DUSHANBE, April 30, 2010, Asia-Plus  -- Torrential rain on Wednesday (April 28) evening caused flooding and mudflows that seriously affected a number of villages in the Panjakent district, Sughd province, according to the Committee for Emergency Situations (CES).

The source at a CES said the worst hit villages were Khalifa Hasan, Chanor, Shurcha and Zebon.  “Flooding damaged 25 residential buildings, destroyed footbridge, damaged some 3 kilometers of roads and killed more than 100 head of cattle,” said the source, “Besides, some 30 kilometers of the power transmission line were destroyed and part of the Panjakent district did not have electricity for several hours.”

Commissions are currently working in the disaster-affected villages to assess the actual volume of damage caused to them by recent heavy rains.

81 natural disasters reported in the country over the first three months of this year have caused more than 13.06 million somoni worth of damage to Tajikistan’s economy.  More than 2,500 residential buildings have been damaged by the disasters; 164 of them have been destroyed completely.