2007 Floods and Cyclone: Mozambique humanitarian situation update, 12-14 March
Major Developments On 12 March, the Mozambique Humanitarian Response Plan was launched electronically by the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) on behalf of the Mozambique Humanitarian Country Team. The plan covers medium term flood response and immediate cyclone response activities over the three-month period from March to May and complements the Government's US$ 71 million Reconstruction Plan launched on 5 March. The process of plot demarcation as part of the resettlement process is ongoing in all of the flood affected provinces. Many of the resettlement plots are close to the existing accommodation centres. In cyclone affected areas, following the declaration of the end of the immediate humanitarian response phase, working groups have been established in Vilanculos to develop strategies for the rehabilitation phase in four areas: infrastructure (including water and sanitation), agriculture, health and social action. 1)TROPICAL CYCLONE FAVIO Needs Assessment The Government in Vilanculos has officially declared an end to the immediate humanitarian response phase in cyclone affected areas. With the transition to the rehabilitation phase, additional supplies to cover immediate needs are not required and focus is now being placed on ensuring the distribution and appropriate use of the remaining supplies and supporting the rehabilitation of infrastructure and essential services damaged or destroyed by the cyclone. UNICEF Response To date, UNICEF has supported over 37,000 people with roofing materials, 500 vulnerable families with family kits, 1,864 families with jerry cans and 1,900 families with buckets, in the districts of Vilanculos, Inhassoro and Govuro in Inhambane province. In relation to education, zinc sheets, tents to serve as temporary learning spaces, school kits and recreation kits, have been distributed to affected districts and UNICEF has been working with the district education authorities to ensure distribution to the affected schools and appropriate use of materials. Working groups have been established to develop strategies for the rehabilitation phase in four areas: infrastructure (including water and sanitation), agriculture, health and social action. UNICEF is participating in the infrastructure, health and social action working groups. The draft rehabilitation phase strategies were discussed at the coordination meeting held on 13 March. UNICEF has been supporting the district education authorities to develop a proposed strategy for the education sector. UNICEF was requested to support the consolidation of all strategies for review at the coordination meeting on 14 March. 2) ZAMBEZI FLOODS Needs Assessment The UNICEF teams based in Caia (Sofala province), Mopeia (Zambezia province) and Mutarara (Tete province) are continuing to work with Government, UN and NGO partners to monitor the immediate and medium term needs in flood affected provinces. The priority concerns in affected areas remain the same: food, water and sanitation and hygiene/health education in order to prevent any outbreaks of cholera. Activities in these areas have been hampered in some districts due to limited accessibility to centres. The UNICEF team in Caia has been liaising with the district authorities in relation to durable goods that can be re-planned after the end of the first phase of the emergency, notably school tents and water bladders. It is expected that the majority of school tents will continue to serve as temporary annexes to the existing schools in the area, since the resettled children will continue to attend these schools. UNICEF Response WASH In all affected provinces, UNICEF is continuing to work with Government and NGO partners to ensure complete coverage of centres with WASH interventions, in line with the geographical division of labour. All activities are implemented in close coordination with the local water authorities. In Sofala province, the water situation is under control in the majority of districts and focus is being placed on sanitation and hygiene promotion. In Manica province, monitoring is being undertaken in coordination with the local water authorities to ensure that all of the WASH needs are being met. In Zambezia and Tete provinces, water trucking and the distribution of water bladders are ongoing, in addition to sanitation and hygiene interventions. Communication and community mobilisation activities on hygiene promotion supported by UNICEF are ongoing in accommodation centres in the four flood affected provinces, including video projections on the promotion of good hygiene practices by multimedia mobile units and sessions on hygiene promotion undertaken by community theatre groups. These activities are planned to continue until the end of March. Health UNICEF is continuing to work with other cluster partners to support the local health authorities in assessing the health situation in the centres, identifying appropriate referral facilities, and conducting activities including epidemiological surveillance, cholera prevention (no cases have been registered), drug distribution, immunisation, malaria spraying and the distribution of Insecticide Treated Nets (ITNs). To date, UNICEF and partners have distributed over 55,000 ITNs. With support from UNICEF, child to child radio programmes and broadcasts by community radios on cholera prevention will be broadcast in Portuguese and local languages from 14 to 31 March in all affected provinces. Nutrition UNICEF is continuing to support the local health authorities and other partners in ongoing activities under the supplementary feeding programme in affected areas, which is underway in the districts of Caia, Marromeu and Chemba in Sofala province, Mopeia and Morrumbala in Zambezia province, Mutarara in Tete province and Tambara in Manica province. The current available figures indicate that an estimated 6,913 children have been screened under the programme across the four flood affected provinces, 606 moderately malnourished children have been supplemented with BP5 (a type of compact food), 35 severely malnourished children have been referred to hospital for appropriate case management, 7,117 children have received deworming and 5,935 children have received Vitamin A supplementation. The Ministry of Health, with the support of partners, is working to ensure that comprehensive information covering all sites is available and regularly updated. Education UNICEF is continuing to work with provincial and district education authorities and NGO partners to distribute education and recreation materials to schools affected by the floods in Zambezia, Tete and Sofala provinces in line with the agreed distribution plan. Save the Children Norway is covering Manica province. In Zambezia province, 16 school tents provided by UNICEF and Save the Children have been installed and are in use as temporary classrooms. A further 7 tents and 4 Red Cross tents will be installed over the coming days. Almost 6,000 learners’ kits have been distributed to schoolchildren attending schools in the affected districts of Mopeia, Chinde and Morrumbala, in addition to 41 teachers’ kits and 17 school kits. Organisations responsible for constructing latrines in the accommodation centres are also constructing latrines for schools at a ratio of 4 for girls and 4 for boys per school tent installed. Blackboards are being built locally and distributed to schools affected by the floods. In Chinde district, Concern are distributing UNICEF and Save the Children UK education materials to schools at Matilde and Salia accommodation centres. Two school tents have already been installed in the centres.
In Tete province, Action Aid and World Vision are supporting UNICEF and the local education authorities to distribute and install the remaining 11 of the 11 school tents provided by UNICEF and the additional 10 school tents provided by Save the Children.As many schools and accommodation centres continue to be inaccessible by road, challenges for transporting materials persist. 8,309 learners’ kits have been distributed across the district in addition to 38 teachers’ kits, 52 schools’ kits and blackboards made by local carpenters from the boxes housing the school tents. Distribution plans have been updated to include Doa, which was previously inaccessible, and Action Aid and World Vision will continue to support UNICEF to distribute the remaining education supplies across the district over the next few days. In Sofala province, UNICEF is continuing to work with the provincial and district education authorities through the Gender Units and School Councils to mobilise children from the accommodation centres who have never before received schooling, to enrol in local supported schools. All 15 UNICEF school tents have been erected and are in use as temporary classrooms across the province (including 2 installed by Samaritan’s Purse in Chemba district). A total of 8,781 learners’ kits, 202 teachers’ kits and school learners’ kits have been distributed to learners and schools whose materials were lost or destroyed during the floods. In Manica province, Save the Children Norway is distributing 5 school tents and 1,500 learners’ kits to schools affected by the floods in Tambara district, based on assessments conducted by the district education authorities. In addition to supporting the distribution and appropriate use of the remaining education supplies, cluster partners are also supporting the local education authorities to ensure that children evacuated during the floods that have never received schooling of any kind, particularly girls, remain in school. Protection UNICEF is continuing to focus, with other partners, on consolidating the training on the prevention of sexual abuse and exploitation and on the provision of psycho-social support to the most vulnerable in flood affected areas. With the support of UNICEF, Save the Children and HIV Alliance have concluded their trainings in all provinces, involving some 100 participants in total. Through collaboration with the Ministry of Interior, the training of police deployed in accommodation centres is ongoing. A total of 80 police agents have now been deployed to accommodation centres in flood affected provinces. With support from UNICEF, Handicap International is conducting mine risk assessments in Chemba, Tambara and Guro, having already completed assessments in Marromeu and Caia. Some 16 agents have been trained on mine risk education and community sensitisation is ongoing. Inter-Agency Collaboration and Key Partnerships The Humanitarian Response Plan prepared by the Mozambique Humanitarian Country Team was launched electronically on 12 March. The Plan will be updated in a month to reflect any additional requirements. On 13 March, a meeting was held between the Mozambique Humanitarian Country Team and the Development Partners Group, in order to provide a briefing to donors on the current situation in relation to the emergency and on the recently launched Humanitarian Response Plan. Also on 13 March, the weekly meeting of cluster leads was held, at which a number of issues were discussed, including information management (particularly the interagency mapping centre) and the proposal of the INGC to introduce joint household cooking in the accommodation centres. The food security cluster is liaising directly with the Government on the latter issue, with inputs from other clusters. The weekly meeting between cluster leads and the INGC was held on 14 March. The National Director of the INGC gave a brief to cluster leads, covering issues such as the resettlement process, centre coordination and the joint cooking proposal. It was also reported that the INGC is developing guidelines on community participation in accommodation centres for future emergencies. The current list of cluster leads and participants is provided below: Logistics Food Security Telecommunications Water, Sanitation and Hygiene Nutrition Health Education Protection Emergency Shelter Early Recovery
Photo essay Photo essay Photo essay Photo essay Related links Health activists spread life-saving messages Protecting children from malaria and water-borne diseases Flood-affected children go back to school Coastal towns hard at work after Cyclone Favio Mozambique floods: Getting children back to school Mozambique floods: Preventing the spread of diseases among children in the camps Related press releases 2007 Floods and Cyclone: humanitarian updates |
