UN aids flood victims in Kazakhstan as heavy snows melt

United Nations units are coming to aid of flood victims in southern Kazakhstan, where heavy rains and rapidly melting snow have displaced more than 13,000 people following Central Asia’s harshest winter in decades.

The UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) has provided an emergency grant of $40,000 to the UN Resident Coordinator in Kazakhstan for nearly 2000 hygiene kits.

At the same time, the UN Children’s Fund (UNICEF) has made $50,000 available for water purification tablets, water reservoirs, filters, disinfectants and other sanitation needs.

The overall flooding situation remains a matter of concern for the immediate future, according to an OCHA report, since there is a possibility of further flooding along the Syr-Darya river basin.

That occurrence could affect over 250,000 people living in the country’s South Kazakhstan and Kzylorda provinces, it said.