The United Nations World Food Programme (WFP) launched a two-month emergency operation on Sunday to assist up to 2,000 flood victims in Georgia’s western mountainous region of Svaneti.

WFP began sending food – wheat flour and oil - to the hardest hit areas of the Mestia district’s three remote villages of Mulakhi, Tzvirmi and Ipari in Svaneti, a WFP press release, issued on July 29, reads. 

Heavy rains and hail storms, which claimed one life, hit this impoverished agricultural region on July 16.

The floods have currently destroyed over 70 percent of the crucial crops, potatoes and hay, washed away pasture land and domestic animals and damaged many homes, some beyond repair.

“The damage is extensive but WFP is committed to carry out relief that will ensure a complete recovery,” WFP country director Pippa Bradford said.