China pledges $10m in aid for calamity-hit Afghans

KABUL for helping those affected by natural disasters under an agreement signed on Thursday.

Najib Aqa Fahim, state minister for natural disasters management while signing the agreement, said the assistance would included 11,000 tents, 11,000 tarpaulins, 60,000 blankets and cooking tools.

He said the aid would be distributed to calamity-hit families in 34 provinces of the country.

He said his ministry had implemented 100 projects including retaining walls, irrigation dams, repairing irrigation canals and providing housing facilities to 300 displaced families in 11 provinces at a total cost of more than 229 million afghanis.

The ministry’s technical team also conducted a survey of 100 more projects of retaining walls, cleaning flood routes, construction of canals and roads, and provision of public awareness in 34 provinces of the country and these schemes would cost 219 million afghanis, he said.

Aqa said 353 people were killed and 397 others injured, 18,000 houses were destroyed and 22,497 houses partially damaged in floods triggered by heavy rains this year.

He said China this year provided assistance in two phases which included 126 tons of rice and 816 tons wheat -- worth $13 million --- which helped more than a million people in 34 provinces.

Chinese ambassador to Afghanistan, Liu Jinsong, about his country’s support to Afghanistan, said, “Both the countries are trying to predict natural disasters in Afghanistan by using Chinese satellites and systems in future.”

He said whenever Afghanistan needed emergency assistance, China had always responded in time.

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