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CNN World Report

Drought Hits Afghanistan

Aired May 20, 2001 - 14:03   ET

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
ASIEH NAMDAR, CNN ANCHOR: We begin in Afghanistan, the site of one of the worst droughts this century. The drought is dealing a catastrophic blow to villages already suffering by more than two decades of civil war. International aid agencies says hundreds of thousands of people have sought refuge in camps around the country and in neighboring Pakistan and Iran. Hundreds more arrive each day.

The U.N. Relief Agency say they are providing aide to some six million Afghan refugees, but sanctions imposed by U.N. Security Council have hindered efforts to get the aid to refugee camps. Switzerland's Leman Bleu Television traveled to the area to examine the scope of the disaster.

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JAN POWELL, LEMAN BLEU TELEVISION CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): In central Afghanistan, it has not rained for three years. With no harvest last season and little prospect of improvement this year, thousands of people had had no choice but to move or face famine.

Many have ended up here in this Mashlak (ph) camp outside the town of Herat. Conditions are rudimentary. The authorities are providing tents and food, but the numbers are overwhelming, and there is not enough to go around.

Many families are having to sleep out in the open. Water is in short supply and sanitation poor. There are growing fears that epidemics such as diarrhea and cholera will spread with disastrous results. Conditions can only get worse as the spring gives way to summer.

Most of the people in Mashlak (ph) have walked for weeks through desert and sand storms from Gor province in central Afghanistan. This is one of the areas that's been worst hit by the drought. To try to stem the flow of people, food and seed are being given out in Gor province by the international committee of the Red Cross. Farmers and their families trudge down from the surrounding hills and wait patiently for the rations to arrive.

These (UNINTELLIGIBLE) farmers rely on rain fall to grow crops in Gor's inhospitable landscape. There are few irrigation canals, and even these have been neglected during two decades of conflict. With no grazing for their animals and the failed harvest, people have been forced to eat grain they would normally have kept to plant. ICRC agronomist Noori Miraqua explains.

NOORI MIRAQUA, INTERNATIONAL COMMITTEE OF THE RED CROSS: Because of the drought, all the sheep and goats (UNINTELLIGIBLE) because there is no grasses to feed them, for there is no possibility, it is not in the (UNINTELLIGIBLE) because these people are very poor.

POWELL: The families staying on in Gor hope that the spring thaw will bring enough melt water down from the surrounding mountains to plant their crops. In the meantime, for those who left their homes, there is some relief to be found in the camps, but there's little sign of an end to the drought.

This is Jan Powell (ph) of Leman Bleu Television, Geneva, Switzerland, for CNN WORLD REPORT.

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