SITUATION REPORT # 13. HAITI: Tropical Storm Hanna, Gustav, Ike update 17 September 2008

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1 NATIONS UNIES Bureau de la Coordination des Affaires Humanitaires ( OCHA ) UNITED NATIONS Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) SITUATION REPORT # 13 HAITI: Tropical Storm Hanna, Gustav, Ike update 17 September 2008 General Situation The situation continues to improve with a steady increase in the distribution of food and non-food items, particularly in the city of Gonaives. Assessments are being completed in affected areas with limited access so far, including areas in the departments of Artibonite, Nippes and the Southeast. Coordination with the government and within the international assistance community continues to improve, with the strengthening of the clusters. A key challenge is the provision of adequate assistance to people in temporary shelters and the planning of future steps for them. With the start of the school year early October, it will become urgent to free schools that are currently used as shelters. The dialogue with the government and the affected communities focuses on defining the appropriate policy, including options for temporary or semi-permanent shelters. An analysis of conditions in places of origin and the identification of possible options for resettlement are being discussed in meetings with government. Another important challenge is the need to continue focusing on early recovery activities in parallel with life-saving relief operations. Efforts to ensure access to affected population, to strengthen the temporary dykes of the river passing through Gonaives, the removal of debris/mud and immediate measures to address irrigation systems are becoming critical. In particular, the humanitarian community is emphasizing its concern about the fact that the lack of repair operations on bridges and roads is hampering life-saving relief operations. The extreme vulnerability at this stage of populations in affected regions three months before the end of the season constitutes the biggest concern of all. Heavy rains could produce disastrous consequences given the fact that coping mechanisms of populations are already stretched and that the environmental degradation is very high. The Ministry of Finance announced the suspension for a three month period (renewable) of some customs clearance formalities for food and non-food humanitarian assistance, as well as the establishment of special crisis management cells in all customs offices. Friday, a presentation in Haiti will be made jointly by the government and the UN system of the Flash Appeal.

2 Global Response Sectoral/ Cluster coordination The following coordination structure is currently operational in Haiti: Sector/cluster Governmental institutions Lead agency (UN and partners) Agriculture MARNDR FAO Coordination and support services MPCE OCHA Early recovery MPCE UNDP Education MEFP UNICEF Food assistance CNSA WFP Health MSPP PAHO/WHO Logistics WFP Protection UNICEF Shelter and Non-food items MAST/DPC IOM Water and sanitation DPSPE/MSPP UNICEF Within MINUSTAH, the Emergency Joint Operations Centre (EJOC) has completed its tasks. Clusters have now fully taken over the residual functions in terms of mobilizing mission assets. Information by sector/cluster Food Relief response to date: - Beneficiaries reached: 245,311 persons 2

3 - Tonnage distributed: 1,042MT Food assistance needs have been identified in Port de Paix and WFP is distributing today some 5,9MT of food assistance to 200 families in St-Louis du Nord in collaboration with DPC and Caritas. Some 100MT of food commodities are also being sent by boat from WFP stocks in Cap Haitien for distributions in Port de Paix. In the department of Sud, 24,000 families have been identified as being in need of WFP food assistance following the joint WFP/CSNA/partners mission, carried out over the past weekend. Food deliveries and distributions are being planned accordingly with Caritas and DPC. Under the new special air operation, WFP has contracted a Ukrainian crew of 20 pilots and four MA8 helicopters to facilitate food deliveries. They are expected to arrive this week. Gonaives: Distributions are being ramped up in Gonaives with two distributions per day (one at night, one during the night). With regard to stock replenishment a local barge has left Port au Prince today with 20 containers of WFP food and non-food-items from agency partners. In addition, 100MT of beans are being sent from Cap Haitien on boat to Gonaives. With rain still coming down, the people in Gonaives are having difficulties shoring up the banks of the river which keeps flooding. WFP has requested 200,000 sand bags from the US Army to try to strengthen the defense of the river. To date, WFP has distributed 316MT of food assistance (including 27MT of HEB) to some 151,590 beneficiaries in Gonaives. The WFP ICT team has now set up a VHF radio channel with interagency funds that is used by the UN. An operational interagency radioroom and cybercafé are now in place in Gonaives. WFP and local NGOs are working to launch a website with a Google map pinpointing where shelters and food distribution points are in the region as well as other relevant information. Assessments and missions WFP together with CNSA is carrying out an urban assessment in Port-au-Prince on high food prices. The methodology includes interviews with traders and street food vendors (results expected by end September). In addition, WFP and CNSA are conducting a household level survey in Port-au-Prince on high food prices (results expected by end October). Furthermore, an Emergency Food Security Assessment is being conducted throughout the country in collaboration with CNSA on the impact of the storms and hurricanes on food security and the agricultural sector. WFP staff have sent monitors to supervise ongoing food distributions in the departments of Artibonite, Ouest, Nippes, Sud, Sud-est and Nord-ouest. These missions allow WFP to coordinate with partners on the ground as well as monitor the food arrivals and distributions. 3

4 Table: WFP response to date (17 Sep 08 12:00) beneficiaries, tonnage, costs Bénéficiaires Tonnage Coût pour le PAM 245,311 1,042 MT Distribution Départements Bénéficiaires Tonnage (Vivres + HEB) $1,356,536 HEB seulement Ouest 14, MT 6 MT Port-au-Princ MT 0.2 MT e Grand Goave 2, MT 1.5 MT Petit Goave 4, MT 3.3 MT Leogane 1, MT 0.7 MT Cabaret 6, MT 0.0 MT Nord 0 0 MT 0 MT Nord-est 0 0 MT 0 MT Nord-ouest 8, MT 1 MT Port-de-Paix 7, MT 0.5 MT Chansolme MT 0.0 MT Artibonite 170, MT 35 MT Gonaïves 151, MT 26.7 MT Ennery 3, MT 3.8 MT Saint Marc 11, MT 4.0 MT Centre 0 0 MT 0 MT Sud 9, MT 0 MT Cayes 9, MT 0.0 MT Sud-est 34, MT 5 MT Jacmel 29, MT 4.6 MT Cayes Jacmel 1, MT 0.2 MT Bainet MT 0.0 MT Marigot 3, MT 0.0 MT Grand-anse 2, MT 0 MT Jérémie 2, MT 0.0MT Nippes 4, MT 0 MT Miragoane 4, MT 0.0 MT TOTAL 245,311 1, In the South, CARITAS continues distributions of WFP food. Chardonniere, Les Anglais and Tiburon have received 105 MT of food delivered by a Canadian ship. Nutrition There are no major concerns about the nutritional situation in Gonaives as food distributions are 4

5 reaching the whole population. It is however recommended to make an assessment of children under five (using MUAC) in all temporary shelters to identified at risk cases to be able to take action. MDM-Suisse from Grand Goave has reported that WFP food has not reached this isolated area that has been affected by the hurricane, neither with the regular program nor with emergency programs. There is an important concern about the nutritional status of this population (1,000 people). MDM-Suisse is doing an assessment to identify at-risk cases. Partners are actively doing rapid assessments on the nutritional status of children under five but for the moment there are no figures. Lack of partners and human resources prevent from having a good coverage particularly in the temporary shelters. MSPP is committed to involve reference hospitals in the 10 departments and the personnel in charge of nutritional recovery. UNICEF and partners will provide technical assistance. The challenge is the lack of partners working in the nutrition sector as well as the absence of partners in the South East and Nippes. Priorities are: the South (covered by Terres des Hommes), South East, Nippes, (No assessment plan for the moment). Other areas will be prioritized according to assessments. UNICEF has distributed, through its partners, therapeutic milk for 500 malnourished children in the West, South and Grand Anse Departments. This distribution aims to reinforce the capacity of the nutritional units already in place to face an expected increase of acute cases. 6,000 children will also benefit from Oral Rehydration Salts and high protein biscuits. High protein biscuits are distributed for the moment only through partners targeting children under five and breastfeeding and pregnant women. Assistance in the pipeline: in Gonaives, the plan is to coordinate with the Direction Sanitaire de l Artibonite and MSF-Belgique to find human resources and organize the distribution of supplementary food for most-at-risk groups, and to continue reinforcing nutritional units already in place. Assessments to take place: in Fonds de Blanc, Cité Soleil, Grand Goave, Gonaive, Bas Artibonite. In the South (South west coast) an assessment has been done but results are not available yet. Shelter and non-food items All shelters were closed in Les Cayes yesterday. Those sent home will be given a monthly dry food ration. No remaining homeless in the shelters for the department. In Nippes, there are 10 shelters still operational totaling 549 people. Most are those living around l'etang de Miragoane. 5

6 In Grande Anse, a number of 75 families are homeless due to their house being destroyed and shelters officially closed since last week. In Gonaives, the hygienic situation at some of the temporary centres is of great concern. At a meeting organized by the UNDAC Team with participation of the Representative of mayor of Gonaives, the Delegue Departemental of Artibonite, representatives from the education board, DPC, UNICEF, IOM, WHO OXFAM took place yesterday afternoon. The authorities stated that the repair works of the dikes along the river is of essential priority, to prevent further flooding and secondly is the cleaning of the city from mud and debris. Both programs could be organized through cash/food for work programs, supported with general distribution of material to the population, which would enable them to start cleaning of private houses. This work would allow a number of persons to return to their houses which would lower the needs for public shelters. The delegue departemental of Artibonite estimated that more than 50% of the people staying in temporarily shelters would return home as soon as access permitted, but they would require material for the cleaning of their houses It was agreed that people who had no house to return to, should be offered shelter of adequate quality. There is pressure to close the shelter in schools, while the school year will be starting shortly. For tomorrow IOM is scheduled to load 400 kitchen kits, 390 plastic sheets and 600 hygiene kits to Gonaives. Transport is organized by WFP and the cargo will be escorted by MINUSTAH. Shelter assessments are ongoing in Gonaives. Equally the assessment of the extent of the damage to buildings and houses is supported by the team working in Gonaives. The organization SAMARITAN'S PURSE is currently undertaking assessments in the North West and will report their finding in the cluster meeting on Thursday 18. The sanitary conditions are rapidly deteriorating in the shelters in Gonaives with many emerging skin infections and water borne diseases caused by the absence of an adequate sewage system and waste disposal system. Information gathered from organizations in the field indicates that the numbers of people in shelters elsewhere in the country is decreasing. However access to several places is still not possible and though water levels have receded, many struggle with a considerable damage to the private homes caused by mud and debris. Health In Gonaives, partners in the health cluster are in average facilitating a total of 1,000 consultations per day. There is currently a shortage of bandages and PSF has been requested to take the lead in identifying channels for provision of further material. The MSF field hospital should, according to plan, be arriving in Gonaives this morning, and 6

7 should be fully operational within the next days. Education The school start, which will take place on October 6 th, poses major challenges for the sector. Many infrastructures have been destroyed, damaged or have seen loss in material and furniture. Many families and children have lost everything and will not be able to afford school costs. Furthermore, many schools are used as temporary shelters. There have been partial assessments conducted by the Ministry of education. At least seven out of ten departments have seen assessments. Preliminary assessments have been made by some organizations in the field and information is shared and coordinated with the Ministry of education. Decision-making requires more detailed assessments. Estimates and analysis of the number of children affected is needed as well as information on regions not yet accessible, and financing according to identified needs should be provided. Immediate priorities (before October 6 th ): - Disengagement of schools used as shelters - Installation of temporary schools or education activities - School furniture, school kits - Cleaning and minor rehabilitations Medium and long term priorities: - Rehabilitation of school and watsan infrastructure - Rebuilding of school rooms or destroyed schools Bottlenecks are: - The lack of availability of some partners to ensure better coordination and sharing of information in intervention zones. - Lack of precise information on children affected and damage - Difficulty to make intervention priorities due to lack of precise information Logistics The stock of non food items in Gonaives is running short. Additional supplies of NFI is planned to arrive in Gonaives. WFP requested the receiving organisations to organise immediate distribution, while there is not enough capacity for storage at the warehouse. The WFP Emergency radio room has now been established at the MINUSTAH base offering to facilitate the radio communication of the agencies in the area. Staff members deployed to the area should be issued with a VHF radio, which can be programmed to fit the network at the radio room. In the logistics cluster meeting, the point was made that it is essential to inform the cluster of all vessel movements to Gonaives for coordination purposes in order to avoid congestion. 7

8 Next meeting will take place on Monday at 11:00. For more information, see the logistics cluster webpage on Haiti: Water and Sanitation Assistance continues to reach the field (jerrycans, water purification tablets, hygiene kits, etc.). In Gonaives, the daily production of drinking water has now reached a total of 215,000 l/day and plan to receive 500,000 l pr day is still on target. The cluster partners have in cooperation with the OSOCC organized mapping of all water distribution point in Gonaives which now is available at the OSOCC. The activities in the cluster are coordinated with SNEP (The water board of Gonaives) OXFAM, MSF and ACF in cooperation with the local authorities initiate a sanitation program in city aiming at providing adequate sanitation facilities to the affected population. WFP has now a water engineer on-site, who will be able to assist the partners in the WASH cluster. In the rest of the country, the departments of the South and South-East seem to have been the most affected. Access is still very limited in some communes such as: Tiburon, Les Anglais, Port-à-Piment, Coteaux, Roches à Bateau, etc. Drinking water and NFIs will be sent this week. Priority areas are Artibonite, South-East, South and West. Priority activities are the rehabilitation of damaged infrastructure, watsan interventions in destroyed and damaged schools, communication on hygiene and health and intersectoral interventions. In South-East, a group in Marigot (GRAP/M) reports that all the irrigation and drinking water systems are destroyed in the commune of Marigot. Assessments A UNDAC-DPC-OPS-Terres des Hommes-Caritas-World Vision-MDM France-IOM-MINUSTAH HDCS joint assessment in Les Cayes did not observe any major damage to crops. Nevertheless, the limited stocks available combined with the increase in food prices might trigger a progressive food shortage until the next harvest season. The areas assessed in the department were: from Port Salut to Port a Piment, Camp Perrin direction Maniche, St Louis du Sud, Fonds de Blancs) A UNDAC-DPC-FACT joint assessment took place yesterday in Nippes. The team was composed of an engineer from the Government s Civil Protection, three members of FACT, one UNDAC and one HDCS-Minustah. The mission flew by helicopter over the city of Miragoane and over the coastal communes of Petite Rivière de Nippes, Anse-a-Veau and Petit Trou de Nippes. Afterwards the team met with the Departmental Delegate. 8

9 The critical need is to re-open road communications to the four departments of the Southern peninsula. The mission saw that the bridge at the entry to Miragoane is completely submerged by water from the Miragoane lake. An in-depth assessment mission of the European Commission s Monitoring and Information Centre is taking place today at the lake. The Delegate said that WFP has provided food and high-energy biscuits but more assistance is needed in terms of food, water purification, hygiene kits, kitchen sets and blankets. He said there are currently 136 families still in temporary shelters, 127 of which are in the 1 st section of Miragoane. Tropical Storm Gustav caused the majority of damage and agriculture is the hardest-hit sector together with a significant loss of livestock. As of today there are four inaccessible communes in Nippes Plaisance and L Asile (road repairs are underway) and the coastal communes of Anse-a-Veau and Petit Trou de Nippes due to high river level. There are 2800 affected families in Nippes. As a result of this evaluation, the German Red Cross will target 500 families with family kits (hygiene kits, kitchen sets, blankets and moskito nets). The Canadian and German Red Cross are also seeking to provide additional family kits. The Haitian Red Cross has distributed 200 hygiene kits in Anse-à-Veau and 100 hygiene kits and 100 mosquito nets in Petit Trou de Nippes. These stocks were prepositioned by the Canadian Red Cross. Also in Nippes, a team composed of DDAST / HRC / DDEnvironment / HDCS conducted a field mission to Barradere yesterday accessible since early last week. A number of 192 food ration packs from Fondation l'espoir were distributed. Reported that the water system was damaged and the population is purifying the water with tabs / Clorox. The Northern area of the town is inaccessible due to road being damaged. The mission did not investigate the health situation said to that this section is under the jurisdiction of Sud department. A UNDAC-DPC-FACT joint assessment was carried out today in three communes of Artibonite (Saint-Michel, L Estere, Petite Rivière de l Artibonite). In the Southern part of Artibonite, inland there is some damage to crops but no immediate threats to life. In L Estere, fields are still flooded, meaning sever damage to crops. Road Conditions Artibonite: The road between PAP and Gonaives is reopened. Two MINUSTAH trucks managed to make the trip in five hours today. South: Access by road is now possible to Les Anglais. Tiburon will remain inaccessible due to a destroyed bridge. Nippes: The bridge a l Etang de Miragoane is passable with difficulty by heavy trucks. The TPTC 9

10 is looking into ways to clear the debris obstructing the evacuation of water. A deviation of the road is being looked into. Demonstrations are held today in Chalon on Rt Nat'l #2 to pressure the GoH to tend to this issue ASAP. Grande Anse: Only Carcasse in Les Irois is inaccessible by road. All other areas said to be accessible now. Security International staff working in Gonaives is allowed to find private accommodation outside the MINUSTAH camp but are required to be equipped with VHF radio, participation in the daily security call check and to have an emergency food ration at their location. It was further stated that the organisations hiring local staff need to organise badges for these staff member in order for them to be identifiable when entering the camp. It should further be noted, that staff deployed to Gonaives should be self-sufficient, while the influx of humanitarian workers is placing a heavy burden on the MINUSTAH facilities. Identification of more permanent solutions for office and accommodation should be considered by the agencies. Inputs for the situation report can be sent to: Laura Fultang, UNOCHA, fultangl@un.org For further information, please contact: Port au Prince: Manuela Gonzalez, UNOCHA, gonzalez8@un.org, Tel : Gonaives: René Wagemans, UNDAC Team Leader, Tel: Reports and maps about the situation in Haiti can be found on: MapAction page on Haiti: 10

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