DUBAI, 8 April 2007 (IRIN) - DUBAI, 8 April 2007 (IRIN) - CONTENTS:

AFGHANISTAN: Lack of development in Helmand revives Taliban AFGHANISTAN: Aid yet to reach all flood-affected provinces AFGHANISTAN: Flood response highlights limited humanitarian capacity NEPAL: Tuberculosis threat to carpet weavers PAKISTAN: Avalanches kill more than 40 in north PAKISTAN: 50,000 fishermen at risk of losing livelihood TAJIKISTAN: Earthquake and avalanches hit the country TAJIKISTAN: Mine action and awareness day marked TURKMENISTAN: President pushes ahead with education and agricultural reform

AFGHANISTAN: Lack of development in Helmand revives Taliban

More than five years after the ousting of the Taliban regime in Afghanistan, residents of the southern province of Helmand say their lives have become more insecure. The Taliban were ousted from power in October 2001, but its fighters have maintained a hit-and-run guerrilla war against US-led coalition forces and Afghan forces. According to analysts, the lack of development in Helmand is the key factor giving rise to new Taliban recruits and sympathizers. But the local population feel that their province has been largely neglected by central authorities.

http://www.irinnews.org/Report.aspx?ReportId=71136

AFGHANISTAN: Aid yet to reach all flood-affected provinces

Azeem Khan, 48, doesn't remember the exact time, but it was early Sunday morning when his seven-year-old daughter woke him up shouting "Water! Water!" Rain started around 8p.m. in Afghanistan's eastern Kunar province and was so heavy the eight-member Khan family had not got to sleep until midnight. Khan's daughter raised the alarm because she was sleeping on the floor and water was pouring in. Khan's family is among thousands waiting for help after flash floods and avalanches left them homeless in at least 13 provinces of Afghanistan, officials in Afghanistan's Department for Disaster Preparedness (DDP) say. DDP estimates of more than 80 deaths are impossible to confirm.

http://www.irinnews.org/Report.aspx?ReportId=71138

AFGHANISTAN: Flood response highlights limited humanitarian capacity

Flood assessments are continuing in Afghanistan's remote provinces almost a week after rainstorms and melting snow caused flooding across a third of the country's provinces. The United Nations acting humanitarian coordinator, Rick Corsino, told IRIN on Thursday the total relief requirements were not high, but the wide distribution of flooding was the problem. A report by Afghanistan's Department of Disaster Preparedness (DDP), issued on Wednesday, listed damage in 10 provinces, including thousands of destroyed and damaged houses. Floods also damaged roads, bridges, irrigation works and farmland, as well as destroying livestock.

http://www.irinnews.org/Report.aspx?ReportId=71202

NEPAL: Tuberculosis threat to carpet weavers

Laxmi Tiwari is desperate to hold her three-month old daughter but they have been separated to prevent the child catching the tuberculosis Tiwari was diagnosed with last week. She contracted the infection at a carpet factory in the capital, Kathmandu, to which she and her impoverished family had come barely a month ago to escape the poverty in their village. There are about 80,000 TB patients in Nepal and 40,000 people are infected with the disease every year, according to the Ministry of Health. Despite the treatment available, TB kills about 5,000 people annually

http://www.irinnews.org/Report.aspx?ReportId=71198

PAKISTAN: Avalanches kill more than 40 in north

Forty-one people are feared dead and 13 remain missing after a spate of avalanches struck Pakistan's northwestern Chitral district this weekend. Heavy snows are hampering relief efforts to the affected region, officials said on Monday. According to local authorities in Chitral, the worst affected area was the village of Wasij, where 23 bodies were recovered and 26 homes were destroyed after an avalanche swept through the tiny village on Saturday.

http://www.irinnews.org/Report.aspx?ReportId=71130

PAKISTAN: 50,000 fishermen at risk of losing livelihood

Mai Raheema, 80, has lived on Bhundal Island in the Indus River delta since she was a little girl. She and her husband are among the few long-term residents of the island, but with up to 50,000 other fishermen depend on the delta area for their livelihoods. However, a new tourism development threatens to force them out of their homes and out of work. According to the World Conservation Union, the world's largest conservation network, at least 45,000 fishermen fish around the tiny islands of Bhundal and Dingi, near Pakistan's port city of Karachi. Depending on fishing conditions and tides, fishermen spend differing periods of time actually living on the 7,000 acres of island land.

http://www.irinnews.org/Report.aspx?ReportId=71179

TAJIKISTAN: Earthquake and avalanches hit the country

Tajikistan was on Tuesday hit by an earthquake measuring up to 6.2 points on the Richter scale, the country's emergency ministry reported, adding that avalanches two days earlier killed 10 people in the northeast. Seismologists say Tajikistan is hit by an average of 2,000-2,500 tremors annually. With some 93 percent of Tajikistan's territory covered by mountains, avalanches are common in winter and spring. In the first two months of 2006, 21 people were killed by avalanches in the country. In 2005, a spate of 400 avalanches caused damage worth at least US $3 million.

http://www.irinnews.org/Report.aspx?ReportId=71165

TAJIKISTAN: Mine action and awareness day marked

Tajikistan marked International Day for Mine Awareness and Assistance in Mine Action on Wednesday as the country strives to clear its territory of landmines by 2010. A special event to mark the day was organised by the Tajikistan Mine Action Centre (TMAC) and supported by the United Nations and other donors. The event sought to raise awareness of landmines and make progress toward their eradication. Tajikistan has the largest landmine problem in Central Asia, with more than 25,000 square km of land in need of mine clearance - an area more than half the size of Switzerland.

http://www.irinnews.org/Report.aspx?ReportId=71187

TURKMENISTAN: President pushes ahead with education and agricultural reform

Turkmenistan's president has announced a salary hike for teachers as he pushes ahead with an overhaul of a deteriorated education system and announced plans to reform the country's ailing agricultural sector. Introducing a 40 percent pay rise for teachers and 40 percent increase in scholarships for students, effective from 1 September, Turkmen President Gurbanguly Berdymukhammedov said better pay would allow teaching staff to concentrate on their core work. Until now, low wages in Turkmen schools and universities have forced many teachers to find ways to supplement their incomes.

http://www.irinnews.org/Report.aspx?ReportId=71184

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