It’s possible that I shall make an ass of myself. But in that case one can always get out of it with a little dialectic. I have, of course, so worded my proposition as to be right either way (K.Marx, Letter to F.Engels on the Indian Mutiny)
Facing melting glaciers, Hunzais fight for future Reuters
Published November 24, 2023
HASSANABAD resident Tariq Jamil shows ice taken from the Shisper glacier, which is being monitored by sensors.—Reuters
HUNZA: On the steep slope of a glacier jutting through the Hunza valley, Tariq Jamil measures the ice’s movement and snaps photos. Later, he creates a report that includes data from sensors and another camera installed near the Shisper glacier to update his village an hour’s hike downstream.
The 51-year-old’s mission: mobilise his community of 200 families in Hassanabad to fight for a future for their village and way of life, increasingly under threat from unstable lakes formed by melting glacier ice.After all the sensors are installed, village representatives will be able to monitor data through their mobiles, Mr Jamil says.
“Local wisdom is very important: we are the main observers. We have witnessed many things,” he added.
Hassanabad is part of the UN backed Glacial Lake Outburst Flood ( GLOF) II project to help communities downstream of melting glaciers adapt.
When glacial lakes overfill or their banks become unsound, they burst, sparking deadly floods that wash out bridges and buildings and wipe out fertile land throughout the Hindu Kush, Karakoram, and Himalayan mountain ranges.
Himalayan glaciers are on track to lose up to 75 per cent of their ice by the century’s end due to global warming, according to the International Centre for Integrated Mountain Development (ICIMOD).
HUNZA VALLEY: An automatic weather station monitors the Shisper glacier in Hassanabad village, one of the communities being supported by the UN-backed ‘Glacial Lake Outburst Flood II’ project, aimed at helping settlements downstream of melting glaciers adapt to climate change.—Reuters
Amid a shortfall in funding for those most vulnerable to the impacts of climate change, village residents say they urgently need increased support to adapt to threats of glacial lake floods.
Over the past three years, residents repeatedly evacuated just in time to avoid loss of life, and many fear a flood while they sleep. Others struggle financially as their land and homes were destroyed, most recently in 2022.
In Hassanabad, Jamil and 23 volunteers, trained in first aid and evacuation planning, actively monitor the glacier, consulting with experts each summer.
Seeking international funding, they aim to expand the barrier wall 20-fold. Additionally, they seek interest-free loans for rebuilding homes with stronger materials and enhancing mobile reception for improved monitoring feed access.
“The needs are enormous,” said Karma Lodey Rapten, Regional Technical Specialist for Climate Change Adaptation at the United Nations Development Program (UNDP).
Pakistan is the only country to receive adaptation funding from the Green Climate Fund — the Paris Agreement’s key financing pot — to ease the risk of such floods.
The $36.96m GLOF II initiative, concluding this year, serves as a global model for regions confronting glacial lake flood threats, including the Peruvian Andes and China, following Bhutan’s collaborative efforts.
Since 2017, weather stations and sensors, managed by Islamabad and UNDP, monitor factors like rainfall and water levels. GLOF II employs village speakers for warnings and infrastructure like barriers.
Published in Dawn, November 24th, 2023
Saturday, October 28, 2023
UN University report warns about risk tipping points with irreversible impacts on people and planet
THE INTERCONNECTED DISASTER RISKS REPORT 2023 PUBLISHED BY THE UNITED NATIONS UNIVERSITY – INSTITUTE FOR ENVIRONMENT AND HUMAN SECURITY (UNU-EHS) WARNS OF SIX RISK TIPPING POINTS AHEAD OF US:
A United Nations University report today finds that drastic changes are approaching if risks to our fundamental socioecological systems are not addressed.
The Interconnected Disaster Risks Report 2023 published by the United Nations University – Institute for Environment and Human Security (UNU-EHS) warns of six risk tipping points ahead of us:
Accelerating extinctions
Groundwater depletion
Mountain glaciers melting
Space debris
Unbearable heat
Uninsurable future
Systems are all around us and closely connected to us: ecosystems, food systems, water systems and more. When they deteriorate, it is typically not a simple and predictable process. Rather, instability slowly builds until suddenly a tipping point is reached and the system changes fundamentally or even collapses, with potentially catastrophic impacts.
A risk tipping point is defined in the report as the moment at which a given socioecological system is no longer able to buffer risks and provide its expected functions, after which the risk of catastrophic impacts to these systems increases substantially. These diverse cases illustrate that risk tipping points extend beyond the single domains of climate, ecosystems, society or technology. Instead, they are inherently interconnected, and they are also closely linked to human activities and livelihoods.
Many new risks emerge when and where our physical and natural worlds interconnect with human society. One example of a risk tipping point that the report explains is groundwater depletion. Underground water reservoirs called aquifers are an essential freshwater resource around the world, and they supply drinking water to over 2 billion people. Around 70 per cent of groundwater withdrawals are used for agriculture, oftentimes when there is not sufficient water from above-ground sources available. Today, aquifers help to mitigate half of the losses in agriculture caused by drought, a phenomenon which is only expected to increase in the future due to climate change. But the report warns that now it’s the aquifers themselves that are approaching a tipping point:
More than half of the world’s major aquifers are being depleted faster than they can be naturally replenished. If the water table falls below a level that existing wells can access, farmers can suddenly find themselves without the ability to access water, which puts entire food production systems at risk of failure. Some countries, such as Saudi Arabia, have already surpassed this groundwater risk tipping point, others, like India, are not far from it.
“As we indiscriminately extract our water resources, damage nature and biodiversity, and pollute both Earth and space, we are moving dangerously close to the brink of multiple risk tipping points that could destroy the very systems that our life depends on,” said Dr. Zita Sebesvari, Lead Author of the Interconnected Disaster Risks Report and Deputy Director of UNU-EHS. “Additionally, we also lose some of our tools and options to deal with future disaster risk.”
The analysis reveals the cases share similar root causes and drivers which are embedded in our actions and behaviours that increasingly put pressure on our systems until they are pushed to the brink of collapse. Reaching these points means new risks will be introduced, many of which we do not yet know of.
“As we approach these tipping points, we will already begin to experience the impacts. Once, crossed it will be difficult to go back,” warned Dr. Jack O’Connor, Lead Author and Senior Expert at UNU-EHS. “Our report can help us see risks ahead of us, the causes behind them, and the urgent changes required to avoid them.”
The report does not just define and identify risk tipping points, but it also proposes a new framework to avoid or mitigate the consequences. Solutions fall into two categories: Avoid solutions, which target root causes and drivers of risk to avoid risk tipping points altogether and Adapt solutions, which help prepare or better address the negative impacts of risk tipping points if they cannot be avoided.
For both Avoid and Adapt solutions, there are two type of actions. Delay actions work within the existing “business as usual” system and aim to slow down the progression toward risk tipping points or the worst impacts. But the ideal action is to Transform, which involves a fundamental reimagining of a system into something stronger and more sustainable than before.
In the case of the “Unbearable heat” risk tipping point described in the report, it is human-induced climate change that is causing a global rise in temperatures, leading to more frequent and intense heat- waves that will in some areas reach temperatures in which the human body can no longer survive. An Adapt-Delay solution would aim to counteract this risk by installing air conditioners, for example. The air conditioners will delay when the risk tipping point is reached for the people in the area, but will not address the heat itself. An Avoid-Transform solution, on the other hand, would aim to halt the emissions of greenhouse gasses and at the same time drive societal change toward low-carbon ways of living so the tipping point can ultimately be avoided.
The report finds that solutions being implemented today tend to focus on Delay rather than Transform, although increasing focus is being put on transformative change to achieve global goals on transitioning to a more sustainable future. It will require more game-changing solutions to move us away from a future of multiplying risk tipping points.
Transformative solutions will also require considerable societal and personal effort, and the report highlights overall changes we can each make to our behaviours and values.
“Real transformative change involves everyone,” said Sebesvari. “The report serves as a timely reminder before the UN Climate Conference that we must all be part of the solution.”
* * * * *
Brief summaries of the 6 risk tipping points included in the report Accelerating extinctions:
Intense human activities – including land use change, overexploitation, climate change, pollution and introduction of invasive alien species – have created a rate of species extinction at least 10 to 100 times Earth’s natural rate.
Ecosystems are built on intricate connections between species. If one species goes extinct, it can have knock-on effects on many others. The risk tipping point in this context is when an ecosystem loses key species that are strongly connected, triggering cascading extinctions of dependent species, which can eventually lead to the collapse of an entire ecosystem.
An example is the gopher tortoise, which digs burrows that are used by more than 350 other species for breeding, feeding, protection from predators and avoiding extreme temperatures. One of these species is the endangered dusky gopher frog. If the gopher tortoise goes extinct, as foreseen, the dusky gopher frog is one species that will likely follow. But because the dusky gopher frog helps control insect populations and prevent pest outbreaks in longleaf pine forest ponds, its extinction would again trigger a number of negative effects that may become unstoppable.
Groundwater depletion
The risk tipping point in this context is the loss of access to freshwater resources in underground reservoirs known as aquifers.
Aquifers supply drinking water to over 2 billion people, and around 70 per cent of withdrawals are used for agriculture. More than half of the world’s major aquifers are being depleted faster than they can be naturally replenished. The tipping point in this case is reached when the water table falls below a level that existing wells can access, putting entire food production systems at risk of failure.
Some countries have already experienced the effects. Saudi Arabia was the world’s 6th-largest wheat exporter in the mid-1990s based on large-scale groundwater extraction for irrigation, but wells ran dry and the nation had to turn to wheat imports. India and other countries are currently nearing this risk tipping point, with global impacts expected to ripple through the world’s food systems, economy and environment. Also affected are the very structure of society, the well-being of future generations, and the ability to manage future agricultural losses due to climate change-driven drought.
Mountain glaciers melting
Glaciers retreat when the ice mass that formed many years ago melts faster than it is replaced by snow. Due to global warming, the world’s glaciers are now melting twice as fast than they did in the past two decades. Between 2000 and 2019, glaciers lost 267 gigatons of ice per year, which is roughly equivalent to the mass of 46,500 Great Pyramids of Giza.
Glaciers store large amounts of freshwater. Meltwater from glaciers and snow supplies water for drinking, irrigation, hydropower and ecosystems to entire regions. The risk tipping point in this context is “peak water” – the point when a glacier produces the maximum volume of water run-off due to melting. After this point, freshwater availability will steadily decline.
Peak water has been reached or is expected to occur within the next 10 years for many small glaciers in Central Europe, Western Canada and South America. In the Andes, where peak water has already passed for many glaciers, communities are grappling with unreliable water sources for drinking and irrigation. For example, Peru’s Quelccaya glacier, once the world’s largest tropical ice cap, has shrunk by 31 per cent in the last 30 years contributing to periodic dry season water scarcity and widespread impacts.
An estimated 90,000+ glaciers of the Himalayas, Karakorum and Hindu Kush mountains are currently at risk of reaching the tipping point, threatening the nearly 870 million people that rely on them.
Space debris
Space has a garbage problem. This is because when satellites become defunct, they are left in the Earth’s orbit as space debris. Out of 34,260 objects tracked in orbit today, only around 25 per cent are working satellites. The rest are junk – broken satellites or discarded rocket stages. Additionally, there are likely around 130 million pieces of debris too small to be tracked, measuring between 1 mm and 1 cm.
Space debris travels at over 25,000 km per hour, and even the smallest debris can cause significant damage if it collides with something, creating even more debris. This is why other objects, such as the International Space Station or satellites, need to regularly conduct maneuvers to avoid it. The problem worsens as more and more objects are launched into space and debris accumulates.
The risk tipping point in this context is the point at which the Earth’s orbit becomes so full of debris that one collision sets off a chain reaction of collisions. If that were to happen, the orbit could become unusable, which would threaten our ability to operate satellites, for example to monitor the weather and environmental changes, and to receive early disaster warnings.
More than 100,000 new spacecraft could be launched into orbit by 2030, greatly increasing the risk of this tipping point.
Unbearable heat
Human-induced climate change is causing a global rise in temperatures, leading to more frequent and intense heatwaves, and this is only expected to become more severe. Extreme heat was responsible for an average of 500,000 excess deaths annually in the last two decades, disproportionally affecting those who are particularly vulnerable due to their age, health conditions or profession, for example. There are weather stations in the world that have already recorded temperatures beyond the tipping point for what a human body can survive in. If this threshold is crossed for more than six hours, even a young and healthy body will suffer extreme consequences.
The tipping point in this context is a so-called “wet-bulb temperature” above 35°C. A wet-bulb temperature is a measurement which combines temperature and humidity, relevant because high humidity worsens the effects of heat as it hinders the evaporation of sweat, which is needed to maintain a stable core body temperature and avoid organ failure and brain damage.
Wet-bulb temperatures have crossed this critical threshold in at least two weather stations, one in the Persian Gulf and one in the Indus River Basin. Research indicates that by 2070, parts of South Asia and the Middle East will regularly surpass this threshold. By 2100 more than 70 per cent of the global population may be exposed to deadly climate conditions for at least 20 days per year.
Uninsurable future:
Since the 1970s, damages as a result of weather-related disasters have increased sevenfold, with 2022 alone seeing $313 billion in global economic losses and severe disasters forecast to double globally by 2040. Additionally, the number and size of at-risk areas are predicted to expand as climate change shifts the range of hazards like wildfires and storms into new areas.
These changes also affect the insurance industry. Where extreme weather events increasingly wreak havoc, insurance premiums have climbed as much as 57 per cent since 2015, and some insurance companies in at-risk areas have decided to limit the amount or type of damages they can cover, cancel policies or leave the market altogether. For instance, it is predicted that more than half a million Australian homes will be uninsurable by 2030, primarily due to increasing flood risk.
The risk tipping point in this context is reached when insurance becomes unavailable or unaffordable, leaving people without an economic safety net when disasters strike, which opens the door to increasing socioeconomic consequences, particularly when it is the most vulnerable parts of the population that cannot afford to move to safer areas.
According to the UNU-EHS report, the risk tipping point in this context is reached when insurance becomes unavailable or unaffordable, leaving people without an economic safety net when disasters strike, which opens the door to increasing socioeconomic consequences, particularly when it is the most vulnerable parts of the population that cannot afford to move to safer areas.
The UNU-EHS report Interconnected Disaster Risks, 2023, focuses on tipping points -- specific thresholds after which unstoppable changes occur that can have irreversible, catastrophic impacts on people and the planet.
The report warns of six specific tipping points ahead that could trigger abrupt changes in our life-sustaining systems and shake the foundations of societies.
It explains the potential consequences for people and the planet and assesses options to avoid or mitigate them.
Published a month before the UN Climate Conference, the report showcases that climate change plays a great role in pushing us towards these tipping points, and the effects can already be seen in countries worldwide.
CREDIT
UNU-EHS
About the Interconnected Disaster Risks report (#InterconnectedRisks)
Interconnected Disaster Risks is an annual science-based report designed to be accessible for the general public. It is published by the United Nations University – Institute for Environment and Human Security, and was first released in 2021. The idea for the report was developed based on the recognition that disasters are occurring at an ever-faster rate and, despite progress being made in how we prepare and respond to them, we are continuously being caught out by new extremes and new emerging threats. The report analyses several concrete examples of disasters each year and explains how they are inter- connected with each other and with human actions. It seeks to shed light on the interconnections that might otherwise be missed, and describes how we can develop solutions to use these connections to our advantage. The report is based on thorough scientific analysis and includes technical background reports for each of the cases, which together with the main report and executive summary are made available on interconnectedrisks.org.
About the United Nations University – Institute for Environment and Human Security (UNU-EHS)
Based in Bonn, Germany, UNU-EHS conducts research on risks and adaptation related to environmental hazards and global change. The institute’s research promotes policies and programmes to reduce these risks, while taking into account the interplay between environmental and societal factors. Research areas include climate change adaptation by incorporating insurance-related approaches, environmentally- induced migration and social vulnerability, ecosystem-based solutions to adaptation and disaster risk reduction, and models and tools to analyse vulnerability and risks linked to natural hazards, with a focus on urban space and rural-urban interfaces.
UNU-EHS also offers the joint Master of Science degree programme “Geography of Environmental Risks and Human Security” with the University of Bonn and hosts international PhD projects and courses on global issues of environmental risks and sustainable development.
Follow us on social media @UNUEHS and visit ehs.unu.edu.
ehs.unu.ed
Thursday, October 26, 2023
UN report warns of catastrophic risks to Earth systems
AFP October 25, 2023 Pakistani porters hike the Baltoro Glacier, July 14, 2023
- Copyright AFP Guillem SARTORIO
Melting glaciers, unbearable heat and space junk: a month before crunch climate talks in the United Arab Emirates, a UN report published Wednesday warns about irreversible impacts to the planet without drastic changes to connected social and physical systems.
The Interconnected Disaster Risks Report identifies thresholds it calls “risk tipping points,” defined as “the moment at which a given socioecological system is no longer able to buffer risks and provide its expected function” — after which the risk of catastrophe increases significantly.
It focuses on six areas that connect the physical and natural world with human society: accelerating extinctions, groundwater depletion, mountain glacial melt, space debris, unbearable heat and an “uninsurable” future.
“As we indiscriminately extract our water resources, damage nature and biodiversity, and pollute both Earth and space, we are moving dangerously close to the brink of multiple risk tipping points that could destroy the very systems that our life depends on,” said Zita Sebesvari, the report’s lead author.
For example: underground water reservoirs represent an essential freshwater resource around the world and today mitigate half of the losses of agriculture caused by droughts, which are being exacerbated by climate change.
But aquifers themselves are now depleting faster than they can be naturally replenished: Saudi Arabia has already crossed the groundwater risk tipping point while India isn’t far behind.
In the case of accelerating extinctions, the report highlights the cascading effects of extinctions throughout food chains.
“The gopher tortoise, which is threatened with extinction, digs burrows that are used by more than 350 other species for breeding, feeding, protection from predators and avoiding extreme temperatures,” the report said.
If the gopher tortoise goes extinct, the gopher frog that helps control insect populations will likely follow, triggering effects throughout the entire forest ecosystem of the southeastern United States.
Mountain glaciers that store vast amounts of freshwater meanwhile are melting twice as fast as they did in the past two decades.
“Peak water” — the point when a glacier produces its maximum amount of water runoff due to melting — has been reached or is expected to be reached within the next ten years across small glaciers in Central Europe, Western Canada and South America.
“The 90,000+ glaciers of the Himalayas, Karakoram and Hindu Kush mountains are at risk, and so are the nearly 870 million people that rely on them,” the report said.
In the case of space junk, the report warns Earth’s orbit is in danger of becoming so full of debris that a collision triggers a chain reaction that threatens humanity’s ability to operate satellites — including those that provide vital early warning monitoring against disasters.
The report finds most solutions currently being implemented focus on delaying problems rather than genuinely addressing the root causes.
“We need to understand the difference between adapting to risk tipping points and avoiding them, and between actions that delay looming risks and those that move us towards transformation,” it said.
The powerful earthquakes earlier this week devastated the province of Herat
A new earthquake has hit western Afghanistan - several days after two large tremors in the region killed more than 1,000 people.
The US Geological Survey (USGS) says the magnitude 6.3 quake struck near the city of Herat. It was at a depth of 6.3km (four miles).
At least one person has died, according to local health authorities.
Another 100 are being treated for injuries in the regional hospital, the World Health Organisation said.
More than 90% of those who died in the earlier quakes were women and children, the UN's children agency Unicef said.
In its report, the USGS said the epicentre of the latest tremor was 30km north-west of Herat, Afghanistan's third-largest city close to the Iranian border.
Last Saturday's earthquake hit Zindajan, a rural district some 40km from Herat.
The tremor saw entire houses, which were too fragile to withstand the quake, reduced to rubble.
Villagers used shovels and bare hands to search for missing people.
Medicines Sans Frontiers Afghanistan Programme head, Yahya Kalilah told the AFP news agency the casualties would likely be low because people were already sleeping outside in tents.
"In terms of psychology, people are panicked and traumatised," he said.
"People are not feeling safe. I will assure you 100%, no one will sleep in their house."
The Taliban, who has been ruling Afghanistan since 2021, also as the cold sets in, will likely not be able to manage in tents for more than a month.
Afghanistan has been reeling from an economic crisis since the Taliban came to power, when aid given directly to the government was stopped.
The country is frequently hit by earthquakes, especially in the Hindu Kush mountain range, as it lies near the junction of the Eurasian and Indian tectonic plates.
In June last year, the province of Paktika was hit by a 5.9 magnitude quake which killed more than 1,000 people and left tens of thousands homeless.
Powerful Earthquake Shakes West Afghanistan a Week after Devastating Quakes Hit Same Region A man affected by earthquake waits for relief in the earthquake-hit Zenda Jan district of Herat, Afghanistan, 13 October 2023. (EPA)
10:46-15 October 2023 AD Ù€
01 Rabi’ Al-Thani 1445 AH
A powerful 6.3 magnitude earthquake struck western Afghanistan on Sunday, just over a week after strong quakes and aftershocks killed thousands of people and flattened entire villages in the same region.
The US Geological Survey said the latest quake’s epicenter was about 34 kilometers (21 miles) outside Herat, the provincial capital, and eight kilometers (five miles) below the surface.
Aid group Doctors Without Borders said two people were reported dead while Herat Regional Hospital received over 100 people injured in Sunday’s temblor.
Mohammad Zahir Noorzai, head of the emergency relief team in Herat province said one person died and nearly 150 others were injured. He added that casualty numbers might rise, as they are yet to reach all affected areas.
Sayed Kazim Rafiqi, 42, a Herta city resident, said he had never seen such devastation before with the majority of houses damaged and "people terrified." Rafiqi and others headed to the hospital to donate much-needed blood.
"We have to help in any way possible," he said.
The earthquakes on Oct. 7 flattened whole villages in Herat, in one of the most destructive quakes in the country’s recent history.
More than 90% of the people killed a week ago were women and children, UN officials reported Thursday.
Taliban officials said the earlier quakes killed more than 2,000 people across the province. The epicenter was in Zenda Jan district, where 1,294 people died, 1,688 were injured and every home was destroyed, according to UN figures.
The initial quake, numerous aftershocks and a second 6.3-magnitude quake on Wednesday flattened villages, destroying hundreds of mud-brick homes that could not withstand such force. Schools, health clinics and other village facilities also collapsed.
Besides rubble and funerals after that devastation, there was little left of the villages in the region’s dusty hills.
Survivors are struggling to come to terms with the loss of multiple family members and in many places, living residents are outnumbered by volunteers who came to search the debris and dig mass graves.
Magnitude 6.3 earthquake jolts western Afghanistan
Herat Regional Hospital.— Photo courtesy: TOLO’s X account.
A magnitude 6.3 earthquake shook western Afghanistan on Sunday, the US Geological Survey said, wracking the same region where more than 1,000 people were killed in tremors last week.
The quake hit just after 8am with an epicentre 33 kilometres northwest of Herat city, the capital of the same-named western province, the USGS said.
A magnitude 5.5 aftershock followed 20 minutes later.
Abdul Qadeem Mohammadi, head doctor at Herat Regional Hospital, told AFP that “so far 93 injured and one dead have been registered”.
National disaster management officials said they were still investigating the scale of destruction.
An AFP reporter in Herat city said most residents were still sleeping outside a week after the start of a series of quakes in the region, fearful of aftershocks pulling down their homes in the night.
But some had begun sleeping inside again.
“Herat’s people are panicked and scared,” said 27-year-old shopkeeper Hamid Nizami.
“It’s Allah’s blessing that it happened during the day, people were awake,” he said.
Another magnitude 6.3 quake and eight powerful aftershocks jolted the same part of Herat on October 7, toppling swathes of rural homes.
The Taliban government said more than 1,000 people were killed in last week’s tremors, while the World Health Organization (WHO) put the figure at nearly 1,400 late Saturday.
Another tremor of the same intensity killed one person and injured 130 others days after the initial quakes, as thousands of terrified residents were left without shelter and volunteers dug for survivors.
The quakes were followed by dust storms which damaged the tents survivors were living in.
“Many of our countrymen don’t have any place to live and nights are getting colder,” said shopkeeper Nizami. ‘Can’t live here’
The WHO says nearly 20,000 people have been affected by the string of disasters, with women and children making up most of the fatalities.
Thousands of residents are now living around the ruins of homes where entire families were wiped out in an instant.
Forty-year-old Mohammad Naeem told AFP he lost 12 relatives, including his mother, after last week’s quakes.
“We can’t live here anymore. You can see, our family got martyred here. How could we live here?” he said.
Earthquakes are frequent in western and central Afghanistan and are mostly caused by the Arabian and Eurasian tectonic plates jutting against each other.
Providing shelter on a large scale will be a challenge for Afghanistan’s Taliban authorities, who seized power in August 2021 and have fractious relations with international aid organisations.
“We know they could live there in tents for one month, but more than that would probably be very difficult,” said public health minister Qalandar Ebad.
Most homes in rural Afghanistan are made of mud and built around wooden support poles, with little in the way of steel or concrete reinforcement.
Multi-generational extended families generally live under the same roof, meaning serious earthquakes can devastate communities.
Afghanistan is already suffering a dire humanitarian crisis, with the widespread withdrawal of foreign aid following the Taliban government’s return to power.
Sunday, October 08, 2023
Afghan rescuers work through the night after deadly quake
By AFP Published October 7, 2023 Afghan men sit in the rubble of their flattened homes in Sarbuland village in Herat province following Saturday's earthquake - Copyright AFP Genya SAVILOV Mohsen KARIMI
Desperate rescuers scrabbled through the night searching for survivors of an earthquake that flattened homes in western Afghanistan, with the death toll of 120 expected to rise Sunday as the extent of the disaster becomes clear.
Saturday’s magnitude 6.3 quake — followed by eight strong aftershocks — jolted areas 30 kilometres (19 miles) northwest of the provincial capital of Herat, toppling swathes of rural homes and sending panicked city dwellers surging into the streets.
Herat disaster management head Mosa Ashari told AFP late Saturday there had been “about 120” fatalities reported and “more than 1,000 injured women, children, and old citizens”.
A spokesman for the national disaster authority said they expect the death toll “to rise very high”.
As night fell in Sarboland village of Zinda Jan district, an AFP reporter saw dozens of homes razed to the ground near the epicentre of the quakes, which shook the area for more than five hours.
Men shovelled through piles of crumbled masonry as women and children waited in the open, with gutted homes displaying personal belongings flapping in the harsh wind.
The World Health Organization (WHO) said more than 600 houses were destroyed or partially damaged across at least 12 villages in Herat province, with some 4,200 people affected.
“In the very first shake all the houses collapsed,” said 42-year-old Bashir Ahmad.
“Those who were inside the houses were buried,” he said. “There are families we have heard no news from.”
– ‘Everything turned to sand’ –
Nek Mohammad told AFP he was at work when the first quake struck at around 11:00 am (0630 GMT).
“We came home and saw that actually there was nothing left. Everything had turned to sand,” said the 32-year-old, adding that some 30 bodies had been recovered.
“So far, we have nothing. No blankets or anything else. We are here left out at night with our martyrs,” he said as darkness began to fall.
The WHO said late Saturday “the number of casualties is expected to rise as search and rescue operations are ongoing”.
In Herat city, residents fled their homes and schools, hospitals and offices evacuated when the first quake was felt. There were few reports of casualties in the metropolitan area, however.
Afghanistan is already suffering in the grip of a dire humanitarian crisis, with the widespread withdrawal of foreign aid following the Taliban’s return to power in 2021.
Herat province — home to some 1.9 million on the border with Iran — has also been hit by a years-long drought which has crippled many already hardscrabble agricultural communities.
Afghanistan is frequently hit by earthquakes, especially in the Hindu Kush mountain range, which lies near the junction of the Eurasian and Indian tectonic plates.
In June last year, more than 1,000 people were killed and tens of thousands left homeless after a 5.9-magnitude quake — the deadliest in Afghanistan in nearly a quarter of a century — struck the impoverished province of Paktika.
Death toll from strong earthquakes that shook western Afghanistan rises to over 2,000
ISLAMABAD (AP) — The death toll from strong earthquakes that shook western Afghanistan has risen to over 2,000, a Taliban government spokesman said Sunday. It's one of the deadliest earthquakes to strike the country in two decades.
FILE - An aerial view of the outskirts of Herat, Afghanistan, Monday, June 5, 2023. Two 6.3 magnitude earthquakes killed dozens of people in western Afghanistan's Herat province on Saturday, Oct. 7, 2023, the country's national disaster authority said. (AP Photo/Rodrigo Abd, File)
ISLAMABAD (AP) — The death toll from strong earthquakes that shook western Afghanistan has risen to over 2,000, a Taliban government spokesman said Sunday. It's one of the deadliest earthquakes to strike the country in two decades.
A powerful magnitude-6.3 earthquake followed by strong aftershocks killed dozens of people in western Afghanistan on Saturday, the country's national disaster authority said.
But Abdul Wahid Rayan, spokesman at the Ministry of Information and Culture, said the death toll from the earthquake in Herat is higher than originally reported. About six villages have been destroyed, and hundreds of civilians have been buried under the debris, he said while calling for urgent help.
The United Nations late Saturday gave a preliminary figure of 320 dead, but later said the figure was still being verified. Local authorities gave an estimate of 100 people killed and 500 injured, according to the same update from the U.N. Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs.
The update said 465 houses had been reported destroyed and a further 135 were damaged.
“Partners and local authorities anticipate the number of casualties to increase as search and rescue efforts continue amid reports that some people may be trapped under collapsed buildings,” the U.N. said.
Disaster authority spokesperson Mohammad Abdullah Jan said four villages in the Zenda Jan district in Herat province bore the brunt of the quake and aftershocks.
The United States Geological Survey said the quake's epicenter was about 40 kilometers (25 miles) northwest of Herat city. It was followed by three very strong aftershocks, measuring magnitude 6.3, 5.9 and 5.5, as well as lesser shocks.
At least five strong tremors struck the city around noon, Herat city resident Abdul Shakor Samadi said.
“All people are out of their homes,” Samadi said. “Houses, offices and shops are all empty and there are fears of more earthquakes. My family and I were inside our home, I felt the quake.” His family began shouting and ran outside, afraid to return indoors.
The World Health Organization in Afghanistan said it dispatched 12 ambulance cars to Zenda Jan to evacuate casualties to hospitals.
“As deaths & casualties from the earthquake continue to be reported, teams are in hospitals assisting treatment of wounded & assessing additional needs,” the U.N. agency said on X, formerly known as Twitter. “WHO-supported ambulances are transporting those affected, most of them women and children.”
Telephone connections went down in Herat, making it hard to get details from affected areas. Videos on social media showed hundreds of people in the streets outside their homes and offices in Herat city.
Herat province borders Iran. The quake also was felt in the nearby Afghan provinces of Farah and Badghis, according to local media reports.
Abdul Ghani Baradar, the Taliban-appointed deputy prime minister for economic affairs, expressed his condolences to the dead and injured in Herat and Badghis.
The Taliban urged local organizations to reach earthquake-hit areas as soon as possible to help take the injured to hospital, provide shelter for the homeless, and deliver food to survivors. They said security agencies should use all their resources and facilities to rescue people trapped under debris.
“We ask our wealthy compatriots to give any possible cooperation and help to our afflicted brothers,” the Taliban said on X.
Japan's ambassador to Afghanistan, Takashi Okada, expressed his condolences saying on the social media platform X, that he was “deeply grieved and saddened to learn the news of earthquake in Herat province.”
In June 2022, a powerful earthquake struck a rugged, mountainous region of eastern Afghanistan, flattening stone and mud-brick homes. The quake killed at least 1,000 people and injured about 1,500.
