Reuters AlertNet Lite - YEMEN: Thousands of flood victims in "post-emergency limbo"

Reuters AlertNet Full site

NEWSDESK

YEMEN: Thousands of flood victims in "post-emergency limbo"

20 Apr 2009 14:18:26 GMT
Source: IRIN

Background

• Food and hunger

• South East Asia Monsoon

• Floods

SANAA, 20 April 2009 (IRIN) - Delays in recovery efforts in the flood-hit governorates of Hadhramaut and al-Mahrah, southeastern Yemen, are putting the lives of thousands of survivors in jeopardy, aid workers have said.

Giancarlo Cirri, World Food Programme (WFP) country director for Yemen, said recovery efforts since the October 2008 floods [see: http://www.irinnews.org/Report.aspx?ReportId=81123] were insufficient, and that this was prolonging the emergency period unnecessarily.

"We are still in an emergency situation because recovery activities are not gaining steam. The flood-affected persons need much more than food. As long as these recovery activities are not [taking place] on the ground, we will be in an emergency situation. Flood victims are caught in a post-emergency limbo," he told IRIN on 15 April.

The floods left 80 dead and displaced 25,000, mainly in Hadhramaut Governorate, according to the government and confirmed by a UN rapid assessment mission. They said an estimated 111,832 people had been affected by the floods in one way or another.

The 25,000 internally displaced persons (IDPs) have been receiving regular food assistance since immediately after the floods. But a recent WFP food security assessment found that another 18,000 flood victims, including displaced and non-displaced people, should also be registered to receive food assistance.

Ali Sabih, a member of the local council in Tarim District in Hadhramaut, said the problem was that the government teams tasked with assessing damage did not register all flood victim families.

"This is because they were confused about how to deal with the issue," he told IRIN.

Mohsen al-Duwailah, head of the Charitable Society for Social Welfare (CSSW) in Seyoun, Hadhramaut Governorate, told IRIN there were still a lot of flood victims unable to provide food for their families.

"They have lost their livelihoods in the floods. We have heard they do not receive food assistance. No one is looking after them," he said.

House rebuilding not under way

According to al-Duwailah, reconstructing damaged houses was the biggest challenge, because without homes to live in daily life for IDPs would be very difficult.

While some IDPs are being hosted by relatives, many have been settled temporarily in houses rented by local aid agencies. Al-Duwailah said the real problem would occur when the leases ended in six months.

"Some flood victims have told us they won't be able to afford the rent when their temporary lodging period is finished in six months' time," he said, adding that CSSW has rented houses for some 425 families in Hadhramaut.

On 8 April the government's reconstruction fund in Hadhramaut and al-Mahrah agreed to allocate five billion riyals (US$25 million) to reconstruct damaged houses.

Local council member Sabih said there was no evidence of any reconstruction work on the ground, and flood victims were worried.

"Huge funding shortfall"

WFP's Cirri said an estimated US$3 million was needed to provide food for the newly registered 18,000 flood victims in Hadhramaut and al-Mahrah governorates.

"They [18,000 people] are in need of food. For the time being, we are facing a huge funding shortfall… [which] we are discussing with donors to attract their attention to the immediate need to fund this operation," he said, adding that food assistance would help them devote some time to recovery activities.

So far, 1,165 metric tonnes of food has been distributed among IDPs, mostly by the government and WFP. The aid includes cereals, dates, sugar, canned fish, cooking oil and tomato paste.

maj/ed/cb

Email this article Send comments

Topics

• Floods

• Food and hunger

MORE >>

NGO latest

• Short-Term Food Security Consultant, Myanmar
DanChurchAid - Denmark

• G8 neglect of child nutrition puts millions of lives at risk
Save the Children - India

• G8 neglect of child nutrition puts millions of lives at risk
Save the Children - India

• ACT Appeal: Flood Rehabilitation, Bihar, India
ACT - Switzerland

• ACT Appeal: Relief to Flood Affected Population, Angola
ACT - Switzerland

MORE >>

Latest news

• YEMEN: Thousands of flood victims in "post-emergency limbo"

• FACTBOX-Ships held by Somali pirates

• Somali pirates release Togo-flagged ship

• Tamil demonstrators block streets outside UK parliament

• Somali pirates release Togo-flagged ship, ransom paid

MORE >>

IRIN news

Background information

Topics

Floods

Food and hunger

Facts & figures

Yemen

Breaking stories

YEMEN: Thousands of flood victims in "post-emergency limbo" (1 minute ago)

FACTBOX-Ships held by Somali pirates (1 minute ago)

AlertNet insight

Zambia mulls state of emergency as floods affect 700,000 (1 minute ago)

Aid agency news feed

Short-Term Food Security Consultant, Myanmar (1 minute ago)

Blogs

Matt Dillon on Supporting South Sudan (1 minute ago)

Maps

MAP: Angola floods (1 minute ago)

Del.icio.us | Digg

Digg |

NewsVine | Reddit

Latest images

Thumb for /thefacts/imagerepository/RTRPICT/2009-04-20T115725Z_01_KHEM08_RTRIDSP_2_ALGERIA-SECURITY-AGRICULTURE_mainimage.jpg|/thenews/pictures/KHEM08.htm

Thumb for /thefacts/imagerepository/RTRPICT/2009-04-20T115545Z_01_KHEM02_RTRIDSP_2_ALGERIA-SECURITY-AGRICULTURE_mainimage.jpg|/thenews/pictures/KHEM02.htm

Thumb for /thefacts/imagerepository/RTRPICT/2009-04-14T183456Z_01_LPZ08_RTRIDSP_2_BOLIVIA_mainimage.jpg|/thenews/pictures/LPZ08.htm

Thumb for /thefacts/imagerepository/RTRPICT/2009-04-14T004734Z_01_LPZ16_RTRIDSP_2_BOLIVIA_mainimage.jpg|/thenews/pictures/LPZ16.htm

Thumb for /thefacts/imagerepository/RTRPICT/2009-04-13T215919Z_01_LPZ01_RTRIDSP_2_BOLIVIA-MORALES_mainimage.jpg|/thenews/pictures/LPZ01.htm

Algerian farmers harvest a potato field in Khemisti, 60 km (37 miles) west of Algiers, April 19, 2009. Algeria is suffering a potato shortage because officials have imposed strict controls on ...

More pictures | Galleries

Last updated:Mon Apr 20 14:18:56 2009

Background

Topics

NGO latest

Latest news

Background information

Related articles