News from the valleys

Construction has started on a bridge in Bargi Matal costing about 31 million afghanis. It will be 30 metres long, 8 metres wide and stand 6 metres above the river, with 340 metres of approach road.

Provincial officials say it will serve 35 villages.

The United Nations' humanitarian office marked World Humanitarian Day by remembering Anayatullah Anayat, a 24-year-old monitoring officer who died in a flash flood while on a field mission in Nuristan this summer.

He is pictured in the tribute at the site of the Osam canal in Eshtevee village, Parun, one of the projects he monitored.

102 kilograms of beryl and crystal from mines in Parun and Kantiwa were sold at auction for 3.9 million afghanis.

A UNICEF-supported health camp and two ambulances treated more than 100 injured people, and over 1,300 people received care before the camp handed over to the town's health centre. WHO sent five emergency health kits, and UNFPA gave out 227 dignity kits for women and 50 kits for mothers and newborns.

From 23 July, IOM, UNICEF and Save the Children gave tents, household kits and shelter-repair kits to families who lost their homes, a number that rose from 92 to 120 as assessments were checked. The Turkish Red Crescent gave food parcels to 276 households.

About 1,000 families who lost their water supply were served by tanker and a temporary reservoir connection. UNICEF says the design to restore the supply, for about 7,000 people, is complete and a contract is being arranged.

Tents, blankets, hygiene kits, solar lamps, kitchen sets and shelter-repair materials were delivered to 192 families in Awlagul village, Bargi Matal, by the provincial disaster authority working with IOM, UNICEF, Save the Children and PU-AMI.

UNICEF reports that 310 family kits and 310 hygiene kits reached 2,232 people across Parun and Bargi Matal. One school in Bargi Matal was still closed, with 200 pupils (108 girls and 92 boys) out of class; UNICEF planned 13 tents and recreation kits so lessons could restart.

The International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies launched an operation worth CHF 472,771, running from August 2026 to April 2027, to support 13,200 people across 12 flood-hit provinces. In Nuristan it covers safe water, hygiene, and cash for households that lost family members or were injured.

It also sets aside about CHF 1,000 for each of the 70 shops damaged in Parun, paid in two instalments to rebuild and restock them. We have not yet seen a report that these payments have been made, and will say so when they are.

On the afternoon of 3 August a flash flood struck Bargi Matal. Awlagul village took the worst of it: UNICEF reports that most of the village was destroyed and most of its people moved to neighbouring villages. Flooding also reached Mandol.

Counts of the damage differ. The provincial spokesman put the homes destroyed or damaged at 87; UNICEF counted 191. Khaama Press reported three children missing in Bargi Matal, while the national disaster authority reported two dead, eight injured and two missing across Kunar and Nuristan together.

The World Food Programme's July market report found that Nuristan had the most expensive food basket of any province: 6,247 afghanis, against a national average of 5,385, or 16% higher.

A labourer in full-time casual work there could afford only 17% of it. Wheat flour cost about 35.5 afghanis a kilo, and the report notes that the Parun flood disrupted the local market for a time.

India's foreign ministry said it had handed food and family tents for the Nuristan flood victims to Afghanistan's national disaster authority in Kabul.

After a day of rain, a flash flood came down the Parun river at about three in the afternoon and went through the town's bazaar, hotels and riverside homes. About 70 shops, the municipality building, a mosque, bridges and some 2 km of the main road were damaged or destroyed, and around 1,000 families lost their water supply. Two community schools in Mandol were damaged too.

The toll differs by source. The UN and WHO counted 23 dead in July, UNICEF later 24, and the Afghan Red Crescent 31; one UN statement on 22 July spoke of more than 40. Counts of the injured range from about 80 to 125. More than 100 people were reported missing in the first days; later counts fell sharply as people were traced.

Work has started on a drinking water network for 123 families in the Kordar Dara area of Wama, at a cost of 4.5 million afghanis. It is funded through the Economic Cooperation Organization and overseen by the provincial rural development department.