OCHA NATURAL DISASTER BULLETIN OCHA- NATURAL DISASTER BULLETIN – N°8

UNITED NATIONS OFFICE FOR THE COORDINATION OF HUMANITARIAN AFFAIRS

N° 8/Octobre 2007

FLOODS IN AFRICA HIT AROUND 2 MILLION PEOPLE

OCHA-Geneva Palais des Nations CH-1211 Geneva 10 Telephone: +41 22 917 12 34 Facsimile: + 41 22 917 00 23 24-hour Emergency Duty System Number: + 41 22 917 2010

INTERNATIONAL DAY OF RISK REDUCTION - 9 OCTOBER

“The number of people threatened by natural disasters had increased by three times over the last 30 years and the number of people affected by natural disasters doubled every 10 years. Tens of millions of people had been affected this year by floods in countries all over the world. The link between the increase in disasters and climate change, which had been predicted by scientists, was unmistakable. Also, more people were now living in exposed areas. Some of the biggest cities in the world were built in disaster zones. Their poorest inhabitants were living in slums near those disaster zones and were, therefore, even more vulnerable. That could lead to mega disasters in mega cities"

Some two million people have been affected by recent flooding in 22 countries in Africa, 650,000 have lost their homes, and 200 have been killed. These figures could increase in the weeks to come as the seasonal rains are expected to continue until the end of October. These floods coincide with the most critical time of the year, the lean season when West African families mostly in the Sahel region face food insecurity. The destruction of crop and food stocks has aggravated the vulnerability of poor families and needs to be addressed promptly through emergency and recovery interventions.

John Holmes, United Nations Under-Secretary-General for Humanitarian Affairs and Emergency Relief Coordinator

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OCHA- NATURAL DISASTER BULLETIN – N°8

West Africa

Central and East Africa

West Africa is experiencing some of its worst floods in 35 years with over 800,000 affected in 15 countries (Mali, Burkina Faso, Guinea, Mauritania, Niger, Côte d’Ivoire, Senegal, Gambia, Liberia, Nigeria, Côte d’Ivoire, Togo, Sierra Leone, Benin and Ghana).

Floods in Central and East Africa persist and have been wide spread in July and August 2007, with nine countries affected (Sudan, Chad, Central African Republic, Cameroon, Eritrea, Ethiopia, Somalia, Kenya, Rwanda and Uganda). In Sudan, latest wave of flooding brings the total of those directly affected by the floods to over 550,000. OCHA and its partner launched a Flash Appeal of 20.2 million, which has so far received only USD 1 million. According to a UN-Sudan progress report over 3.5 million people could be at risk in the event of outbreaks of waterborne and vector-borne epidemics. The level of flooding will determine the performance of all food production systems and food access between October 2007 and April 2008.

The situation is especially worrisome in the following countries: Ghana (over 330,000 affected), Togo (over 120,000 affected), Burkina Faso (over 92,900 affected) and Mali (over 42,000 affected). The United Nations has allocated $4.9 million emergency humanitarian assistance to Mali ($1 million), Ghana ($2.5 million) and Togo ($1.4 million) in response to floods that have inundated these three countries since August.

In Uganda, where according to the Uganda Government, substantial flooding has affected 300,000,000 people and 8,500 acres of crop land, the United Nations requested $41 million for urgent aid to hundreds of thousands affected by floods in a highly vulnerable part of that country With the delay of the second planting season, the next successful harvest cannot be expected before February 2008.If the heavy rainfall continues in the most affected areas, it will be further delayed and the standard two month “hunger gap” could extend up to 10 months. It will take at least two harvests for affected households fully to recover their losses.

The CERF allocations are meant to immediately improve the living conditions of 155,000 people in these three countries – 75,000 in Ghana, 60,000 in Togo and 20,000 in Mali. The funding will support projects developed by the United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF), the World Food Programme (WFP), the Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO) and the United DJERBA HOTEL ISIS ET SPA Fund (UNFPA), as well as their partners. On 4 October, United Nations and partner organizations launched a $10million Flash Appeal for Ghana, and on 26 October a $6 million for Burkina Faso.

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NICARAGUA FLOODS Since October 9, ongoing heavy rainfall has caused severe flooding in several departments in Nicaragua, affecting approximately 24,000 people in 177 communities in the departments of Estelí, Madriz, Chinandega, León, Managua, Masaya, Granada, Carazo, Rivas, Jinotega and Matagalpa. Some 7,000 people have been evacuated to 77 shelters. Eight people have drowned and two remain missing. Over 1,900 houses have been damaged, of which 33 have been entirely destroyed. Other damaged infrastructure includes one church, over 1,700 latrines, 413 wells, 22 bridges, seven public buildings, over 1,300 kilometres of paths and roads and 59 sewage. On October 19, the Government declared a National State of Emergency. United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF) and the Pan-American Health Organization (PAHO) carried out a mission to affected areas in order to support the mobilization of medical brigades and teams to fight epidemics. On 21 October, 500 blankets were distributed to the affected community in Matagalpa. The World Food Programme (WFP) is providing technical assistance to SINAPRED to help in the calculation of food needs for the affected population. In addition, non-governmental organisations (NGOs) including CARE, Adventist Development and Relief Aid International (ADRA), Agro Acción Alemana (German Agro Action/GAA), Plan Internacional, World Vision, and Food for Hunger International, as well as the United States Agency for International Development/Office of U.S. Foreign Disaster Assistance (USAID/OFDA), have provided aid. Nicaragua was hit by Hurricane Felix on 4 September, which affected over 162,000 people in the Northern Atlantic Autonomous Region (RAAN). On 14 September, United Nations in Nicaragua and its partners issued a Flash Appeal for $41 million, which is so far only 27% funded. The United Nations Central Emergency Response Fund (CERF) provided $5 million in emergency aid in the aftermath of the disaster for assistance in shelter, food, health care and disease prevention, and water and sanitation.

PERU EARTHQUAKE

A quake measuring 7.9 on the Richter scale struck the Peruvian Pacific Coast on 15 August, devastating hospitals, schools, churches and government buildings in the city of Pisco, and seriously affected the cities of Lima, Chincha Alta, Ica and Cañete. More than 500 people died. OCHA released a $100,000 emergency grant to provide immediate relief and, based on assessments from United Nations interagency missions deployed to the affected areas, launched a Flash Appeal of USD 37 million to assist more than 200,000 people requiring lifesaving assistance. A 7-member UN Disaster Assessment and Coordination (UNDAC) team has been deployed to affected areas to coordinate the response activities of United Nations agencies and nongovernmental organizations (NGOs) with those of national authorities.

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DPRK FLOODS

Torrential rains between 7 and 14 August 2007 caused severe flooding in the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea (DPRK), killing over 450 people and affecting over 960,000. Nine provinces in central and northern DPRK are worst affected, as well as the capital Pyongyang. Nearly 170,000 people have been made homeless. Assessments identified major damage to key transport and communications infrastructure, medical services and power supply. Over 240,000 homes have been destroyed or badly damaged. Significant damage to crops have been reported, adding to ongoing concerns regarding food insecurity. OCHA and its partners appealed for $14 million to complement and coordinate the national Government’s response to meet the most pressing needs of the most vulnerable over the next three months. The projects identified in the Appeal focus on urgent provision of essential medicines, clean water and food

SOUTH ASIA FLOODS

SWAZILAND DROUGHT A severe drought has affected all four regions of Swaziland, such that in early June 2007 the Government declared a national disaster. The outcome of several recent joint assessments indicate that the recent maize harvest is 61% less than that of 2006, and that about 410,000 people will require varying levels of humanitarian assistance including food, agricultural inputs, water and sanitation, health and nutrition services, and early livelihood recovery.

A new wave of floods in the last few weeks submerged vast tracts of land that were just beginning to recover from earlier flooding. The latest inundations stranded another 100,000 people in Bangladesh, and left millions homeless in India. Overall, the floods which have struck with devastating effect in India, Nepal, Bangladesh and Pakistan, have now killed more than 4,000 people, and disrupted the lives of more than 66 million - a number larger than the population of France. The floods have killed livestock, ruined prime agricultural land, destroyed livelihoods and put tens of thousands of children at risk. Stagnant floodwater, food shortages and the lack of drinking water are contributing to the outbreak of disease. Supplementing the efforts of the governments of the countries affected and development organizations, humanitarian agencies from around the world have been providing emergency relief since the flooding began in Pakistan in June this year.

OCHA launched a Flash Appeal of USD 15.6 million, which is so far 27% funded. Although the appeal considers emergency-related activities for the next six months from July to December 2007, some crucial aspects of early recovery are addressed as well and have been designed in such a way as to become the building blocks for long-term, sustainable support to community resilience to withstand and cope with chronic vulnerabilities.

OCHA and its partners launched a Flash Appeal of $40 million for Pakistan, which is so far 38% funded.

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DISASTER PREPAREDNESS EFFORTS INDONESIA UN agencies in Indonesia are joining forces to support capacity-enhancing efforts among government institutions and other relevant organizations at the district level. Following the UN Technical Working Group on Disaster Risk Reduction (UNTWG DRR) initiative to support the National Coordination Board for Disaster Management (BAKORNAS PB) Emergency Management and Contingency Planning (EMCP) exercise workshop in five shoreline districts in West Sumatra during 2005 and 2006, OCHA has recently supported similar workshops in seven districts in West and Central Java. Under the ERF mechanism, the Indonesian Society for Disaster Management (MPBI), a local NGO, has been funded to conduct these workshops in those districts that were severely affected by the July 2006 tsunami. The main purpose of this workshop is to strengthen local emergency preparedness and response capacities as well as coordination mechanisms among government institutions and other relevant stakeholders. OCHA, UNICEF, BAKORNAS and MPBI are currently working closely on the refinement of modules for basic training on disaster management, which will kick off soon and planned to be held in 14 other districts across the country. At the end of April, OCHA Indonesia and BAKORNAS organized a Disaster Management and Response Workshop in Makassar, South Sulawesi, with the main objective of enhancing the knowledge and skills of senior government disaster managers on issues of disaster coordination, assessments, information management, resource mobilization, including the humanitarian reform policy and the implementation of the Cluster Approach. The workshop also aimed at producing an outline of coordination, preparedness and response mechanism that would guide national and international disaster response efforts in Indonesia. Opened by the Humanitarian Coordinator, Mr.Bo Asplund, the workshop was attended by 25 government officials from agencies involved in disaster response, namely BAKORNAS, SATKORLAKs from a number of highly disaster prone provinces, BAPPENAS, the Military and several government departments. . Some UN agencies also participated in this event. The workshop concluded with a set of action points to be followed up and implemented by BAKORNAS (NDMA under the new Disaster Management Law – see below), with support from OCHA, to enhance its capacity to prepare for and respond to disasters. On that same line, OCHA Indonesia also organized a one-day workshop for local NGOs on disaster management, which was held in Jakarta at the end of April. This workshop had as main objectives to bring together local NGOs working in Indonesia in the field of disaster response/preparedness and provide them with an opportunity to introduce their organizations and work to the UN and strengthen our relationships and partnerships in the field. This workshop also aimed at enhancing collaboration and coordination among all stakeholders, emphasizing the importance of NGOs as implementers, and advancing the level of understanding of standards and accountability in the humanitarian practice. Participants at this workshop included more than 30 members from a varied spectrum of local NGOs from across Indonesia, dealing with different aspects of disaster management. Both workshops were generously supported by OCHA Regional Office for Asia and PacificOAP and the President of Mercy Malaysia, MS. Jemilah Mahmood.

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UNDAC - UNITED NATIONS DISASTER ASSESSEMENT & COORDINATION TEAM INSARAG – INTERNATIONAL SEARCH & RESCUE ADVISORY GROUP Seven UNDAC missions have taken place since the last Bulletin:


to the Solomon Islands in April, following the tsunami which caused considerable damage to the infrastructure, impacting on water and sanitation, health, shelter, food and livelihoods and necessitating relief assistance for affected communities. The UNDAC team assisted the national authorities with response coordination, information management and recovery planning.




to Madagascar in April, to support the UN and national authorities in coordinating response activities following the series of cyclones which left many parts of the country affected by severe and prolonged flooding;




to Uruguay – again for extensive flooding – in May;




to Pakistan in July to assist with the aftermath of the flash floods. Floods are now the major disaster to which UNDAC teams are being deployed throughout the world.




to Peru following the 15 August earthquake. Members of the UNDAC Americas team set up an OSOCC (on-site operations coordination centre) in Pisco and also a liaison office in Lima, with telecoms and IT support from the Americas Support Module as well as Telecoms sans Frontières.




to Jamaica and Belize for Hurricane Dean in August, followed by a further mission to Honduras for Hurricane Felix in early September. UNDAC teams were prepositioned in-country to assist the UN and national authorities with assessments and coordination of the response.

Solomon Island Tsunami damages

OSOCC in Pisco, Peru - photo Lucien Jaggi, WFP


and in September/October to Ghana, following the floods in the north of the country. The UNDAC team carried out coordination, information management and assessment activities in Tamale in the affected region, as well as maintaining a coordination/liaison presence in Accra. Uruguay floods

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UNDAC EVENTS The 2007 UNDAC Africa-Europe Induction Course took place from 22 April to 4 May, hosted once again by Switzerland, with a total of 35 participants from 19 countries and 8 international organizations, including, for the first time, Ireland, Qatar and Saudi Arabia. The 2007 UNDAC Asia-Pacific Refresher Course was hosted by Malaysia in July and the Induction Course has been taking place in New Zealand from 14-26 October with 38 participants from 24 countries and organizations. The Africa-Europe Refresher will be taking place in Denmark, hosted by the Danish Emergency Management Agency from 18-21 November 2007. An UNDAC Awareness Workshop took place in Mali in July, organized by OCHA’s Regional Office for West Africa, to familiarize national emergency managers from ten francophone/lusophone countries in the international humanitarian response system and available OCHA tools and services. Jamaica Hurricane Dean – photo UNDAC

INSARAG EVENTS: The Americas Region meeting in the Dominican Republic in May, followed by the annual meeting of the international Steering Committee. An International External Classification (IEC) of the Netherlands urban search and rescue (USAR) team to classify their international USAR response capabilities in case of collapsed structure disasters A meeting on international search dog classification standards; An international USAR exercise for the Asia-Pacific Region hosted by Mongolia The Asia-Pacific Regional Meeting in Seoul in October and International External Classification of USAR teams in Germany, to be followed shortly by a similar informal classification in the United Arab Emirates. The Africa-Europe Regional Meeting will be taking place in Tunis in November together with a workshop on USAR capacity building and an INSARAG Awareness Meeting in December, also in Tunis.

Uruguay

floods

Launch of the Flash Appeal, Uruguay Floods (photo: James Brown, UNDAC)

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NEWS WEBSITE: On 26 October, OCHA launched a Regional Humanitarian Network for humanitarian actors and organizations, which will facilitate easy access to the voluminous natural disaster and complex emergencies information in the Latin America and the Caribbean region through a Website in Spanish, www.redhum.org. The site will provide, inter alia, the latest situation reports on emergencies, calendar of activities (trainings and meetings), on-line contact lists of Who is doing What Where (3W), maps, and vacancies. Redhum, as a website and a network, also brings about best practices in terms of response capacity of the relief community through the timely and transparent dissemination of information on all humanitarian emergencies. Redhum is an interagency initiative based on agreements with the Secretariat for the Coordination Center for the Prevention of Natural Disasters in Central America (CEPREDENAC) and the Regional Disaster Information Center for Latin America and the Caribbean (CRID). Redhum is funded by the Spanish International Cooperation Agency (AECI), the Swiss Agency for Development and Cooperation (SDC), the Government of Kuwait, and OCHA

PUBLICATION

Plastic sheeting belongs to the most widely distributed non–food relief items during humanitarian operations. Each year, hundreds of thousands of square meters of polyethylene sheets are procured by NGOs, governments, UN Agencies and the private sector and used as temporary building material, for repairs, for emergency shelter structures, or for keeping food off the ground or for other protection purposes. However, in recent disaster responses, variations in the sizes and quality of plastic sheeting distributed to displaced persons suggest a lack of clarity on how plastic sheeting can best support recovery efforts in affected households and their communities. Little comprehensive literature existed so far on the use of plastic sheeting, apart from the Howard and Spice, 1973 Oxfam Technical Guide Plastic Sheeting, which provided the base for the present booklet. “Plastic Sheeting: A guide to the specification and use of plastic sheeting in humanitarian relief” is the result of a collaborative process funded by IFRC and Oxfam GB, and supported among others by LSU (the Logistics Support Unit of OCHA). It is part of a series, started in late 2004 with the publication, by OCHA/LSU, of “Tents: A guide to the use and logistics of family tents in humanitarian relief”, followed later by “Shade Nets” (published by MSF). Similar directives on timber as a construction material in emergencies will be published by OCHA in the first half of 2008. This booklet is aimed at helping humanitarian aid workers make more informed decisions on the use of plastic sheeting in emergencies. The target audience include programme managers, field based engineers and technical staff, logisticians and others involved in providing emergency shelter and sanitation services to disaster and conflicted families. It is hoped that this booklet will help promote a better understanding of when plastic sheeting is appropriate, as well as ensuring a wider consistency in the quality of material and technical aid on its use. Paper copies can be obtained, free-of-charge, from OCHA/LSU (email [email protected]) or from [email protected]. Electronic copies are available for download from the LSU web page (http://ochaonline.un.org/lsu.), or from the dedicated website (http://www.plastic-sheeting.org), which also offers a wealth of reference documents for download.

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NATURAL DISASTERS STATISTICS BY:

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More information can be found on relief Web, OCHA on line, and IRIN websites; www.reliefweb.int http://ochaonline.un.org www.irinnews.org Public Information Section External Relations Branch OCHA Geneva For further information, please contact Vanessa Huguenin ([email protected])

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