Oxfam, Care International and Save the Children Rapid Assessment: Typhoon Durian, Tien Giang, December 06

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1 Oxfam, Care International and Save the Children Rapid Assessment: Typhoon Durian, Tien Giang, December 06 Summary: Needs of affected communities: Financial assistance so that they can repair the damaged houses. They also need to replace broken utensils. The affected families need money to buy food (vegetable fish in addition to rice to meet Sphere Minimum standards), baby food, clothes, education materials, cooking materials) and repair house. Water of well are disinfected which need to test and take appropriate actions The team thinks some communities need psycho-social support (counselling) for them to able to accept that there is life after the typhoon. Government Response: Allocated 3 million VND per household for all those households who lost a member during the typhoon and VND per person injured as a result of the typhoon billion has been advanced to districts by the province for food, rebuilding houses and tree/debris clearance and transportation. 12 kilograms of rice per person for people affected. At the time of assessment the team saw food donated by private institutions being repackaged for distribution to affected households and 200 boxes of instant noodles Government sent army personnel (from the medical) to help in treating water and the injured persons. 1. Background: Typhoon Durian hit the South Coastal provinces and Mekong delta of Vietnam on 5 th December. Till 10 December, the typhoon has claimed at least 98 deaths, 1,770 injured. There are 200,000 collapsed houses in which 34,000 fully collapsed, 853 class rooms collapsed, and 808 boats and ships sunk, and other livelihood sources. The most affected areas are Phu Qui Island Binh Thuan province, Ba Ria Vung Tau province, Ben Tre, Vinh Long, and Can Gio district- Ho Chi Minh City. Oxfam, Care International and Save the Children conducted a rapid assessment on7 th December, and they visited affected areas. Damages in Tien Giang province were comparatively less than the Ben Tre Province. The Provincial Government of Tien Giang thinks that they could manage urgent needs. Therefore, the assessment team gave more attention to Ben Tre Province to collect information and make recommendation. Assessment team visited two communes of Binh Dai district. 2. Damages: Ben Tre province recorded fifteen deaths as a result of typhoon Durian. Four hundred and seventy (470) were injured during the same time. The highest number of deaths was in Giong Trom district, which recorded six deaths and 77 injuries. This was followed by Binh Dai district, which recorded four deaths and 250 people injured. The assessment team was told that the number of deaths was kept low because of the 1

2 quick reaction of the district authorities. The district authorities evacuated people to safer structures like schools and offices before the typhoon arrived Typhoon Durian affected a number of households in Ben Tre province. A total of houses were completely destroyed while houses had there roofs blown off as of 6 December, The table below shows the districts most affected in terms of houses destroyed/collapsed and those houses that had the roofs blown off. District in Ben Tre province Giong Trom Ba Tri Binh Dai Houses collapsed Houses damaged/roofs blown away Houses collapsed: means the whole house was destroyed Houses damaged: means partially destroyed, roofs blown off in some cases Source: Ben Tre provincial people s committee, December The level of houses damaged ranged from 30 to 100% in Binh Dai district. The assessment team visited some communes in this district and observed that some households/families are sleeping in the open because all their houses were destroyed. The main profession of poor and nearly poor is selling labour. Because of typhoon there is no employment opportunities in the areas that poor can sell their labour. As situation of sea is rough due to another police is not permitting to go to sea to catch fish. Rich fishermen of affected areas have lost boasts, vessels and fishing nets as a result the Labourers have to wait until the rich fishermen buy boats and nets. 3) Market Situation: The roads are passable and the markets are working normally. Thus households that used to buy their food from the market before the storm continue to do so as long as they have the entitlements (money etc) to buy. The prices of major food items like rice have remained relatively stable in Ben Tre province. The observed increases in prices were in building materials and candles. For example in one commune of Binh Dai district the price of candles went up from 500 VND to 4000 VND (700%) and that for roofing material went up from to VND (57%). The increase in the price of lighting products like candles is a result of the electricity cuts because of the typhoon. Many households are using candles for lighting. The price of building material went up because a number of households are buying material to build some shelter. 4) Livelihoods: The main livelihoods in some Ben Tre province districts are shrimp farming, agricultural farming (coconut), petty trading, rice production, casual employment on shrimp. Most of these were not affected much by the typhoon with the exception of the coconut farming. It will take between 5 and 7 years for the affected coconut farmers to fully recover. 5) Water and sanitation: In some communes visited like Thinh Tri there is a shortage of fresh water. The communities used to get fresh water from some Australian charitable organisation. Some used to buy water from traders. At the time of assessment the source of fresh water was not working because of power cuts. Thus, there is a current water problem in this commune. It should be noted that fresh water has always been a problem in this area. Typhoon Durian worsened the situation. 2

3 Toilets in the area were said to be working although the possibility of toilets having been flooded by the typhoon in some areas are high. 6) School education: One hundred and nine schools were totally destroyed by typhoon Durian while 535 had the roofs blown off. At the time of assessment, pupils were not attending school in most areas. The local authorities thought some schools would open by 11 December. At the moment, the army is helping communities to roof classrooms and offices. On the day of assessment Thanh Tri commune had received 50 million VND to repair schools that were damaged. 7) Information gap: There is lack of information at the district and commune levels about assistance that is coming to them. This is could be because of the power and communication cuts as a result of the typhoon. At the time of assessment, the communes were only aware of assistance coming from private institutions and individuals. As of 8 December 2006 some communes in Ben Tre had not received anything from government. The assessment team observed that some communes do not have electricity. Teams of men were seen replacing electricity poles and lines. However, it appears that it will take some time before all these villages are connected again to the electricity grid. 8) Child Protection: The local authority in Thanh Tri took children away from their homes and housed them in safer buildings. However, some children did not go to these safe houses/buildings. 9) Needs of affected communities: The identified the following as their needs; Financial assistance so that they can repair the damaged houses. They also need to replace broken utensils. The affected families need money to buy food (vegetable fish in addition to rice), baby food, clothes, education materials, cooking materials) and repair house. Water of well are disinfected which need to test and take appropriate actions The team thinks some communities need psycho-social support (counselling) for them to able to accept that there is life after the typhoon 4. Government Response to meet needs: A) The provincial office has sent to central government a request of 319 billion VND to be used for reconstructing damaged houses, office blocks and schools. As the province awaits word from central government it has asked government to advance them with 50 billion VND for emergency support. From the 50 billion some of the money goes to those who lost relatives and the injured persons. This money will also be used to buy 810 tonnes of rice for the affected households. The rice will cover people. When provincial office receives the remaining money from central government it intends to give 5 million more to those with collapsed houses and 2 million more to those households whose houses had roofs blown off. 3 million VND per household for all those households who lost a member during the typhoon and VND per person injured as a result of the typhoon. 3

4 14.5 billion has been advanced to districts by the province for food, rebuilding houses and tree/debris clearance and transportation. 12 kilograms of rice per person for people affected. At the time of assessment the team saw food donated by private institutions being repackaged for distribution to affected households and 200 boxes of instant noodles Government sent army personnel (from the medical) to help in treating water and the injured persons. B) Local charitable organisations and individuals have started bringing in aid to the affected households. A Taiwanese organisation will donate money to 800 households. Each household will get 300,000 VND. 11) Recommendations 1. Provide cash relief to the poor households who have lost their daily income to buy food, buy emergency shelter materials, education materials, clothes, household essential materials. 2. Provide cash to the poor and nearly poor families to buy food in addition to rice, preparing emergency, housing materials education materials, clothes, medicine, 3. Save the children, Care International and Oxfam do not have much expertise in shelter. It is thus recommended that these findings be shared widely especially with those organisations that have expertise in shelter. Some of the organisations could be International Red Cross and Habitat. Findings in this report should also be shared with relevant governmental ministries. 4. There is a shortage of fresh water in some of the communes visited in Ben Tre province. It is recommended that government and Non Governmental Organisations intervene in the provision of fresh water so that communities do not start taking contaminated water. 5. Government and other stakeholders should provide basic utensils to the affected communities. It is important to find out the types of utensils lost by district/commune so as to provide relevant ones only. 6. This is the first time (for many people) to experience a disaster of this magnitude. It is recommended that institutions with expertise provide counselling/psycho-social support to the people affected. This will help these people to accept that typhoon Durian has come and gone and life still has to go on. 7. It is recommended that government and stakeholders continue to monitor the situation in Ben Tre province. This can be done through nutrition surveillance and market prices monitoring. 8. It is recommended to conduct livelihood assessment within a month and take further livelihood recovery actions Assessment Team Members: 1) Mr. Darias Sanyatwe- Oxfam 2) Ms Quang Oxfam 3) Ms An Oxfam 4) Ms Huong Oxfam 5) Mr. Huu Care International 6) Save the Children Representative 7) Provash Mondal Oxfam 4

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