HERAT: Twenty -nine people died in two provinces of Afghanistan due to hail and heavy rain, officials said Tuesday.

“Twenty-one people were killed and six others were wounded” because of hail in the western Farah province, said Mohammad Israel Sayar, head of the province’s disaster management department.

The victims were members of two families who had gone on a picnic, he said.

In southern Kandahar, the local disaster management department said in a statement that eight people – including women and children – were killed in several places due to heavy rain.

“Today, four women who were busy washing clothes were swept away by flooding water … and only one woman survived,” the statement states.

It added that a child drowned in Kandahar while a roof collapsed on a family and killed a woman and three children.

Among the poorest countries in the world after decades of war, Afghanistan is particularly exposed to the effects of climate change, as researchers say it is driving extreme weather.

It is ranked as the sixth most vulnerable country for climate change.

Drought, flooding, soil degradation and declining agricultural productivity are important threats, said the UN Development Agency’s representative in Afghanistan, Stephen Rodriques, in 2023.

Flash floods last May killed hundreds and flooded large areas of agricultural land in Afghanistan, where 80 percent of people are dependent on agriculture to survive.