Kabul: Six months after the devastating earthquake that rocked eastern Afghanistan, laborer Rasool Badshah moved into a new home, but he didn't bring his mother with him, as she died when a wall collapsed.
The 5.9-magnitude earthquake, which struck the poor province of Paktika on June 22 and was the deadliest earthquake to hit Afghanistan in nearly 25 years, killed more than 1,000 people and left tens of thousands homeless.
Badshah, 21, told AFP that when he arrived at the scene, his mother, brothers and all other family members had already been cremated. He had come back to his village from Pakistan, where he was working.
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Survivors who had previously been living in makeshift tent cities are now given access to hundreds of earthquake-resistant concrete homes, many of which were built by local workers with assistance from the United Nations Agency for Refugees.
“Our children or grandchildren could not even build these houses; we could not afford it. We were living in huts, according to Badshah.
According to UNHCR, the new homes have conventional heaters, independent toilets and solar panels, which help to insulate residents from the bitter cold.
Afghanistan was already facing a humanitarian crisis before the earthquake, which was made worse by the Taliban taking control of the country in August 2021.
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Following the acquisition, the South Asian nation's reliance on international development aid ended, and assets held abroad were frozen. According to survivor Bara Khan, the authorities had long neglected the Far East where the earthquake occurred.
People arrived after the earthquake and saw that the local people were in distress. Khan said, "We don't even have a hospital or a school. Everyone was growing up illiterate.
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After the winter, UNHCR will begin construction on two schools and a clinic still in the ruined area. In particular, the Hindu Kush mountain range, which is close to the meeting point of the Eurasian and Indian tectonic plates, is frequently affected by earthquakes in Afghanistan.