Unprecedented Cold Causes Many Deaths In Asia
By Pam O'Toole
BBC News
11 January 2008
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/south_asia/7184030.stm
The snow has severely affected normal life
Severe winter weather conditions are continuing to cause casualties and
hardship in Afghanistan, Iran and Central Asian countries.
Unusually low temperatures and heavy snow have led to scores of deaths
in the region over recent days.
The latest casualties were reported in western Afghanistan, where
officials say more than 50 people have now died.
Most of the deaths were in the province of Herat. The heavy snow has
caused avalanches in some places.
In neighbouring Iran, President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad has made an
unannounced visit to the northern province of Mazandaran to see the
problems caused by unprecedented cold weather and gas shortages.
Food shortages
In Afghanistan, officials in Ghoriyan district in Herat province said 45
people had been killed there over the past two days as a result of the
snowfalls.
An Afghan nomad with animals killed by the cold
Officials in neighbouring Ghowr province also blamed avalanches for 13
deaths over recent days.
Extensive road closures in these provinces have led to severe food
shortages in some districts.
In Iraq, Baghdad has seen its first snowfall in living memory, as have
parts of neighbouring Iran. Many areas in Iran have been suffering from
low gas pressure, or even cuts in gas supplies.
'Not predicted'
President Ahmadinejad, on his visit to one of the worst affected
provinces in northern Iran, Mazandaran, explained the reasons for gas
shortages.
"The first cause of the problems was the unprecedented cold weather
whose severity and scope was not predicted. Nearly all the country was
affected by conditions of severe cold," the Iranian president said.
"We had a sharp drop in temperature and nearly two-thirds of the country
was faced with freezing conditions and heavy snow fall. This was beyond
the capacity of our gas distribution networks. It imposed a sudden high
demand on the gas network in the country."
The president also blamed a cut in gas exports from Turkmenistan.
Parts of Central Asia are also suffering from energy shortages. In
southern Kazakhstan, people say they are struggling to keep warm in
unusually low temperatures, ranging from -10C during the day to -25
degrees overnight.
In Uzbekistan, which has been suffering its coldest temperatures for
almost four decades, human rights groups reported that a small group of
women and children held a demonstration in Samarkand to protest against
shortages of gas and electricity supplies to rural areas nearby.
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