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Flash flooding and torrential rain have killed hundreds of people in recent weeks, as the climate crisis amplifies the effects of the monsoon season, bringing widespread devastation to South Asia.
Millions of people have been displaced by floods, landslides and heavy rains in recent weeks across the region, which is home to about a quarter of the world’s population and among the most vulnerable to the impacts of the human-caused climate crisis.
Flooding from annual monsoon rains is common in South Asia but the climate crisis has turbocharged extreme weather events across the region, scientists say, with prolonged and intense heat waves giving way to record rainfall and storms.
At least 40 people were killed and 347 injured in flooding from heavy rains in eastern Afghanistan, the health ministry said on Tuesday. In India, 97 people have died in flooding in northeast Assam state since May, official figures showed. Large-scale floods in northeast Bangladesh have impacted more than 2 million people. And flash floods and landslides in Nepal have killed dozens, according to the NGO Nepal Centre for Disaster Management (NCDM).
The prolonged downpours have swollen rivers to beyond danger levels, critical infrastructure has been damaged, roads have been inundated and homes and crops destroyed across South Asia.
In Afghanistan, storms have destroyed many homes, the health ministry said Tuesday, leaving displaced residents without access to basic necessities. About 1,500 children have lost their homes, according to Save the Children.
Bridges and roads have also been destroyed by the floods, according to the International Rescue Committee, which said it has deployed emergency health and response teams to the worst affected areas in Nangarhar province to help the injured and those cut off by the storms.
The extreme weather and flooding across South Asia have renewed calls for immediate climate action and put added focus on how vulnerable people who have least contributed to rising global temperatures are being hit hard by the climate crisis.
Lewis Musonye