Relief effort after desert flood
2008-10-04 10:35
Algiers, Algeria - Hundreds of troops, engineers and social workers have converged on the desert town of Ghardaia to help with relief operations after a flash flood there killed 33, Algeria's Interior Ministry said.
Torrential rains caused rivers in this usually arid region bordering the Sahara to overflow on Wednesday and Thursday, destroying hundreds of houses in the historic town and several neighbouring oases.
In a statement late on Friday, the Interior Ministry said that troops were securing the zone to avoid looting and helping to search for more potential victims.
Thousands of animals also drowned, and crops and food reserves were heavily depleted, the statement said. The military brought in two mobile bakeries to cook emergency bread rations and is helping re-house survivors in public buildings, it said.
Some 400 tons of food, 1 000 tents and 200 000 blankets were being distributed to survivors, the official APS news agency said.
Some residents said rescue operations were conducted too slowly, and a local journalist said roughly 1 000 protesters gathered in Ghardaia's centre on Friday to demand more aid and additional equipment to search for victims.
Jamel Kechmad said speculation was rampant in the town that the death toll was much higher than officially reported. He spoke to The Associated Press by telephone.
Ghardaia, with a population of 100 000, is located in a long and narrow valley known as the M'zab about 600km south of the capital, Algiers. The M'zab is listed by Unesco as a World Heritage site, and lies on the edge of the Sahara, the world's largest desert.
- AP