http://www.irinnews.org/irin-fp.aspxUpdated everydayen-gbFri, 20 Nov 2009 09:14:47 GMTBARGUNA Friday, November 20, 2009 (IRIN) - Two years after Cyclone Sidr hit the southern coastal districts of Bangladesh, many of the survivors are still homeless and at severe risk from further disasters, officials say.BARGUNA Friday, November 20, 2009 (IRIN) - Two years after Cyclone Sidr hit the southern coastal districts of Bangladesh, many of the survivors are still homeless and at severe risk from further disasters, officials say.
 
Cyclone Sidr lashed the southern coastal regions of Bangladesh on 15 November 2007. Thirty districts were affected, with more than 3,400 deaths. Damage to property, livestock and crops was estimated at US$1.7 billion, with half of that in the housing sector, according to the government.
 
Despite aid efforts, victims still complain of a lack of assistance to rebuild their homes, while officials say more cyclone shelters are needed to protect communities from future storms.
 
Meanwhile, crucial work to prevent flooding remains under-funded.
 
Because of the country's low-lying deltaic topography, the southern coastal areas are extremely vulnerable to floods, high tides and cyclonic storm surges.
 
Extensive flood embankment networks provide this region with critical protection from these natural calamities, but Sidr damaged a large part, leaving the inhabitants of six coastal districts vulnerable to tidal waves and storm surges.
 
According to the Bangladesh Water Development Board (BWDB), which maintains these embankments, about 46 percent or 2,341km of the 5,107km of flood embankments protecting the southern regions were partially or completely destroyed by Sidr.
 
Repair work to the embankments has yet to begin properly, with a lack of funding cited as the primary reason. About $100 million is required, according to BWDB estimates.
 
“We have yet to receive the funds to start the repair works on the flood embankments. The process is going on and hopefully within a short time we will be able to start repairing the embankments,” Abdur Rab, BWDB’s senior engineer in Barisal district, told IRIN.
 
Of the six coastal districts affected by Sidr, Barguna was worst hit. Most of its flood embankments were washed away and the people are faced with the daily predicament of tidal seawater inundating their land.
 
“Every day, during the tides, brackish seawater gets into the croplands, fouling up the fertile topsoil,” Abdul Mazid, BWDB’s executive engineer in Barguna district, told IRIN.
 
“Soil salinity is increasing alarmingly. Almost 1,400ha of croplands in Barguna are regularly inundated by seawater,” he said. “The entire southern coastal region is now vulnerable because of the damaged embankments.”
 
Lacking proper shelter
 
“Nearly half a million people who were displaced by Sidr are still without proper housing and need rehabilitation,” said Abul Kashem, national councillor with the Bangladesh Red Crescent Society (BDRCS).
 
In Bagerhat district, farmer Jainal Abedin, 30, said he lost his father, his home and all his possessions to Sidr.
 
“I am still living in a hovel made of plastic sheets and debris. I spent the 5,000 taka [$73], given to me by the NGOs for rebuilding my home, on food,” Abedin, who lives in the area of Sharankhola, told IRIN.
 
“It has been two years since the cyclone, but I still don’t know what the future holds for me and my family,” he said.

The BDRCS is working with the International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies (IFRC), which has built 1,250 cyclone core shelters, sturdier homes that can withstand a cyclone.
 
According to the government’s Local Government Engineering Department (LGED), the district of Bagerhat is also woefully lacking in proper cyclone protection shelters.
 
And for the 550,000 people living at risk in Barguna, at least 490 cyclone protection shelters are required, say LGED sources.
 
At present, there are 113 cyclone protection shelters in the district, which can support only 140,000 people.
 
“Ours is an extremely disaster-prone area, but the number of cyclone protection centres is minimal,” Kamal Uddin, chairman of Sharankhola sub-district council in Bagerhat, told IRIN. “The number … must be increased to minimize human casualties during natural disasters.”  
 
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http://www.irinnews.org/report.aspx?ReportId=87126BANGKOK Thursday, November 19, 2009 (IRIN) - Indonesia’s West Sumatra province, recently hit by a deadly 7.9 magnitude earthquake, is likely to experience an even bigger quake, and buildings need to be constructed to withstand this, experts say.BANGKOK Thursday, November 19, 2009 (IRIN) - Indonesia’s West Sumatra province, recently hit by a deadly 7.9 magnitude earthquake [http://www.irinnews.org/Report.aspx?ReportId=86480], is likely to experience an even bigger quake, and buildings need to be constructed to withstand this, experts say.
 
The 30 September earthquake, which struck off West Sumatra’s coast, hit the provincial capital of Padang, killing more than 1,100 people and leaving numerous collapsed and damaged buildings.
 
As a result, 45 engineers from Australia, New Zealand and Singapore, funded by the intergovernmental Australia-Indonesia Facility for Disaster Reduction, undertook a three-week survey of 4,000 buildings in the quake zone.

“Essentially we were looking at factors that have basically either contributed to their failure from the ground shaking, or also the factors that have contributed to … some structures not being impacted,” Matthew Hayne from Geoscience Australia and co-leader of the team, told IRIN.
 
“Some recent studies indicate there is a big [likelihood] of having an 8.5 earthquake in the next decade … Our building codes should consider this potential event,” said Wayan Sengara from the Center for Disaster Mitigation at the Institute of Technology Bandung in Indonesia, and co-leader of the survey team.
 
The survey has identified the need for technical advice and education for home builders, while there are also several engineering recommendations, including the proper use of reinforcement and concrete.
 
The results, which are being passed to Indonesia’s National Disaster Management Agency, are intended to help build safer buildings during the reconstruction phase.
 
“One of the driving factors behind the survey that we’re doing here and the recommendations … relate to the fact that there is a high probability that the future event, when it occurs, will be a tsunamigenic event as well as that earthquake,” said Hayne.
 
Preparing for the next disaster
 
The Indonesian government has put the number of severely and moderately damaged houses at 181,665, according to the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs' (OCHA) latest situation report on 3 November. Ten hospitals, 272 health facilities and 1,078 schools were damaged.
 
The survey team, assisted by university engineering students, focused on medical facilities and schools.
 
Sengara said building codes - which needed to be updated; the extent of compliance of building designs to the codes; and, in turn, the compliance of construction to building designs, were all factors that played into the extent of damage.
 
“Most of the buildings we surveyed [that] experienced some damage were constructed before 2002. So the construction behind the design of the building, and also the construction quality, seems to be one of the contributors to the damage,” he said.
 
He warned of an “accumulated risk” if the survey’s recommendations were not followed through, but also flagged difficulties with enforcing compliance with building codes, even if they were updated.
 
“This is an issue in many provinces in Indonesia. What happens is that the compliance of the design to the building code is not well enforced by the government,” said Sengara.
 
“Before the building can be constructed, there is supposed to be a building permit and before issuing this building permit, there should be some requirements. The compliance of the design to the building code has to be reviewed. And in the current situation, this process is weak,” he said.
 
Indonesia is part of the Pacific Ring of Fire, which is vulnerable to seismic activity because tectonic plates meet there. West Sumatra’s low-lying coastline faces the Indian Ocean and the province has been called a “supermarket” for disasters, earthquakes and tsunamis by local officials.

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http://www.irinnews.org/report.aspx?ReportId=87111BANGKOK Wednesday, November 18, 2009 (IRIN) - The UN has warned of serious health risks and food security problems over a lack of funding to assist the Philippines after the country was hit by three major storms and typhoons.BANGKOK Wednesday, November 18, 2009 (IRIN) - The UN has warned of serious health risks and food security problems over a lack of funding to assist the Philippines after the country was hit by three major storms and typhoons.

“The emergency response is being hampered by low levels of funding, particularly in areas such as agriculture, protection, shelter and education of children,” Jacqueline Badcock, the UN Resident and Humanitarian Coordinator for the Philippines, said in a statement on 18 November.

The UN launched a flash appeal for US$74 million in Manila on 7 October after tropical storm Ketsana flooded the nation’s capital and outlying regions in late September.

Before the country could recover, Typhoon Parma hit on 3 October, and then Typhoon Mirinae on 31 October, bringing widespread damage and misery. The additional devastation, which has affected 10 million people, led to a revised appeal (see: http://www.reliefweb.int/rw/rwb.nsf/db900sid/EDIS-7XUQ73?OpenDocument) this week of $143.7 million from humanitarian agencies.

Donors have only handed over $26 million in funding to date – about 36 percent of the original $74 million requested, or 18.6 percent of the revised $143.7 million, according to the UN.

If funding levels do not increase substantially, about 1.7 million people living in or displaced from areas that are still flooded face serious health and protection risks, warned Badcock’s office.

Some 350,000 people may not be able to return to or rebuild their homes and more than one million children may not be able to resume their education, it said.

The disasters severely affected the critical planting season in Northern Luzon, the country’s main agricultural region, and preliminary assessments cited in the revised appeal showed some 100,000-120,000 farming households had lost 100 percent of their production and assets.

“The November planting season might be missed, which has longer-term implications for food security,” the statement added.

In a separate interview, Badcock told IRIN that donors had been waiting for more information about the scale of damage caused, and that the first appeal had not fully assessed the extent of the devastation.

“The extent of the appeal and the damage was not really well understood by everybody until all the assessments were done,” she said.

“This revised [appeal] has a lot more analysis … we hope it will provide more clarity and confidence to the donors that these are real needs."

Early recovery

The total revised amount of $143,774,080 will cover the immediate and early recovery needs of 4.2 million people, including more than 520,000 children under the age of five. This is twice the population covered under the original appeal.

The revised appeal is planned to run until March 2010 and is being presented on 18 November to donors and the government in Manila, UN officials said.

“The urgent needs remain the people who live in evacuation centres, who need continuing assistance with food and shelter,” said Badcock.

“Then there are farms where the water is going down. We need to get those farmers rehabilitated and planting out for the next season, and their families need food for the next three months because they lost their harvest,” she said.

“Water and sanitation remain critical, particularly in the flooded areas, where there are huge Filariasis [http://www.who.int/topics/filariasis/en/] and Dengue [http://www.who.int/topics/dengue/en/] concerns.”

Early recovery efforts are needed to assist people in restoring their livelihoods, as well as fully restoring schools that are damaged or being used as evacuation centres, she said.

The appeal is being made by UN agencies, NGOs, the International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies (IFRC) and the International Organization for Migration (IOM).

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http://www.irinnews.org/report.aspx?ReportId=87094MUZZAFARABAD Sunday, November 15, 2009 (IRIN) - Rameesha Butt, 12, remembers being trapped in her classroom as the horror of the October 2005 earthquake that killed at least 73,000 people in the North West Frontier Province (NWFP) and Pakistan-administered Kashmir unfolded around her.MUZZAFARABAD Sunday, November 15, 2009 (IRIN) - Rameesha Butt, 12, remembers being trapped in her classroom as the horror of the October 2005 earthquake that killed at least 73,000 people in the North West Frontier Province (NWFP) and Pakistan-administered Kashmir unfolded around her.

“Our school was very old, and many of the walls collapsed. I was not hurt badly, but it was terrifying to see bricks and mortar fall all around us. Some pupils were trapped under the rubble,” Rameesha told IRIN.

According to government estimates, the quake damaged or destroyed 6,000 schools – making up around 52 percent of schools in the quake-affected area. Some 17,000 students and 900 teachers were killed in classrooms.

For years after the quake, children have studied in makeshift classrooms. Now, under an initiative by the UN Children’s Fund (UNICEF) and the Earthquake Relief and Rehabilitation Authority (ERRA) in conjunction with the Ministry of Education, 100 new schools have been built and handed over to provincial authorities.

The new schools are more spacious than the ones they replace, with at least one square metre of classroom space per child. Hand-washing stations have also been set up to promote good hygiene. Under the ‘build back better’ motto adopted after the quake, the new schools are also designed to be earthquake resistant and to offer a more child-friendly learning environment.

“Our aim is to ensure children receive the best possible education,” Syed Fawad Ali Shah, emergency education officer for UNICEF Pakistan, said. He said teachers at the schools had been trained in child-friendly teaching methods and corporal punishment had been banned.

“Not scared anymore”

Pupils of Government Girls Primary School Mohajir Colony in Muzaffarabad, capital of Pakistan-administered Kashmir, are among those who now have a brand new school. The girls, who for months after the quake had huddled in a freezing tent-school, were visibly excited about their new earthquake-resistant building.

“We are not scared anymore because this is a new building, not like our old school,” Shahzia Ali Lone, a fourth grade student, said.

Parents across the area hit by the quake are also relieved that their children can go to school in safety. “For over a year after 2005, I was scared of sending our three children to school. So many children had died in classroom collapses, but now there are better schools for them and we are confident they will receive a good education,” Aziz Ahmed, 40, said.

“There is no greater investment in the future of a country than an investment in the education of the children” Luc Chauvin, deputy representative for UNICEF Pakistan, said. “In partnership with ERRA, the Ministry of Education and provincial authorities, we have not just constructed schools, but have taken an important step toward ensuring that children in the areas affected by the 2005 earthquake have access to a higher quality education than ever before.”

kh/edhttp://www.irinnews.org/report.aspx?ReportId=87042BANGKOK Friday, November 13, 2009 (IRIN) - A recent spate of natural disasters in Asia has further underscored the importance of breastfeeding during emergencies, with a need for additional policies to support this.BANGKOK Friday, November 13, 2009 (IRIN) -  A recent spate of natural disasters in Asia has further underscored the importance of breastfeeding during emergencies, with a need for additional policies to support this.
 
Hundreds of thousands were displaced and forced into evacuation shelters following a series of deadly typhoons in the Philippines, Cambodia, Vietnam and Laos, and an earthquake in Indonesia in the past two months.
 
But according to experts, during such disasters, support for mothers to breastfeed is often overlooked and not given the priority it needs, despite its life-saving function.
 
Besides raising awareness of the importance of breastfeeding, aid organizations need to have policies on infant feeding, they say.

“You have to have a strong policy in place, and make sure all the actors and all the staff in that organization know about this policy,” Anna Winoto, a nutrition specialist with the UN Children’s Fund (UNICEF) in Indonesia, told IRIN.
 
In emergency situations, poor water and sanitation and security situations contribute to a heightened risk of disease among children, who are vulnerable to diarrhoea, malnutrition and pneumonia.
 
Practices such as using infant formula milk, when water may be contaminated and feeding bottles cannot be sterilized, contributes to the risk and has been shown to lead to an increase in diarrhoeal disease in infants.
 
“Breastfeeding is actually even more crucial under emergency conditions because children under five, and infants in particular, are at an increased risk of infection, disease and malnutrition,” Winoto said.
 
“Breastfeeding should be seen as a life-saving intervention,” she said.
 
In an emergency situation, establishing private spaces for mothers and infants, one-to-one counselling and mother-to-mother support is needed to encourage breastfeeding, say UNICEF and the World Health Organization (WHO).
 
“As part of emergency preparedness, hospitals and other healthcare services should have trained health workers who can help mothers establish breastfeeding and overcome difficulties,” said WHO Director-General Margaret Chan in a statement to mark World Breastfeeding Week in August.
 
Both UNICEF and WHO advocate exclusive breastfeeding for children up to six months of age, and continued breastfeeding and complementary feeding until age two.
 
Dangerous donations
 
But one obstacle to breastfeeding during emergencies is unsolicited or uncontrolled donations of breast-milk substitutes, which undermine breastfeeding, according to UNICEF and WHO.

Following a 7.9 magnitude earthquake in West Sumatra on 30 September, UNICEF Indonesia, worked with the country’s Health Ministry, and contacted local and national radio stations to broadcast requests to stop milk-substitute donations.
 
“It’s a huge problem, and the problem lies in the lack of knowledge among the donors on the potential harm,” said Winoto.
 
Meanwhile, coordination in emergencies also remains a challenge, with little capacity to locate only those children who truly need infant formula and not disrupt breastfeeding practices, she said.
 
“In our experience, it’s gotten better but it’s still a huge challenge because there are so many actors when an emergency comes, and so many donations,” she said.
 
Helping with trauma
 
Besides the health benefits, breastfeeding advocates underline the psycho-social benefit of maintaining the activity during an emergency, which is traumatic for babies and young children, experts say.
 
“In an emergency, keeping the baby on the breast is not only about nutrition, it is giving the child that security and closeness when it is scared,” Elvira Henares-Esguerra, director of the Philippine NGO Children for Breastfeeding, [http://breastfeedingphilippines.com/cfb.html] told IRIN.
 
In the aftermath of Typhoon Ketsana, which caused massive flooding in the Philippines in September, Henares-Esguerra and a handful of breastfeeding mothers with their children visited an evacuation centre.
 
They demonstrated breastfeeding practices, and encouraged displaced mothers to do the same.
 
“We discovered that infant formula was being given out by the government at evacuation centres,” said Henares-Esguerra.
 
“We wanted to encourage the mothers to breastfeed,” she said.

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http://www.irinnews.org/report.aspx?ReportId=87020WAJIR Friday, November 13, 2009 (IRIN) - Khadijah Ibrahim is a mother of six in the northeastern Kenyan district of Wajir East. The area has suffered recurrent droughts and is now facing the risk of flooding from El-Nino rains. For now, however, the effects of the drought continue to be felt, as Khadijah told IRIN: WAJIR Friday, November 13, 2009 (IRIN) - Khadijah Ibrahim is a mother of six in the northeastern Kenyan district of Wajir East. The area has suffered recurrent droughts and is now facing the risk of flooding from El-Nino rains. For now, however, the effects of the drought continue to be felt, as Khadijah told IRIN:

"My husband, who is a nomadic pastoralist, moved away with the livestock when the drought became very serious and some of the animals started dying, but we are hopeful that he will return now that the rains have started.

"When he left, my children and I were left behind as usual. We could not go with him as the children were already enrolled in school here.

"Sometimes my husband is gone for long but he always sends back some money from the grazing fields for the upkeep of the family. He sends the money with the drivers along the highway.

"But the money has been reducing as some of the livestock died along the way. Now my husband has been sending me less money yet the prices of food have gone up because of the drought.

"The children are not able to get milk since all the cows have moved away. With the drought, the price of milk from goats, cows and camels has all gone up. We are now buying a litre of goat’s milk at 120 shillings [US$1.6]. Camel milk, which used to be the cheapest, is now selling at about 70 shillings [90 US cents].

"But we are expecting the price of milk to go down, as with the rains, the animals will return.

"The price of food is still high with a kilogram of maize flour now selling at 80 shillings [$1.06] - up from 60 [80 US cents] in September. The price of meat, milk and vegetables has also gone up.

"Getting food is hard for most families here in Wajir but I would say that I am a little luckier as I live closer to the town [Wajir]."

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http://www.irinnews.org/report.aspx?ReportId=87025LAMU Thursday, November 12, 2009 (IRIN) - Eight people have died on the Kenyan district of Lamu and others have been hospitalized following a suspected outbreak of acute watery diarrhoea (AWD), an official said.LAMU Thursday, November 12, 2009 (IRIN) - Eight people have died on the Kenyan district of Lamu and others have been hospitalized following a suspected outbreak of acute watery diarrhoea (AWD), an official said.

The spread of AWD could be attributed to recent floods in the area which have seen people displaced, said Lamu District Medical Officer Mitwani Bijuma.

The most affected areas were Langoni, Mkomani, Kandahar and Kijitoni.

Lamu principal chief Jamal Mzee Fangupi told IRIN street food vendors and social gatherings had been banned, and hygiene awareness programmes were in place, to curb the spread of the disease.

Recent floods have left thousands homeless in Lamu and the neighbouring districts of Malindi and Magarini.

jk/aw/cbhttp://www.irinnews.org/report.aspx?ReportId=87001RUDAKI Wednesday, November 11, 2009 (IRIN) - Six months after floods hit parts of southern-central Tajikistan, damaging or destroying dozens of schools and other buildings, hundreds of students are still attending school in overcrowded and sometimes unsafe buildings, according to local teachers and officials.RUDAKI Wednesday, November 11, 2009 (IRIN) - Six months after floods hit parts of southern-central Tajikistan, damaging or destroying dozens of schools and other buildings, hundreds of students are still attending school in overcrowded and sometimes unsafe buildings, according to local teachers and officials.

One of the affected schools is in Rudaki District: “We have two classrooms in a damaged building. It is not safe; it is dangerous, but we don’t have any other option,” Huseyn Toshev, headmaster of School No. 12 in Rudaki, told IRIN.

In some of the classrooms two pupils share a chair, or three are squeezed onto two chairs - unheard of in normal circumstances. “We now operate three shifts. We have 828 pupils being taught in two buildings, while the planned capacity is for only 300,” Toshev said.

The shift system meant teachers and pupils had no time for lunch breaks, he added.

“The old part of the school [where there are two classrooms for younger pupils] was built in 1927. It is not fit for purpose and unsafe. It should be demolished and a new one built,” he said. “We pray there is no quake and hope nothing happens.”

Shamigul Murodova, a teacher at School No. 38 in Sangtuda village, Rudaki District, said the school was built in the 1930s and parts of the walls collapsed during the floods. “We used to have 11 classes, with two shifts of pupils. After the floods we have three classes with 595 pupils studying in three shifts,” she said.

Mavjuda Boboeva, deputy head of the Rudaki District administration, told IRIN the floods affected 10 schools in the district, four of which were badly damaged.

“Those four schools are in a dangerous condition. If there is a four degree earthquake they will collapse,” Boboyeva said.

“In one school, the beams are rotten and if there is snow, the roof will collapse. There are other schools in very poor condition, but no funds for rebuilding. We ask donors and international organizations to help,” she said.

According to the local met office, over 50 floods and mudflows affected more than 12,000 people in April-May 2009, with the districts of Khuroson, Pyanj and Qumsangir in Khatlon Province and Nurobod, Rudaki and Rasht districts (administered directly by central government), the worst affected.

More than 2,000 buildings, including 13 hospitals and 70 schools were partially or totally damaged, according to the 12 August Early Recovery Appeal - Tajikistan Floods and Mudflows http://www.reliefweb.int/rw/RWFiles2009.nsf/FilesByRWDocUnidFilename/MYAI-7VA9UY-full_report.pdf/$File/full_report.pdf by the Rapid Emergency Assessment and Coordination Team (a local team comprising government bodies, UN agencies and NGOs).

Stalled aid

Italian NGO CESVI has drafted a US$950,000 project (as part of the Early Recovery Appeal) to rebuild three education facilities destroyed by floods in Zaynabobod, Guliston and Lohur local councils in Rudaki District, but there has been no response from donors so far.

Asked about why donors have not been generous, UN Resident Coordination Michael Jones said donors were more eager to fund humanitarian emergency projects.

“Each donor has its own policies, its own criteria that it has to apply. Some projects fit the criteria some don’t. The whole aid world over the years has become compartmentalized [such] that you have your emergency assistance, your humanitarian assistance, then you have your recovery envelope where funding facilities are very limited,” Jones said.

at/cbhttp://www.irinnews.org/report.aspx?ReportId=86976THANDAIT Tuesday, November 10, 2009 (IRIN) - Before the devastation of Cyclone Nargis in May 2008, Cho Tuu, 30, never found it hard to make ends meet, but these days he struggles to feed his family. THANDAIT Tuesday, November 10, 2009 (IRIN) - Before the devastation of Cyclone Nargis in May 2008, Cho Tuu, 30, never found it hard to make ends meet, but these days he struggles to feed his family.
 
Without any fishing equipment, Cho Tuu is forced to pay the equivalent of US$15 per month to hire a boat, and to hand over three-quarters of his catch to the owner of the fishing net that he rents.
 
"Some months, I can barely make enough money to even pay for hiring the boat," said the father of two school-age children from his makeshift hut in Thandait village in the Ayeyarwady Delta, the area worst hit by Nargis.
 
Though Cho Tuu has been expecting fishing equipment from humanitarian agencies for more than 17 months, no assistance has come yet.
 
Like Cho Tuu, officials say thousands of fishermen are still unable to restore their livelihoods because of a lack of aid following Cyclone Nargis, which left nearly 140,000 people dead or missing, and 2.4 million affected.
 
After paddy planting, fishing is the second largest source of income for households in the Ayeyarwady Delta, a labyrinth of rivers, ponds and waterways.
 
For 20 percent of Nargis-affected households, full-time fishing is the primary source of income, according to the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) in Myanmar.
 
Tesfai Ghermazien, the FAO’s senior emergency and rehabilitation coordinator in Myanmar, said it would take 3-5 years to fully restore the livelihoods of cyclone-affected fishermen.
 
"Very few [fishermen], if any, are back to normal," Ghermazien told IRIN.
 
Although the main sources of livelihood in the Delta are farming, fish and livestock, these sub-sectors were the least funded in the Cyclone Nargis response, he said.

According to the FAO, 1,550 marine fishing vessels, 50 percent of small inland fishing boats (i.e. about 100,000 out of 200,000), and 70 percent of fishing gear were destroyed by Nargis.

ASEAN review
 
A review of recovery efforts by the Myanmar government, the UN, and the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) released in July this year (see: http://unic.un.org/imucms/Dish.aspx?loc=80&pg=384) found that livelihoods remain insecure in the worst-affected townships of  Ayeyarwady and Yangon divisions.
 
It said that the townships of Bogale, Labutta, Mawlamyinegyun and Pyapon in the delta’s south - where fishing is the predominant income source - had experienced the highest percentage of losses of fishing gear.
 
However, on average, only 6 percent of surveyed households in these four townships reported receiving fishing gear as a relief item. Only 11 percent of the surveyed households reported receiving boats, although 33 percent of them said they considered a boat as a pressing need to restore their livelihood activity, said the review.
 
A third Post-Nargis Periodic Review is expected at the end of 2009.
 
Equipment lacking
 
In an effort to help cyclone-affected fishermen restore their livelihoods, FAO and its cooperating agencies have distributed about 5,000 boats, and some 130,000 sets of different types of fishing gear, mainly nets and traps.
 
The Department of Fisheries has also distributed over 10,000 boats with nets and gear.
 
Before the end of the year, FAO plans to hand over 200 boats which are expected to have a longer life than most common boats now being built. It will also distribute a few thousand boats next year.
 
In the meantime, though, most cyclone-affected fishermen complain that they still do not have enough equipment.
 
"There are 154 fishermen in our fishing village, most of whom lost their fishing gear in the cyclone," said Aung Myo, the head of Thandait Village. "But, so far we just got 14 fishing boats and gear."
 
Besides being forced to hire equipment or take out loans to buy gear, fishermen have complained of the burden of paying for boats distributed by the government, said Aung Myo.
 
He said the cost of the fishing boat and gear - nearly the equivalent of US$360 - had to be paid back in four installments.
 
Other complaints include those about the equipment distributed. Some say the nets they received were inappropriate - those who fish in rivers were given nets for sea fishing, and vice-versa. Some boats distributed have also been found wanting.
 
“The fishing boat I received was quite small,” said Tint Swe, 42, who received a fishing boat from the Department of Fisheries on an installation system.
 
Tint Swe, who lost two motorized boats during Nargis, said he had been forced to spend additional money to modify the boat to his requirements.
 
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http://www.irinnews.org/report.aspx?ReportId=86961MUNTINLUPA Monday, November 09, 2009 (IRIN) - Seventy-two year-old grandmother Jovita Ramos's arthritic hands could hardly stop shaking as she stood in line for assistance. MUNTINLUPA Monday, November 09, 2009 (IRIN) - Seventy-two year-old grandmother Jovita Ramos's arthritic hands could hardly stop shaking as she stood in line for assistance.
 
Her home in Muntinlupa District - just an hour's drive south of Manila in Luzon island, the worst-affected of all the islands - is still flooded six weeks after the first of four typhoons hammered the Philippines.
 
Like many of her neighbours, Ramos, her two children and four grandchildren were evacuated to a temporary shelter after tropical storm Ketsana. The ensuing flooding washed away entire communities in Manila and outlying areas, including Muntinlupa, a city of 500,000 on the banks of Laguna de Bay.
 
Now they have begun returning, but face new challenges.
 
"It was so difficult living in the evacuation centre. Food and water were difficult, and my grandchildren who are still little often got sick," Ramos said, clutching a crude staff to keep her balance.
 
"So we decided to return here, but our house is still under water," she said.
 
Ramos's close friend, 70-year-old Armando Anciaga, said many of his relatives in the lake-shore slum of Putatan in Muntinlupa also had no choice but to return.
 
Most of the families traditionally relied on fishing in Laguna de Bay, a heavily silted 90,000-hectare body of water around which developers erected poorly-planned housing estates in recent years.
 
"We may have angered the lake, and it is now reclaiming land that in the past it once owned," Anciaga shrugged, adding that the last major flooding to have hit the area was in 1972, but on a much smaller scale.
 
"Now we have to rely on donations and help from the outside. But one day, they will also tire of giving, and what will happen to us then?" Anciaga said.
 
His two adult sons and their wives have gone to Manila in search of work, leaving him to care for four young children whom he said had not eaten a proper meal in two weeks.
 
Exactly a week after Ketsana, Typhoon Parma battered northern Luzon Island, causing heavy damage to agriculture and dumping more rain on already flooded areas.
 
A third Typhoon, Lupit, spared the country in late October, but days later, Typhoon Mirinae caused additional havoc.
 
Nine million affected
 
More than 1,125 people died from the typhoons, including 167 who succumbed to leptospirosis, a flood-borne disease caused by exposure to water contaminated with rat and other animal urine.
 
According to the country’s National Disaster Coordinating Council (NDCC),  more than nine million people were affected by the back-to-back storms.
 
The UN launched a flash appeal for US$74 million for one million people in immediate need of assistance, but as of 9 November, only 36 percent of the total had been pledged or received.
 
President Arroyo has set up a special reconstruction committee to find ways of draining flooded areas, which experts have warned would probably remain flooded well into next year, directly affecting over one million people living near the lake.
 
"Transitional communities"
 
Ida Mae Fernandez, project officer for the International Organization for Migration (IOM), said the agency was now looking at setting up "transitional communities" to provide semi-permanent shelters in devastated areas.
 
"Through the camp coordination/camp management and emergency shelter clusters of government, the IOM continues to discuss the exact feasibility of this strategy, applied in the current situation, because setting up of transitional communities means constructing transitional shelters - which may take more time than what we have, in terms of immediately and urgently alleviating the situation of communities still under water," Fernandez told IRIN.
 
"While it was not an inherent concern in the affected communities before Ketsana, now after Mirinae, the longer the water stays, the higher the risk," she warned.
 
"The cumulative effects of weekly rains and floods have increasingly and seriously impacted communities' and families' capacities to recover quickly," she said, adding that the current scenario posed "real challenges to the disaster planning continuum".
 
As of 9 November, more than 130,000 storm-displaced continue to live in more than 400 evacuation centres in Manila and outlying areas as well as elsewhere in Luzon, the NDCC reported.
 
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http://www.irinnews.org/report.aspx?ReportId=86942HANOI Thursday, November 05, 2009 (IRIN) - Flooding is a frequent occurrence in Vietnam's central highlands so when forecasters warned that Tropical Storm Mirinae would hit on 2 November, officials and residents took the usual precautions.HANOI Thursday, November 05, 2009 (IRIN) - Flooding is a frequent occurrence in Vietnam's central highlands so when forecasters warned that Tropical Storm Mirinae would hit on 2 November, officials and residents took the usual precautions.

Thousands were evacuated from low-lying areas, residents reinforced their homes with sandbags and fishing boats were ordered into port.

But despite those efforts - even as forecasters predicted that the storm would fizzle out - some 98 people lost their lives, and 20 are still missing.

According to the Central Committee for Flood and Storm Control (CCFSC) [http://www.ccfsc.org.vn/ccfsc/], as of 4 November, more than 60,000 homes were flooded, damaged or had collapsed.

"The severity was surprising," Ian Wilderspin, a disaster risk reduction specialist with the UN Development Programme (UNDP) told IRIN in Hanoi.

"People were evacuated and there was a good level of preparedness", but the sustained heavy rains were not expected, he said.

Compounding the damage, the storm arrived as the region was still recovering from Typhoon Ketsana, which killed more than 160 people in Vietnam in September. [http://www.irinnews.org/Report.aspx?ReportId=86390]

Phu Yen Province in central-southern Vietnam was the hardest hit, with 69 people dead.

Officials said 600mm of rain fell in a 24-hour period, turning roads into rivers and submerging entire towns. Rivers in five provinces passed Level 3, the government's highest designation.

All across the region, officials expressed surprise at the strength of the storm that has now been downgraded to a tropical depression.

"It's the heaviest rain in about 60 years," said Nguyen Van Thien, director of the CCFSC in Binh Dinh Province. "It's really a mess, with trees uprooted, houses collapsed or their roofs pulled off."

Relief has started to arrive now that the rains have subsided. Thien says the military is using helicopters to deliver instant noodles to people who are still stranded.

With 300,000 people living in flooded areas in Binh Dinh alone, the need for more supplies is expected to grow. Local authorities have asked for an additional 50 tonnes of food supplies from the central government.

Forecasting to blame?

Only last week, at a meeting in Hanoi to address Vietnam's weather forecasting abilities, government meteorologists were lamenting the country's outdated technology and inexperienced forecasters.

Vietnam lacks sufficient radar and air-sensing stations that measure air temperatures and humidity. Without proper equipment, forecasters are unable to accurately predict a storm's direction or give precise warnings about how much rain may fall.

"Compared to other countries, Vietnam's capacity, infrastructure, equipment and technology in terms of meteorological forecasting are very backward," Bui Minh Tang, director of the National Center for Hydro-Meteorological Forecasting told state-run media.

"If you look at the scale and complexity of these storms, it's a challenge," acknowledged UNDP's Wilderspin.

As storms are predicted to hit Vietnam with more frequency and greater ferocity, the country will have to improve its identification of where they will hit and preparation for when they do.

"Vietnam's response to storms and flooding has radically improved in the past few years," said Wilderspin. The government now coordinates disaster preparedness and relief efforts with the UN and NGOs. Public warning systems are in place in many vulnerable areas.

"A lot can be done but a lot has been done to reduce the risk," he added.

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http://www.irinnews.org/report.aspx?ReportId=86891NAIROBI Wednesday, November 04, 2009 (IRIN) - Authorities in central Kenya have ordered hundreds of people to evacuate after a girl was killed when a mudslide destroyed her home following heavy rains.NAIROBI Wednesday, November 04, 2009 (IRIN) - Authorities in central Kenya have ordered hundreds of people to evacuate after a girl was killed when a mudslide destroyed her home  following heavy rains.

The incident took place in Gathaithi, in Murang’a East district.

“I have ordered all those living near the ill-fated home to vacate immediately and move to safer  ground. The government will provide them with essentials like tents and food,” District Commissioner George Natambeya said.
 
 In the past two weeks, heavy rains have been reported in most parts of the country and the government has ordered some families in landslide-prone areas of the larger Murang’a, Maragwa and Nyeri districts in central Kenya to vacate their homes.  Several deaths have occurred in the area as a result of mudslides because of the area’s topography.

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http://www.irinnews.org/report.aspx?ReportId=86870JAKARTA Wednesday, November 04, 2009 (IRIN) - Thousands of survivors of an earthquake that devastated Indonesia's West Sumatra Province are still grappling with a lack of clean water and adequate sanitation more than a month after the disaster, relief workers say.JAKARTA Wednesday, November 04, 2009 (IRIN) - Thousands of survivors of an earthquake that devastated Indonesia's West Sumatra Province are still grappling with a lack of clean water and adequate sanitation more than a month after the disaster, relief workers say.

Aid agencies are delivering clean water to survivors by truck, but it is insufficient unless water sources damaged by the earthquake on 30 September are restored, said Endang Trisna, programme coordinator for Mercy Corps [see: http://indonesia.mercycorps.org/].

"Water pumps in many houses have been damaged and wells are contaminated with sand and dirt. Some residents have no access at all to clean water," Trisna told IRIN.

Trisna said Mercy Corps was helping villagers fix their water sources and providing treatment facilities, as well as building latrines and distributing hygiene kits in Padang Pariaman and Agam districts, among the worst hit by the earthquake.

"Our staff are also providing training on hygiene. Our target is to help 10,000 households," she said.

The magnitude 7.6 quake left 1,117 people dead and more than 119,000 houses severely damaged or destroyed, according to the National Disaster Management Agency (BNPB).

IDP camps

The UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) said in its 3 November report that funding for transitional shelter, water and sanitation, and agriculture activities was still urgently needed to bridge the gap into the recovery phase.

According to the report, 600,000 people in Padang, the provincial capital, will be reliant on water trucks until year-end.

There are also 4,000 displaced people in three camps in Agam and about 4,000 in six camps in Padang Pariaman who are being supported with water and sanitation activities.

The government declared a recovery phase from 1 November in all but Padang Pariaman and Agam, home to the camps, where the emergency phase continues because sanitation is particularly poor. The camps are providing shelter for some of the thousands of people displaced by landslides triggered by the earthquake, said Tanty Pranawisanty, Mercy Corps emergency response team leader.

"The tents are not up to standard. They are close to each other, causing overcrowding," she said.

The government is expected to announce its rehabilitation and reconstruction action plan on 15 November, the OCHA report stated.

Ade Edward, head of West Sumatra's disaster coordinating agency, said piped water had been restored in 60 percent of households in Padang, while about 1,000 temporary shelters had been built by aid groups.

But he admitted that living conditions for people displaced in Agam and Padang Pariaman were still far from normal.

"They live in makeshift shelters and there's a lack of water and toilets," Edward told IRIN. "There are problems with sanitation, but it's being handled by authorities."

Funding gap

The UN Children’s Fund, UNICEF, said aid groups have complained they lacked funds to deliver water but stressed that the situation would not threaten the emergency relief effort.

"Aid agencies have been helping with the supply of water bladders and other equipment, but the operational cost is being paid by the local tap water company," said Lely Djuhari, a spokeswoman for UNICEF Indonesia.

"We're confident the government will come up with the cost for water trucking for the next three months, or even beyond," she said.

Meanwhile, the government estimates that reconstruction in West Sumatra will cost more than US$700 million, while the BNPB says more than $315 million will be needed for rebuilding damaged houses.

"We are still awaiting the release of the funds by the central government. However, some reconstruction work has begun, even though money from the government has not come," said BNPB spokesman Priyadi Kardono.

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http://www.irinnews.org/report.aspx?ReportId=86873KUTUBDIA Tuesday, November 03, 2009 (IRIN) - The fisherman, his wife, three sons, two daughters, a sister-in-law, a dog and a goat and I eye each other dubiously. The family of eight is not certain whether I will be able to sleep in their mud hut, which is slightly bigger than a large sports utility vehicle. The animals seem to agree.KUTUBDIA Tuesday, November 03, 2009 (IRIN) - The fisherman, his wife, three sons, two daughters, a sister-in-law, a dog and a goat and I eye each other dubiously. The family of eight is not certain whether I will be able to sleep in their mud hut, which is slightly bigger than a large sports utility vehicle. The animals seem to agree.

Brajhari Das, the fisherman, quickly makes up his mind. "Kono samsaya nahin [There is no problem]," he says in Bangla.

Just then, the heavens open. The monsoon rains - two months late - begin to pound the tin roof, deafening us. Brajhari shouts to make himself heard above the din, "Space is not a problem, but can you manage on the mud floor?"

The rain drips in. His daughters, Priyanka, 12, and Priyushi, 8, giggle as I try to dodge the leaks, but their father has weightier problems on his mind - the hut is less than 500m from the sea, which is creeping closer "day by day".

Brajhari and his family live in a village on Kutubdia, an island off Bangladesh's southeastern coast in the Bay of Bengal. Stronger and higher tides, cyclones and storm surges are eating away all the islands; Kutubdia, which once covered 250 sq km, has been reduced to about 25 sq km within a century, but the islanders are convinced the sea level is also rising.

Brajhari, who heads the local fishermen's association, is 41 but looks in his late 50s. "It is a hard life as a fisherman - it is a dangerous profession," he says wearily, running his fingers through his greying hair. His face his tired but his eyes sparkle when he talks about his children, or the fish he caught that day.

Rupen, his 14-year-old son, speaks a bit of English. "My father goes out to the sea every six hours; he has an hour-long break in between and then he is back on the sea. We worry all the time if he will come back or not." Most days, after spending almost the entire day at sea, he makes a little over a dollar.

A few years ago, Brajhari disappeared while at sea. A rescue team from the village found him months later in the custody of the coastguard in neighbouring India, after he had drifted west into the Indian side of the Bay of Bengal.

Last month Brajhari bought his own boat with money carefully saved over many years. "He is now independent - earlier, he had to beg people in the village to take him along to the sea," Rupen said proudly.

The boat cost him 50,000 taka (US$723) - in the village of a 1,000 fishermen, only 20 own boats. Brajhari, who understands some of the conversation, beams.

Besides their "lifelong struggle with the sea", as Brajhari's wife, Purumi, put it, the islanders also have to beware of sudden climatic events, like cyclones.

Their village, East Aliabardail, was hit by Cyclone Aila in May 2009 and part of their hut was destroyed. Aila killed at least 190 people in Bangladesh but no lives were lost in the village because disaster officials evacuated most residents in time. Outside, the waves crash in the rain.

Cyclones, and the coastline creeping steadily inland, have forced the family to relocate and build new homes five times in the past three decades. "Because of all these cyclones we have left all our [dinner] plates and other belongings at my parents' house, which is a permanent structure further inside the island," said Purumi as she served food on the only two plates in their home.

"It would be good if the officials would fortify the island's coastline; we will have a better chance at survival in this drowning land," said Brajhari.

A woven cane mat suspended on two wooden poles divides the hut into two rooms, one with a table for each of the children to study and eat at, and some plastic chairs; there is no other furniture.

All their clothes hang on a rope along a wall of the hut. Their most precious belongings - photographs of long-lost friends and the children's school certificates - are locked in a small wooden box on a shelf.

The family eats when Brajhari brings home his catch; most of the money he earns each day is spent on rice. "We love our rice - our family needs at least six kilograms every day," he said, heaping it onto his plate. There are some curried shrimps and a fried hard boiled egg to go with the rice.

The family have their meal after Brajhari and I have eaten. Priyanka and Priyushi help their mother clean up. After dinner the children finish their homework beneath the solar lamp provided to five houses in the village by the UN Development Programme (UNDP).

"I got the UNDP to open a school for our village," Brajhari commented. "I don't want our children to go into this profession [fishing] - I want them educated and out of here. There is no future here on this island."

His eldest son is a tailor in Dubai, but has been not yet been able to send money home, another is a hairdresser in town, and then there is Rupen, who "wants to be someone famous - pray for me". The youngest son is in primary school. Priyanka and Priyushi giggle and cover their faces shyly. "I think they might become doctors or teachers," says Purumi, trying to answer for them.

The rains stop suddenly. We realize we are all a bit tired from being forced to have a rather loud conversation and woven cane mats are spread out on the mud floor for the night.

I get to sleep near the entrance between the dog, the goat and Purumi's sister. None of the animals stir in the night, but I am awakened around midnight, when Brajhari has to go to sea. He creeps back into the hut around 5 a.m., throwing his wet clothes outside. Purumi is up and sweeps the muddy entrance.

The village is surrounded by slushy clay soil. My feet sink into it as I go out to brush my teeth, clutching my bottle of mineral water. The villagers head for the hand-pump. A plastic sheet tied around four poles serves as the neighbourhood toilet; the women rush to get there before the men get up.

It is another day. Brajhari has to go out to sea again. After a quick bath under the village hand-pump, he and Purumi prepare for their morning prayers. They fill two brass containers with water, cover the water with flower petals and place the urns on a raised mud platform in a corner of their home. They squat in front of the platform and pray.

"We worship the sea and the River Ganges," said Brajhari. "Their water is our life - we seek their blessings and ask them to be kind to us every day."

jk/he

http://www.irinnews.org/report.aspx?ReportId=86854ABATETE Tuesday, November 03, 2009 (IRIN) - Severe erosion over many years in Anambra, southeastern Nigeria, has cut off or destroyed hundreds of homes, businesses, farms and schools, prompting the governor to call for a state of emergency in the area where he says thousands of people now risk being displaced.ABATETE Tuesday, November 03, 2009 (IRIN) - Severe erosion over many years in Anambra, southeastern Nigeria, has cut off or destroyed hundreds of homes, businesses, farms and schools, prompting the governor to call for a state of emergency in the area where he says thousands of people now risk being displaced.

Among the worst-hit towns are Ideani, Abatete, Oko, Ekwulobia, Nanka and Onitsha, according to Anambra environment commissioner Michael Egbebike, with as many as one million people who could be forced from their homes.

Buildings have collapsed in several towns including Idi Ani, and farmers in the area have seen their fruit trees washed away during this year's rains, according to the town’s traditional ruler Igwe Okoye. “We’ve lost a lot of orange trees, mango trees and palms.” He said buildings and other resources have also been affected.

In nearby Abatete, deepening gulleys threaten to make the town’s only state-run school unreachable, town councilor Efobe Okeke told IRIN.

“Many homesteads and cash crops are daily in danger of yielding to the fury of this monster,” Okeke said. “It is devastating.”

Abatete store-owner John Uche told IRIN: “My store which was my source of living was washed away this year; I need help to feed my family.”

Why

Until 150 years ago southeastern Nigeria was covered by thick rainforest but soil degradation began with the widespread planting of trees to meet European demands for palm oil in the mid-19th century, according to environmentalists. Palm trees generate soil salinity, according to state environmental protection agency (EPA) director Emma Ude Akpeh.

The combination of this loose soil, hilly landscape and strong rains for several months of the year are ideal erosion conditions, she said. She added that farmers’ habit of burning off brush destroys roots and shrubs that could help curb erosion.

Poor urban planning, population growth and improper waste disposal have converged to exacerbate the problem, environment commissioner Egbebike told IRIN. People dump refuse or build houses on waterways and canals, obstructing the flow of rain-water, causing deep gulleys to form when it rains.

Government accountability

EPA’s Akpeh told IRIN the state environmental protection agency is working to clear rubbish from ditches and collecting rubbish house-to-house. The Anambra environment ministry meanwhile is planting trees near towns to stem erosion and is encouraging families to reinforce their houses with sand bags during the rainy season, Egbebike said.

But he said the commission needed more federal and international support to make a real difference. Anambra’s governor has joined four governors from erosion-prone neighbouring states to appeal for federal funding.

Village leaders in Ideani and Abatete are taking matters into their own hands by encouraging inhabitants to plant erosion-resistance and soil-binding crops such as India bamboo and cashew trees, according to town councilor Okeke. “You can’t fold your hands and watch your house be carried away,” he said. “But individuals cannot handle the situation alone.”

Traditional ruler Okoye said with each passing year the cost of inaction grows. “What would have been controlled with less than one million naira [US$6,000] 10 years ago cannot be controlled now by 10 billion naira [$66 million] now.”

hu/aj/nphttp://www.irinnews.org/report.aspx?ReportId=86863MANILA Monday, November 02, 2009 (IRIN) - Aid workers credit a pre-emptive evacuation of more than 115,000 residents for this weekend’s minimal loss of life from Typhoon Mirinae.MANILA Monday, November 02, 2009 (IRIN) - Aid workers credit a pre-emptive evacuation of more than 115,000 residents for this weekend’s minimal loss of life from Typhoon Mirinae.

Sixteen deaths were recorded in suburban areas south of Manila and in two eastern provinces, although the heavy rains and strong winds further exacerbated the humanitarian situation for tens of thousands left homeless by two earlier devastating cyclones, the National Disaster Coordinating Council (NDCC) [see: http://ndcc.gov.ph/home/] reported on 2 November.

With gusts of up to 185km/hr, Mirinae cut a westwards swathe across Luzon Island on 31 October before exiting into the South China Sea a day later.

The state weather bureau said Mirinae would likely hit Vietnam on 2 November.

"We were thankful that the public listened to authorities. People are now more aware of what to do after Ketsana and Parma," Philippine National Red Cross [see: http://www.redcross.org.ph/] secretary-general, Gwendolyn Pang, told IRIN, adding that authorities had already managed to restore power to most of the 22 towns hit by the storm.

Ketsana [see: http://www.irinnews.org/Report.aspx?ReportId=86312] dumped a month's worth of rain on Manila and outlying areas when it hit land on 26 September, causing the area's worst flooding in over 40 years.

A week later, Parma [http://www.irinnews.org/Report.aspx?ReportId=86510] pummelled northern Luzon for a week. Typhoon Lupit changed course at the last minute on 24 October, providing a break for storm-weary rescuers and a government whose disaster response mechanism has been pushed to the limit by the storms that affected more than eight million people.

While many of those evacuated by the earlier storms had returned home, Pang said relief operations would continue for 87,467 people still crammed into makeshift shelters around Manila and in surrounding provinces.

But with many flood survivors returning to their partly submerged homes, authorities have warned of more disease outbreaks. Government has recorded 167 deaths due to Leptospirosis [http://www.irinnews.org/Report.aspx?ReportId=86779] - a flood-borne disease caused by infection from flood waters contaminated by rat and other animal urine – in addition to 929 deaths due to devastation wrought by Ketsana and Parma.

Reconstruction

"We are now shifting relief operations to early recovery planning and reconstruction. We need to develop a residential plan for those left homeless by the floods," Pang said, noting, however, that disaster relief officials have said many areas, especially near lakes, reservoirs and rivers, would likely remain under water into 2010.

Ida Mae Fernandez, regional project officer for the International Organization for Migration (IOM), said the agency was working on "multiple targets" to include the displaced in evacuation centres, as well as families who had stayed in their flooded homes.

"We will implement reconstruction and repair activities on basic public infrastructure, as well as repair of houses," she said.

"Also, we are gearing up to work with the Department of Health and the World Health Organization to fast-track health mitigation activities.

"Coordination of actions will be important, and IOM will focus on areas that have difficult access to ready humanitarian aid," Fernandez said.

The NDCC said Typhoon Mirinae left "remarkably less damage to lives and properties" than Ketsana and Parma.

"This is largely attributed to the pre-emptive efforts conducted by the national and local governments through the NDCC and their local counterparts, and the pre-positioning of government assets and relief items in areas which were to have been hit by the typhoon," it stated.

Residents in the direct path of Mirinae were easier to convince to leave their properties than those affected by the previous storms.

"Cooperation among all sectors is truly the best tool we must have in disaster preparation or disaster response," it stated. "We hope the lessons we learned from these past tragedies will remain with everyone, to allow for better disaster preparation and better disaster responses."

President Gloria Arroyo personally led disaster relief officials in the inspection of water levels in flood-ways around Manila and to warn residents against staying there as Mirinae was lashing the city.

Arroyo called on authorities to evacuate residents from the Lupang Arenda resettlement site in Taytay District, east of Manila. The president talked to the residents, many of whom were waiting for the waters to subside so they could salvage what was left of their belongings.

The 200ha site was originally designated a protected wetlands by the government, but in recent years has been overrun by informal settlers - a situation repeated in many other areas around Manila, exposing government's poor urban planning, which has been blamed by environmentalists for the massive flooding.

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http://www.irinnews.org/report.aspx?ReportId=86836HANOI Friday, October 30, 2009 (IRIN) - While residents in Vietnam’s low-lying coastal provinces were riding out Typhoon Ketsana, few knew that upriver the storm had unleashed a new hazard.HANOI Friday, October 30, 2009 (IRIN) - While residents in Vietnam’s low-lying coastal provinces were riding out Typhoon Ketsana, few knew that upriver the storm had unleashed a new hazard.

Thousands of logs, many apparently illegally harvested, were racing down the swollen rivers and at least 100 houses along the riverbanks were destroyed before the timber came to rest, jammed under bridges and piers.
 
Vietnamese forestry officials said the wood was likely taken from the country’s rapidly shrinking old-growth forests in the Central Highland provinces.
 
“We identified some logs that travelled 100km from Phuoc [a district in Quang Nam Province],” said Le Nho Nam, director of the Phuoc Forestry Protection Unit, one of the last old-growth or mature nature forests in the country and home to several endangered animal species.
 
Since old-growth trees in the park are protected, Nam said it was likely some were illegally harvested.

“We face difficulties in protecting our forests as we don’t have enough manpower or adequate equipment,” said Pham Thanh Lam, director of the Forestry Protection Unit in Quang Nam Province.
 
He blames deforestation – whether it is from illegal logging or to make way for hydroelectric plants – for the sustained flooding that followed Typhoon Ketsana.
 
In August, the forestry department issued a report citing 4,841 cases of illegal deforestation in the first half of 2009. There were hundreds of attacks on forestry officials in the same period, including loggers who tried to run down rangers with their vehicles.

Vietnam’s wood-processing industry, which supplies hardwood tables and chairs to the world, is now one of its largest exports, earning US$2.8 billion last year.
   
Landslide risk
 
“Forests help to prevent floods as we are in a high sloping terrain,” said Lam. “Reduced forest coverage makes flooding worse.”
 
In the past two decades, 78 percent of Vietnam’s old-growth forests have vanished, leaving it with only 85,000ha of old-growth forest.
 
According to the Asian Disaster Reduction Centre (ADRC) [see: http://www.adrc.asia/] in Bangkok, such changes have serious consequences.
 
“Deforestation increases the risk of landslides,” Susith Arambepola, director of the centre’s urban disaster risk management programme, told IRIN. “When there is less tree cover, the run-off is higher and the soil becomes weaker,” he said.
 
Concerned about the rapid loss of its forests, the government has embarked on an ambitious planting programme to increase forest cover to 43 percent of the country from a low of 28 percent, says Dao Xuan Lai, who heads the UN Development Programme’s Sustainable Development office in Hanoi.
 
The quality of the forests is poor and biodiversity is low, said Lai, so they cannot protect the soil from erosion or retain large amounts of water in heavy rain.
 
Last month, Typhoon Ketsana killed at least 164 people in Vietnam, after making landfall in central Quang Nam province on 29 September.
 
The highest number of deaths, however, was not in Quang Nam on the coast but in the mountainous province of Kon Tum after rains triggered flash floods and landslides.
 
Several villages were completely buried in mud.
 
Vietnam is plagued by natural disasters, and has been named as one of 10 countries in the world most prone to disasters caused by climate change.
 
According to the UNDP, typhoons, floods and droughts mean that one million people need emergency aid every year.
 
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http://www.irinnews.org/report.aspx?ReportId=86806NAIROBI Thursday, October 29, 2009 (IRIN) - Flash floods caused by four days of torrential rains have displaced more than 15,000 people in the southwestern town of El-Waq near the Kenyan border and submerged most homes and businesses, say localsNAIROBI Thursday, October 29, 2009 (IRIN) - Flash floods caused by four days of torrential rains have displaced more than 15,000 people in the southwestern town of El-Waq near the Kenyan border and submerged most homes and businesses, say locals.

"Most of the town is under water, with people moving to higher ground around the town," Alaso Gurhan, a resident of El-Waq, in Gedo region of southwestern Somalia, told IRIN on 28 October.

The local administration and civil society groups have been able to move many people to safer ground, she said.

She said mothers with small children and the elderly were being given priority in the provision of shelter material. "We are all in the open now with very little help. We don’t have much so we have to give first to the weakest."

A lot of livestock have reportedly died due to the ongoing rains. "Hundreds of goats and sheep weakened by the drought have succumbed to the rains and the cold weather," said Ali Hassan, a civil society activist.

He said El-Waq, like the rest of Somalia, was waiting for the rain but it was "too much in too short a time. If the rain continues the way it has for the last four days we will be in serious trouble."

He said most of the residents, about 18,000 with some 900 displaced families (5,400 people) from Mogadishu, had been affected. "We are no better than the displaced today," he added. He said the population was concentrating on the hills around the town. "Any higher ground in the area is now occupied."

Hassan Hussein, an engineer with Development Frontier International, an NGO, told IRIN they were now trying to dig trenches to allow the water to drain from the town.

He said there was still a danger of more flooding since the rains were ongoing. He said his group was organizing the population to alert them to any more danger. "We are using the loud-speakers in mosques to tell people to help the weak and to get to higher ground."

People who are still in low-lying areas were also being told to move to higher ground, he said.

He said shelter material was urgently needed. "There are many people who are too weak to stay in the open or in the flimsy shelters we have. We need help in the provision of tents and other shelter material if we are to avert a serious health situation."

There are fears that with the rains mosquitoes and waterborne diseases will not be far behind, he warned.

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http://www.irinnews.org/report.aspx?ReportId=86791MOMBASA Thursday, October 29, 2009 (IRIN) - After days of heavy rain, flash floods in Kenya's coastal Magarini district have displaced at least 500 families, sweeping away houses and livestock, officials said.MOMBASA Thursday, October 29, 2009 (IRIN) - After days of heavy rain, flash floods in Kenya's coastal Magarini district have displaced at least 500 families, sweeping away houses and livestock, officials said.

Most of the affected families were from Kurawa and Kanagoni villages in Magarini. Many have already sought alternative shelter, with some heading to a camp for the displaced along the Malindi-Garissa highway.

John Manasseh, a local leader, told IRIN on 28 October: "We had assumed that since the rains were delayed at the beginning of the year, we would not experience any flooding. We even started cultivating our farms in readiness for the rain, but it seems we were all wrong."

Most of the coastal region has been dry, having not had rains since early 2009. In August, the Kenya Meteorological Department warned that the country could soon experience El Niño-related enhanced rainfall. Already, heavy rains have been reported in many parts of the country, with Coast Province being the latest to experience flooding.

The Magarini flash floods occurred a day after two people reportedly died in Kolongoni village in neighbouring Kilifi district, after a house in which they were sleeping collapsed after a downpour, crushing them.

Jillo Galgalo, one of those displaced by the floods in Magarini, said they lacked clean water for domestic use and were at risk of infection from waterborne diseases.

"Most pit latrines have been washed away because nobody expected any floods to occur this soon," Galgalo said. "We are in dire need of clean water because most water points are now filled with all sorts of waste, including human waste and cow dung."

Along with the neighbouring Tana River district - where roads connecting the towns of Mombasa, Garissa and Lamu have been cut off due to the rains - roads in Kilifi have not been spared, with most roads connecting local trading centres impassable.

Security issues

At least 100 trucks and passenger vehicles plying several routes along the north coast region have either become stuck in mud or were parked by the roadside. Most of the drivers, especially those on the Malindi-Garissa route, have expressed concern over possible bandit attacks.

"Our main concern is security, keeping in mind the number of times we've had cases of fellow drivers being attacked by armed bandits in recent times," Abdalla Musa, a truck driver, said.

However, the Tana Delta district commissioner, Ireri Ngatia, said the government would provide security for all drivers using the route.

Ngatia and his Magarini counterpart, Richard Kananu, have also appealed to residents living in low-lying areas to move to higher ground.

Meanwhile, the Kenya Red Cross Society and other humanitarian organizations are assessing the situation and preparing to start providing the necessary assistance.

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http://www.irinnews.org/report.aspx?ReportId=86793JOHANNESBURG Thursday, October 29, 2009 (IRIN) - An African international agreement has opened the door to a debate on the rights and protection of people displaced by natural disasters, with a nod to migration as a result of climate change. JOHANNESBURG Thursday, October 29, 2009 (IRIN) - An African international agreement has opened the door to a debate on the rights and protection of people displaced by natural disasters, with a nod to migration as a result of climate change.

The Kampala Convention, a ground-breaking treaty adopted by the African Union (AU), promises to protect and assist millions of Africans displaced within their own countries. Significantly, the treaty recognized natural disasters as well as conflict and generalized violence as key factors in uprooting people.

Jean Ping, chairperson of the Commission of the African Union, told IRIN that "more and more people are likely to be displaced" as Africa experiences more frequent droughts and floods brought about by climate change.

He said the inclusion of displacement by natural disasters was informed by the global debate on the need to develop a framework for the rights of "climate refugees" - people uprooted from their homes and crossing international borders - because the changing climate threatened their survival.

The treaty also calls on governments to set up laws and find solutions to prevent displacement caused by natural disasters, with compensation for those who were displaced. Migration expert Etienne Piguet said with the Kampala Convention the AU had "once again" tried to push the envelope.

In 1969 the Convention Governing the Specific Aspects of Refugee Problems in Africa, adopted by the then Organization of African Unity, had gone a step further than the 1951 UN Refugee Convention by using a definition of "refugee" that included not only people fleeing persecution but also those fleeing war or events seriously disturbing public order.

Piguet described the reference to people displaced by natural disasters as an "interesting attempt" to find "adequate answers to the new concern about migration linked to environmental degradation".

In 2008 climate-related natural disasters like droughts, hurricanes and floods forced 20 million people out of their homes, while 4.6 million people were internally displaced by conflicts, according to a recent joint study by the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) and the Geneva-based Internal Displacement Monitoring Centre.

The Representative of the UN Secretary-General (RSG) on the Human Rights of the Internally Displaced Persons in a submission to the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change noted that people uprooted from their homes by natural disasters enjoyed protection under the existing human rights law and the guiding principles on internal displacement.

However, the Kampala Convention also calls on governments to "prevent or mitigate, prohibit and eliminate root causes" of displacement, and find "durable solutions" to them.

Moussa Idriss Ndele, President of the Pan-African Parliament, the legislative body of the AU, said the debate in Kampala on the rights of people displaced by natural disasters did not "quite evolve properly - we did not address the issue of climate change" because most people still believed conflict was the biggest trigger of displacement.

Can of worms

However, it was unclear which events could be linked to climate change. "More and more people are being displaced by floods, which are becoming more and more frequent and intense," said Rachel Shebesh, chair of the African Parliamentarian Initiative for Climate Risk Reduction.

The RSG said there was a need to clarify or even develop a legal framework to help people who moved inside or outside the country because environmental degradation and slow-onset disasters - like desertification, salination of soil and groundwater - made areas uninhabitable, and if displaced persons could not return to their homes they should be considered forcibly displaced.

The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) has projected more frequent and intense floods and droughts in Africa during the next few decades, and the debate is not only set to continue, but to intensify.

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http://www.irinnews.org/report.aspx?ReportId=86805MANILA Wednesday, October 28, 2009 (IRIN) - Weeks after back-to-back cyclones left nearly 1,000 people dead, the Philippines is grappling with an outbreak of a deadly flood-borne disease that has infected survivors from areas where dirty water has yet to subside, officials say.MANILA Wednesday, October 28, 2009 (IRIN) -  Weeks after back-to-back cyclones [http://www.irinnews.org/Asia-Country.aspx?Country=PH] left nearly 1,000 people dead, the Philippines is grappling with an outbreak of a deadly flood-borne disease that has infected survivors from areas where dirty water has yet to subside, officials say.
 
In a report to emergency relief agencies, Health Secretary Francisco Duque said that as of 26 October, there were 2,158 confirmed cases of Leptospirosis infections, with 167 deaths reported by the National Epidemiology Centre [http://www2.doh.gov.ph/nec/app_main.htm].
 
With more than 120,000 people crammed into evacuation centres in Manila and outlying areas that are still submerged in putrid, stagnant water, Duque said the likelihood of more outbreaks was high.
 
The deaths linked to Leptospirosis - a bacterial infection caused by contact with water contaminated by rat and other animal urine - were in addition to the 929 people who died from devastation wrought by tropical storm Ketsana, which hit on 26 September, and Typhoon Parma, a week later. According to the National Disaster Coordinating Council (NDCC) [http://ndcc.gov.ph/home/], more than nine million people were affected by the two storms.
 
"There is a surge in the number of hospitalized cases of Leptospirosis from among the victims of recent typhoons who have [lost] … their homes," Duque said in a memorandum order issued last week to state-run hospitals to prioritize cases of the disease.
 
"Various local government units and hospitals have reported an increasing number of cases of Leptospirosis among communities that have been submerged in flood waters and from among those who have been transferred to evacuation sites,” it read.
 
Duque said the best preventive measure to combat the disease is to drain the flooded areas and force people to move - something that government is hard-pressed to do since many areas remain inundated and some families have returned to their partly submerged homes to prevent looting.
 
As a stop-gap measure, he said the health department had sent teams to provide antibiotics to those infected while at the same time seeking the help of the UN World Health Organization (WHO) in containing the outbreak.
 
Private hospitals have also agreed to take in patients that state-run hospitals can no longer accommodate, Duque said.
 
National epidemiology chief Eric Tayag said the antibiotics were meant to cut the infection rate in half as a preventive measure.
 
Symptoms

The disease is characterized by jaundice and flu-like symptoms and ultimately renal and kidney failure, requiring dialysis.
 
WHO said the Leptospirosis bacteria commonly enters the body through skin cuts and abrasions and could begin manifesting in symptoms including severe headaches, fever, vomiting and blood-shot eyes. Meningitis and bleeding of the lungs may also occur.
 
"One out of 10 of those infected by Leptospirosis can have complications that can cause death. This includes acute renal failure," Tayag told reporters.
 
According to the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) [http://www.cdc.gov/ncidod/dbmd/diseaseinfo/leptospirosis_g.htm#How%20long%20is%20it%20between%20the%20time%20of%20exposure%20and%20when%20people%20become%20sick] the time between exposure to a contaminated source and falling ill is two days to four weeks.
 
WHO has dispatched a four-man team of experts to the country to help control the outbreak.
 
"They will be assisting the government by providing technical assessments and assistance in the surveillance, epidemiological and clinical care of those who fall sick from the disease," said Soe Nyunt-U, WHO representative to the Philippines, noting that apart from Leptospirosis, thousands still living in evacuation camps where access to water and sanitation remain poor, are in danger of other infectious diseases.
 
"The situation is worsened by the fact that many hospitals and clinics are damaged or still under water, with some staff unable to get to work, either because they are marooned in evacuation centres or are still repairing their homes," he said in a statement.
 
"At the same time, victims of the floods are causing a surge in demand at the health facilities."

Meanwhile, officials are preparing for another storm. Weather forecasters say Typhoon Mirinae is about 837km west-northwest of Guam, moving westward at 32km/hr. Mirinae strengthened from a tropical storm over the Pacific Ocean east of the Philippines and may reach Luzon island, where relief work continues, in the coming days.
 
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http://www.irinnews.org/report.aspx?ReportId=86779MIDRAND Tuesday, October 27, 2009 (IRIN) - Disaster risk reduction as a tool for climate change adaptation is a "technical mouthful" said Rachel Shebesh, chair of the African Parliamentarian Initiative for Climate Risk Reduction. MIDRAND Tuesday, October 27, 2009 (IRIN) - Disaster risk reduction as a tool for climate change adaptation is a "technical mouthful" said Rachel Shebesh, chair of the African Parliamentarian Initiative for Climate Risk Reduction.

Members of the Pan-African Parliament thought so too. The legislative body of the African Union met in Midrand, halfway between Johannesburg and Pretoria in South Africa, for a parliamentary debate on climate change in Africa.

Shebesh, the new champion of disaster risk reduction (DRR) in Africa for the UN International Strategy for Disaster Reduction (UN-ISDR) has been given the job of making the subject accessible.

Why?

The UN Special Representative of the Secretary-General for Disaster Risk Reduction, Margareta Wahlström, said DRR was "the first line of defence" against climate risks. Many countries did not have a plan that covered what to do to adapt to the impact of climate change, but drawing up a disaster risk reduction plan was a starting point.

DRR deals with the short-term changes in climate variables, such as temperature; adaptation to climate change is about long-term changes to climate. It is now widely acknowledged that reducing vulnerability to climatic variables could improve resilience to the increased hazards associated with climate change.

What does it mean?

Wahlström acknowledged that trying to explain to countries what this meant, and how to take DRR into account, could sometimes be problematic. Essentially, it is about "disaster-proofing" any plan or programme.

"You take into account the current and future disaster risks. If you are building a bridge in an area, you study the soil, ask the people who live in the area about what they know about the conditions in the area: do they build in the area? What precautions do they take? The easiest thing to do is draw up a check list."

Wahlström said she had come across several cities and towns in developing countries who had already been doing this, and "we are now busy putting all this information together for our next report."

She also said she would not be surprised if "disaster-proofing" became a pre-requisite for sourcing money for any climate change adaptation project, "but I would rather countries took up the initiative on their own." India, she said has made it mandatory for projects costing a certain amount to be disaster-proof so as to qualify for funds.

jk/he http://www.irinnews.org/report.aspx?ReportId=86774VIENTIANE Monday, October 26, 2009 (IRIN) - Farmers in southern Laos who lost their harvests to floods caused by Typhoon Ketsana face a year of hunger if they do not receive rice seeds soon to replant their crops, the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) warns.VIENTIANE Monday, October 26, 2009 (IRIN) - Farmers in southern Laos who lost their harvests to floods caused by Typhoon Ketsana face a year of hunger if they do not receive rice seeds soon to replant their crops, the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) warns.

Serge Verniau, the FAO's representative in Laos, said Ketsana had destroyed the harvest intended to feed families for the next six months, as well as seed stocks for the next cropping season in November, and the harvest from March to April 2010.

"The timeframe is extremely limited to plant. We have November," Verniau told IRIN, adding that with funding, the agency would be able dispatch rice seeds from national seed centres to farmers within 10 days.

"We do know that the families that we plan to reach could grow rice immediately, and could prepare their soil and immediately have nurseries and transplant the rice. So that's why there is urgency," he said.

The FAO has asked for US$1,780,000 as part of a $10 million flash appeal [see: http://www.reliefweb.int/rw/rwb.nsf/db900SID/EDIS-7WZPVM?OpenDocument#] launched last week to help victims of Ketsana, which on 29 September damaged an estimated 28,500ha of rice and crop fields.

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http://www.irinnews.org/report.aspx?ReportId=86736MANILA Friday, October 23, 2009 (IRIN) - Pummelled by back-to-back typhoons and facing another, the Philippines is experiencing its toughest humanitarian challenge in recent history, Josette Sheeran, Executive Director of the UN World Food Programme (WFP), said on 23 October.MANILA Friday, October 23, 2009 (IRIN) - Pummelled by back-to-back typhoons and facing another, the Philippines is experiencing its toughest humanitarian challenge in recent history, Josette Sheeran, Executive Director of the UN World Food Programme (WFP), said on 23 October.

The agency is providing "critical" food support to more than one million of the eight million people hit by tropical storm Ketsana and Typhoon Parma, which destroyed swathes of agricultural land, drowned significant parts of Manila and nearby provinces and caused deadly landslides in mountainous regions in the north.

According to the country’s National Disaster Coordinating Council (NDCC) [http://ndcc.gov.ph/home/], the estimated cost of damage was about US$700 million, with many roads and bridges destroyed and buildings still submerged, particularly around Manila.

It said 186,416 people remained in 435 evacuation centres in Manila and northern Luzon provinces, although thousands had opted to stay in their partly submerged homes and were difficult to reach.

The Philippines had been struggling to provide assistance to those affected, Sheeran said, but with the "severe humanitarian impact" of the typhoons, its people were "now facing one of the greatest challenges in memory".

To date, the agency has airlifted about 5,000MT of food and relief items to the country, including rice, oil and high-energy biscuits imported from Turkey and Ecuador that could help provide nutrients to children and mothers vulnerable in evacuation camps.

Additional pledges were being received from France, Luxembourg, Poland and Germany, Sheeran said, stressing, however, that more international help was needed.

Targets revised

Kenro Oshidari, WFP Regional Director for Asia, said the UN food agency would have to revise upwards its targets in the next six months, stressing that the initial delivery of food was only meant for survivors of Ketsana.

And with Parma destroying acres upon acres of farmlands planted with corn and rice in the north, additional support would be needed for about half a million farmers whose crops had been inundated.

"The water, even after some four weeks, has not receded in many places, including rice fields. This really worries us because it is supposed to be harvest season and a lot of farmers have lost their crops.

"We may have to provide recovery assistance for roughly six months for these farmers," Oshidari said, adding that further assessments would have to be made to determine exactly how many would need extended recovery assistance. "We may also have to revise upwards our plan of assistance to reach more people."

Preparing for Lupit

Meanwhile, thousands of residents living along coastal areas and mountainous areas in northern Luzon have been told to evacuate to safer areas as rescue and relief officials prepare for Typhoon Lupit, expected to make landfall in northern Luzon on 25 October.

Its wide outer rain bands have begun affecting the north, and at least 182 people living in a coastal area in Aparri town were evacuated after a 20m storm surge destroyed a protective dyke.

The government had earlier delivered more than 100,000kg of food and relief items in anticipation of Lupit's arrival.

President Gloria Arroyo said government was prepared for Lupit, stressing that police and the military were on standby.

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http://www.irinnews.org/report.aspx?ReportId=86707JAKARTA Friday, October 23, 2009 (IRIN) - The Indonesian government and aid agencies have begun building temporary shelters for hundreds of thousands of people displaced by last month's earthquake in West Sumatra Province.JAKARTA Friday, October 23, 2009 (IRIN) - The Indonesian government and aid agencies have begun building temporary shelters for hundreds of thousands of people displaced by last month's earthquake in West Sumatra Province.

The 7.6 magnitude earthquake on 30 September left 1,117 people dead, more than 1,200 seriously injured and over 135,000 homes badly damaged or destroyed.

Thousands of temporary homes will be built, some using materials recycled from damaged homes, Priyadi Kardono, a spokesman for the National Disaster Management Agency (BNPB), announced.

Each shelter will be 18 sqm and cost three million rupiah (US$318), Kardono said.

"Work on temporary houses has begun in some locations," Kardono told IRIN. "Such buildings can last up to six months and are more comfortable than tents," he said.

The UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) said in its 20 October situation report [see: http://ochaonline.un.org/indonesia/SituationReports/tabid/3307/language/en-US/Default.aspx] that shelter remained the biggest unmet need in West Sumatra.

The BNPB director for reconstruction, Bakri Beck, said the rebuilding of permanent houses and provision of basic necessities over two months would cost an estimated 3.3 trillion rupiah ($350 million).

But the total cost of reconstruction was still being calculated by an assessment team with the help of the World Bank and the UN Development Programme (UNDP), Beck said.

"We expect the reconstruction period to start in early November," Beck said.

Kardono said the government was considering setting up a special agency tasked with rebuilding West Sumatra, similar to the Aceh Nias Reconstruction and Rehabilitation Agency (BRR), established after the 2004 tsunami.

"It is still being discussed. The president [Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono] wants a body similar to the BRR for the sake of accountability," Kardono said.

Reaching remote areas

According to OCHA, only 20 percent of the population in the provincial capital, Padang, was connected to the water distribution network, while only 50 percent of health facilities were operational.

BNPB has reported that all isolated areas had now been reached but humanitarian organizations were still receiving reports of remote communities needing assistance, OCHA said.

The head of the provincial Public Works Department, Dody Ruswandi, said 85 percent of infrastructure in the province was damaged.

The International Organization for Migration (IOM) said it was also planning to distribute 3,500 individual tool kits - one for each family of five - and 700 community demolition and reconstruction tool kits in Padang Pariaman and Agam districts, among the worst-affected by the quake.

The IOM also said its trucks had delivered 2,709 tonnes of food and non-food relief items on behalf of 82 aid agencies.

Kardono said the government had yet to declare the emergency phase in West Sumatra over, although he had earlier said the BNPB wanted to move to the recovery phase as soon as possible, possibly three weeks after the earthquake.

"We still have time, up to two months. We want everything to go smoothly," he said.

He said foreign aid workers would be notified in advance before the government declared the emergency phase over.

Once the recovery phase begins, all NGOs will need to be registered with the government to continue operating.

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