UNICEF SUDAN. Update on Floods Response 15 August 2013

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1 UNICEF SUDAN Update on Floods Response 15 August 2013 Overview This note covers UNICEF and partner response in affected areas in Khartoum as well as North Darfur and Blue Nile states; and essential information on business continuity. Torrential rains that began in Sudan late July / early August have caused severe material damage, casualties, and affected close to 150,000 people across the country. The current floods are reportedly the worst seen in the recent history of Sudan. Khartoum remains the worst affected location, with more parts of the metropolis affected compared to the notorious 1988 floods. Other badly affected areas include El Gezira, North Darfur, Blue Nile, Northern, Red Sea, and South Darfur. The Government of Sudan is leading and coordinating the overall emergency response. The National Flood Task Force has not yet been activated, although a number of meetings have been called by the Commission for Voluntary and Humanitarian Work (CVHW) to discuss assessment modalities and response plans. As challenges remain in regard to access, a detailed needs assessment is not yet available. UNICEF, in coordination with government counterparts, partners and other agencies, is closely monitoring and assessing the situation in the affected areas to ensure that needs are identified and immediately addressed. UNICEF s country office in Khartoum is at risk of inundation, as it is in a low-lying area adjacent to the Blue Nile River. A crisis management team has been convened to make preparations for business continuity should the banks of the river overflow. UNICEF Sector Support Khartoum WASH Provision of improved water sources to affected areas has been prioritized by the WASH sector. Out of the 77 deep boreholes that have been affected by flooding, Khartoum State Water Corporation (KSWC) has rehabilitated and disinfected 60 boreholes in the worst affected areas of Sharg El Niel (36), Karari (2), Jabel Aulia (13), Bahari, and Um Badda localities, which are situated to the east of the Nile and in northern Khartoum. Rehabilitation and disinfection of the boreholes benefit about 200,000 end users, and water trucking by SWC and MSF is reaching 100,000 and 10,000 people respectively on daily basis. There are sufficient stock supplies to chlorinate all functioning water supply networks in all the worst affected areas in Khartoum i.e. Sharg El Niel, Karari, Jabel Aulia, Bahari and Um Badda localities. The Government counterpart Water and Environmental Sanitation (WES) of Drinking Water and Sanitation Unit (DWSU) - has been provided with a stock of chlorine products sufficient to provide improved water supply for 100,000 affected people at household level. 1

2 Flooded latrines and collapse of over 10,000 latrines have been a major consequence of the flood according to local partners. Latrine disinfection for 7,256 collapsed latrines has been conducted by the Ministry of Health with technical support from the WASH sector. UNICEF has also provided to the State Ministry of Health a total of 200 latrine slabs to cover the sanitation needs of 2400 affected people and the Ministry has started using them in the construction of communal latrines. A civil society movement of about 2000 volunteers is involved in several areas of intervention, including WASH. The WASH sector aims at involving the movement in activities of latrine rehabilitation and hygiene promotion campaigns. Hygiene promotion materials have been made available. A meeting of all implementing partners and civil society organizations was held on Tuesday, 13 August 2013 led by the WASH sector lead (DWSU/WES with UNICEF support). The meeting considered what has been done to date and the gap in response. A sector flood response task force was formed to coordinate the flood response among partners. The institutional members of the task force include WES, MoH, SRC, World Vision International, UNICEF and Nafeer. INGOs have demonstrated their willingness to assist in WASH response. The following organizations have expressed their willingness to respond to flooding emergency: CRS, ADRA, World Vision, Concern, IAS, ENVI and SRCS. ENVI is willing to mobilize further funding through MTN if needed. Child Protection Within the framework of the protection cluster, child protection partners are conducting rapid assessments of priority affected areas. The child protection rapid assessment tool is being used to ensure child protection issues are reflected in on-going assessments. The National Council for Child Welfare (NCCW) has translated the assessment tool into Arabic to be used by national organizations. While the response will depend more on the results of the assessments, we anticipate that child protection interventions will most likely focus on provision of psychosocial support, in collaboration with Government and NGO partners. UNICEF and the Khartoum Council for Child Welfare (KCCW) are discussing the creation of child friendly spaces in the areas where families are evacuated to. Approximately 25,000 children will benefit from this. Nutrition The Nutrition sector had discussions with a local organization called Nafeer about preventive messaging at community level; and training may be conducted for their staff on infant and young child feeding during emergencies (IYCF-E) and mid upper arm circumference (MUAC) assessments to determine nutritional status. Scenarios of how to respond to potential food insecurity have been discussed with other sectors, e.g. building stock supplies of emergency food rations for children under five as a measure to avoid uncontrolled use of infant formula. UNICEF has taken the lead in crafting and sharing an interagency statement on the most appropriate regimens for infant and child feeding during emergencies and the dangers - child morbidity and mortality - of using infant formula milk products. 2

3 Education The Education sector is currently assessing the situation of schools affected by the floods. So far we have been informed that 104 schools in Khartoum State alone have been affected and schools might be closed indefinitely. The Government has closed all schools until August 20. Partners are working closely with the Federal Ministry of Education to assess the situation. In three localities in Khartoum, 40 basic education schools have been affected by the floods. 79 classrooms were totally damaged, 11 school latrines, 7 teachers offices and 11 school fences were destroyed. In Khartoum in all the seven localities 64 schools were affected by the floods. In total, 85 classrooms were destroyed with majority of them having their roofs collapsed. From the 64 schools, 14 schools were completely flooded and destroyed. 7 latrines destroyed and 15 school fences have been destroyed. The education sector is having a meeting in Khartoum on August 14, 2013 to discuss how best partners can support the affected communities and schools. The Federal Ministry of Education will lead the discussion. The Federal Ministry of Education has asked UNICEF to provide them with tents to be used as class rooms so classes can start in Khartoum state on time on August 20 th. Health The Health section conducted a joint visit with Khartoum State Ministry of Health to the flood affected areas in East Nile Locality. Ministry staff included the Director General, the Director of Preventive Medicine and Director of Health Services of East Nile locality. The findings were as follows: Two villages were severely affected: 45% of houses in Almarabiaa were destroyed while in Alkriyab it was 100% of the houses. Total population affected in Almarabiaa is estimated at 8,700 while that of Alkriyab is IDPs were sitting along the paved road with no access to latrines or toilets, with open defecation as their only option of relieving themselves. Drinking water was being provided by the Army and Police forces. The affected area has 3 health facilities that have all the essential health supplies (ORS, PHC kits and Ringer lactate). These supplies will cover 300,000 people for one month, i.e. more than the two affected villages. Two of the health facilities have ambulances There are seven mobile clinics covering the locality UNICEF health section provided the Emergency Humanitarian Action (EHA) section of the Federal Ministry of Health with PHC kits that will cover one million people for a period of three months. The kits had already been distributed and prepositioned in all states. UNICEF also provided 35,000 LLINs to the Ministry to be distributed to the affected population (with 10,000 allocated to Khartoum state). 3

4 UNICEF Sector Support North Darfur El Fasher town and other localities have been affected by floods since 31 July. Following the floods, the state government called a meeting on 1August attended by all heads of UN agencies, INGOS, national/local NGO, line ministries and El Fasher locality commissioner and his team in which the situation was briefed by deputy Wali and requesting support from all stakeholders. In the meeting called by the deputy governor of the state localities like Al Kuma, Melit and part of Um Kadad were reported to be affected. As a follow up to the previous meeting and initiate joint assessment, OCHA called a meeting on 3 August. Inter sector rapid joint assessment was carried out on 4 August covering nine localities in El Fasher town, sampling only the worst hit areas as time was a constraint. WASH UNICEF and WASH partners are supporting the reconstruction/rehabilitation of 200 household latrines (UNICEF/WES=135, PLAN Sudan=15 and Oxfam America 50) 9000 bars of soap distributed to the affected households (families) 10,000 strips of chlorine tablets distributed to the all affected families Dewatering pump from WES is mobilized to drain stagnant water in institutions (like TFC) Supported radio talk shows and skits on key hygiene messages Cash (about 60,000 SDG) to assist in the implementation of the above activities an Health and Nutrition UNICEF nutrition and WASH team jointly visited El Fasher TFC. Besides the support provided by WES to drain the water, there is a need to improve on rain water harvesting from the roof catchment of the TFC. The doctor in charge of the TFC was advised on required roof catchment improvement works, which he will follow up with the Ministry of Public Utilities for design and construction planning. Nutrition team will follow up on progress and funding availability to address this problem once and for all. As immediate support, chlorine tablets will be provided by WES to improve the quality of water in the TFC. Draining water that flows within the building is managed by the cleaners. The maternity hospital was provided with urgent supply of drugs from WHO, UNICEF, UNFPA, and the State Ministry of Health. The maternity hospital resumed normal activities, but there were shortages in some consumables. The maternity hospital needs spraying to control flies and mosquitoes and mosquito net distribution for fistula wards and cleaning and disinfection of ground water tanks. UNFPA committed to support the rehabilitation of west and east sides of maternity hospital wall to improve on the current out patients ward which receives around 500 patients per day. UNICEF provided SMOH 13 PHC kits covering a total of 65,000 population for a period of two months. Additionally, technical and cash assistance was provided for 5 days training of 16 rapid response teams that started since 9th of August, UNICEF provided 200 cartons of BP5 covering a total of 713 for two weeks as well as provided cash assistance for MUAC screening. 4

5 UNICEF Sector Support Blue Nile WASH 3 assessment mission have been conducted by WASH sector partners to residential towns 4 and 6 and in Roseires town (Khor Branga), in Roseires town based on the assessment there are 750 household affected, 200 houses including household latrines totally damaged and 550 houses including latrines were partially damaged. Due to flooding in 12 residential units that have been constructed by the Rosaries Dam heightening project the assessment revealed that 22,000 people have been affected by the flooding of their houses (not damaged) but a total of 5524 household latrines submerged by flood water and 208 household latrines were totally collapsed in the 12 units. 12 community volunteers have been trained in hygiene promotion and disposal of excreta out of the flooded latrines in Residential Town 4 in Roseires locality 35 emergency household latrines have been constructed using plastic slabs provided by UNICEF for the benefit of 210 flood affected people 5582 home visits with hygiene messages have been conducted and accordingly UNICEF through WES Project and in coordination with the SMOH provided 2000 cartons of soap out of which 1832 cartons have been distributed to 41,220 flood affected people in 3 residential units (4,5 and 6) in Roseires Locality 20 water chlorinators have been trained on chlorination activities and UNICEF provided 10 cartons of chlorine 1.67mg and one drum of chlorine powder for water treatment in residential towns 4 and 6. Education The State Ministry of Education conducted rapid assessment and confirmed that 40 schools have been affected by floods in Damazine and Roseries localities. As reported, in Damazine locality alone 30 schools were affected, and within these 30 schools 80 class rooms, 30 school latrines, 40 offices and 10 fences are heavily affected by floods. In Roseries locality, 10 schools, 60 class rooms, 25 offices and 10 school latrines were affected by the floods. Health As emergency preparedness measures for the rainy season, the Malaria and Vector Control Program with UNICEF financial support has conducted social mobilization activities focused on proper use of LLINs, malaria vector control practices targeting all 12 towns for population affected by Rosaires dam heightening as they have been identified as the most vulnerable towns. The activity has included training of 210 community volunteers selected from each town in order to sustain malaria control and awareness interventions. As emergency response to current flood crises in towns 4 and 6 and potential similar situations in the remaining 10 towns during the coming months, UNICEF released financial support to conduct health education sessions targeting all 12 towns as well as communicable disease surveillance on-the-job training for health cadres in all towns. Additional cash assistance has been released to conduct refresher training for the six outbreak control teams in the state which will be technically facilitated by the epidemiology department of the Federal Ministry of Health. 5

6 UNICEF Business Continuity UNICEF s country office in Khartoum is at risk of inundation, as it is in a low-lying area adjacent to the Blue Nile River. A crisis management team has been convened to make preparations for business continuity should the banks of the river overflow. This team has focused on collecting early warning information on river levels, and on Government civil defence response; on ensuring continuity of basic business processes and IT services should the office be inaccessible; on ensuring communications and support to Khartoum office staff; and on maintaining capacity of for programme responses to address the humanitarian impacts of eventual flooding. Our current staff strength in Khartoum totals Consultants, with 43 vacant posts of which 12 candidates have been identified, while the remaining 31 are in various stages of recruitment. Other UNICEF offices in Sudan have not been directly affected, although road conditions have proved sometimes challenging in reaching programme beneficiaries. For more information, please contact: Geert Cappelaere Representative UNICEF Sudan +(249) Ext 300 gcappelaere@unicef.org Alessia Turco Chief of Field Operations UNICEF Sudan +(249) Ext 301 aturco@unicef.org Lone Hvass Chief of Communication UNICEF Sudan +(249) Ext 310 lhvass@unicef.org 6