Afghanistan is in a crisis on all fronts after a 1,000-fatality earthquake
GMP - A massive earthquake that shook eastern Afghanistan on Thursday killed more than 1,000 people in an area plagued by poor infrastructure as aid organizations raced to help the victims as the nation battles severe economic and humanitarian crises. 
A hand pump, funded by ECHO, was installed last in Northern Afghanistan to address the impact of an earthquake and floods in the district. It is the only access the community has to clean drinking water. (EC/ECHO/Malini Morzaria).
People working in the humanitarian sector, such as Obaidullah Baheer, a lecturer in transitional justice at the American University of Afghanistan, are concerned about the tardy response, which has been made worse by international sanctions and decades of poor administration. What do we do when (another crisis) strikes?, he told Journalist over the phone, "This is a very patchwork, band-aid approach for an issue that we need to start thinking (about) mid- to long-term."
As many of the homes in the region were flimsily constructed out of flimsy materials like wood, mud, and other materials susceptible to damage, the death toll from the magnitude 5.9 earthquake that occurred early on Wednesday morning close to the city of Khost by the Pakistan border is expected to grow.
Despite the fact that the afflicted areas are among the most distant in the nation, relief may not arrive for days despite the fact that humanitarian organizations are concentrating in the area.
Anita Dullard, spokeswoman for the ICRC's Asia Pacific region, reports that the ICRC's dispatched teams have not yet arrived. The condition of the roads is slowing efforts to send aid to the impacted districts, according to Shelley Thakral, a spokesperson for the UN World Food Program (WFP) in Kabul.
"Because the area is so distant, rural, and mountainous, the difficulties we are experiencing are mostly geographical and logistical in nature. Because of the earthquake and the heavy rain that fell here yesterday, several places had landslides that made it impossible to go on the roads "Sam Mort, the head of communications for UNICEF Afghanistan, spoke with a journalist in Kabul.
Kunar Valley, Afghanistan 1985. | Photo by Flickr.
Between June 20 and 22, when the earthquake struck, there was a lot of monsoon rain and wind, which made it difficult to fly helicopters and conduct searches.
Help is anticipated to be restricted when medics and emergency personnel seek to reach the area because some groups withdrew from the aid-dependent nation after the Taliban assumed power in August of last year.
Those who are left are overworked. The World Health Organization (WHO) announced on Wednesday that it has gathered "all of the resources" from around the nation, with teams on the ground dispensing medication and offering emergency assistance. The resources are stretched thin here, not only for this region, a WHO official noted.