions, massive floods have turned catastrophic, claiming thousands of lives. It is an undoubted finding, these calamities can’t be prevented, but bringing pragmatic measures into use, both human and infrastructural losses can be restrained to a minimum.
Out of all natural disasters, flood and landslide turned the deadliest killing thousands of people. Usually various parts of Afghanistan are subject to flooding and mudslides during the spring and summer months due to ice and snow melt in the mountainous regions, that reaches the main rivers via water seepage through rocks and lands. Consequently a down slope movement of soil/rock under the influence of gravity takes place. The failure of the slope happens when gravity exceeds the strength of the earth materials. Such movement of mass rock, debris, or earth down a slope is known as a landslide.
Although landslides are primarily associated with mountainous regions, they can also occur in areas of generally low relief. In low-relief areas, landslides occur as cut-and-fill failures (roadway and building excavations), river bluff failures, lateral spreading landslides, collapse of mine-waste piles (especially coal), and a wide variety of slope failures associated with quarries and open-pit mines.
Formerly, flooding in the northern Badakhshan province bordering Tajikistan, China and Pakistan, nestled in the Hindu Kush and Pamir mountain ranges caused a landslide that killed thousands of local residents. The massive landslide buried an entire village in the remote northeastern province of Badakhshan. Reportedly over 2,000 people are feared dead and missing. Most of the 215 houses in the far-flung area were flattened as a result of the landslide as rescue team could not reach the affected locality and it was beyond their capacity to deal with the aftermath situation.
The operational services of government and public officials and concerned departments seemed negligible and they relied to condemnation only. It is not the only tragic natural disaster that claimed thousands of lives whilst exposing government’s incompetence. Similary last August, hundreds of people were killed and made homeless by flooding that wreaked havoc across central Afghanistan, including Kabul. It is a good practice the members of the Wolesi Jirga (WJ) summoned leaders of the Afghan National Disaster Management Authority (ANDMA) in order to question them. However, the necessary equipments needed to carry out rescue operations restricted their abilities to duely save precious lives.