Afghanistan Flooding
Afghanistan Spatial Data Center (ASDC) mitigate the impact of flooding by implementing climate change adaptation concepts into development projects.
Flooding in Afghanistan is most likely to happen in the spring, when the snow melts, and there is a high level of rainfall. The March flood of 2007 was especially devastating, as it crippled a large part of the nation. Large-scale floods such as the one seen in 2007 have the potential to destroy: communication lines, the electricity grid, road networks, bridges, and contaminate drinking water in village wells. This level of damage has a negative impact on the countries economy.
Afghanistan’s economy is mainly sustained by agricultural and livestock produce, therefore floods hinder the economy to a considerable extent. Even a small flood, can take away the source of income of an entire village, and plunge its livelihood into uncertainty. While flooding itself is problematic. Climate change has also increased the severity of the flooding in Afghanistan, which means NGO’s and government programs need to reassess, and make changes to how they execute their programs.
While it is not possible to completely avoid flooding, we can mitigate the impact of flooding by implementing climate change adaptation concepts into development projects, and by creating awareness through the education and use of information technology tools such as the Afghanistan Spatial Data Center (ASDC).