Pakistan: Kashmir Earthquake
In the afternoon of Tuesday, 24 September 2019, the district of Bhimber, Mirpur and Jhelum in Azad Jammu Kashmir and Punjab, Pakistan, was badly struck by an earthquake of magnitude 5.8 that killed 39 people injuring 746 others. Government reported 454 houses including 135 severely and 319 have been partially damaged.
Based on reports from other NGOs, it is estimated that around 9,000 families have been affected. About 1,000 houses have been destroyed out of the 7,000 damaged houses in Mirpur district alone. Aftershocks continues to rock the region, many left their homes and spent the night on the roadside or in parks. Infrastructure including houses, roads, mobile phone towers and electricity poles have been badly damaged and communication channel both through roads and telephones to some of the affected areas has been cut off. Information is still scarce as some areas are still inaccessible.
Community World Service Asia (CWSA) plans to access ACT Alliance’s Rapid Response Fund to provide food, water, shelter and household needs.
Alert Kashmir Earthquake
Zimbabwe: Drought Emergency.
Zimbabwe is currently facing a severe drought caused by poor rains that affected food harvests between October 2018 and May 2019. In August 2019, the government declared the 2018/19 drought and cropping season “a State of National Disaster” and appealed for international humanitarian assistance. Reports from WFP estimate that at least 2 million people are affected.
The prices of staple food (maize) have increased by 31 per cent higher compared to the same time last year. The severe drought crisis is coupled with an economic crisis caused by the uncertainty that arose after the pronouncement of the Statutory Instrument 2019 -142 that pronounced the Zimbabwean Dollar to be the sole currency for legal tender purposes; creating some ambiguity as the currency is facing shortages and limiting household market access hence worsening the situation for poor households.
Ministry of Labour and Social Welfare with support from UN Agencies WFP and FAO are currently coordinating the emergency response. ACT Zimbabwe Forum has been working in Zimbabwe since 2003, now helping/planning to help people affected by the drought
Alerts_Zimbabwe-Drought
Bahamas: Hurricane Dorian
In the afternoon of Sunday, 1st September 2019, Category 5 Hurricane Dorian, the strongest hurricane known this side of the Caribbean, made landfall in the Bahamas in Elbow Cay, east of Abaco island and made another landfall on Grand Bahama island with the same intensity several hours later. The hurricane moved slowly through the islands form 1 to 3 of September, leaving a death toll of 43 people as of 6th September (35 people in Abaco and 8 in Grand Bahama). This number is expected to increase due the hundreds of people still missing.
The International Federation of the Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies (IFRC) reported that more than 13,000 houses have been severely damaged or destroyed – about 45 per cent of all homes on the two islands. Abaco Islands are the most severely affected with thousands of houses leveled, telecommunications towers down, and water wells and roads damaged, very limited or no water, electricity and sanitation, and most of the Marsh harbor infrastructure is damaged. In Grand Bahama, the eastern part is the most affected, with homes damaged between Freetown and Deep Water Cay.
Across Abaco Islands and Grand Bahama, airports and seaports are increasingly becoming operational, allowing humanitarian assistance to be delivered. However, access to affected people, particularly in the Abaco Islands, remains challenging mainly due to damaged roads and infrastructure. Assessments are underway conducted by Caribbean Disaster Emergency Management Agency (CDEMA), National Emergency Management Agency (NEMA), UN agencies and NGOs to determine the scope of needs.
ACT Alliance is deploying a Rapid Assessment Team to be led by the Servicio Social de Iglesias Dominicanas (SSID) in the Dominican Republic, on behalf of the Caribbean Sub-regional ACT forum. The assessment will identify needs of the affected population, assess local capacities to respond including those of churches, provide recommendations for a possible ACT Response.
Alert Hurricane Dorian Bahamas
An unprecedented number of fires have raged throughout Brazil in 2019, intensifying in August. There have been more than 80,000 fires so far this year, the most ever recorded by the country’s National Institute for Space Research (INPE). It’s a nearly 80 percent jump compared to the number of fires the country experienced over the same time period in 2018. More than half of those fires are taking place in the Amazon. Environmentalists have been raising the alarm about deforestation since the country’s current president Jair Bolsonaro was elected in 2018. A major part of his campaign message called for opening the Amazon for business, and since he’s been in power, he’s done just that. Most of the worst-affected regions are in the north of the country. Roraima, Acre, Rondônia and Amazonas all saw a large percentage increase in fires when compared with the average across the last four years. In the Brazilian Amazon there is a population of approximately 430, 000 indigenous people, distributed in 419 Indigenous Lands, occupying an area of 115,342,101 hectares, 22.9% of the total area’s surface, including people in voluntary isolation, who are now at great risk due to the uncontrolled fires.
Several other countries in the Amazon basin – an area spanning 7.4m sq km (2.9m sq miles) – have also seen a high number of fires this year. Venezuela has experienced the second-highest number, with more than 26,000 fires, with Bolivia coming in third, with more than 19,000. This is a rise of 79% on last year. Peru, in fifth place, has seen a rise of 92%. The size of the fires in Bolivia is estimated to have doubled since late last week. More than 1.8 million acres in Bolivia have been burned.
In Brazil CESE will work together with partners in the Amazon region. The main partner is COIAB (Coordination of Indigenous Organizations of the Brazilian Amazon), which brings together hundreds of indigenous organizations from all over the Amazon, and is acting directly on some of the firefighting fronts. The other partners are indigenous and socio-environmental organizations involved in the various territories. ACT Alliance members in Brazil and Bolivia are monitoring the development of the situation, IEMB (Methodist Church from Bolivia) is preparing to provide humanitarian relief in the affected area in Bolivia and CESE, FEACT Brazil’s member with others local partners is planning to provide support in Food security, mobility and firefighting equipment, communication and advocacy. Other ACT Alliance local members will engage on the external dissemination and advocacy activities related to the disaster.
Alerts_Fire_in_The_Amazon
India and Myanmar: Monsoon Floods
Flooding caused by monsoon rains continued in India and Myanmar that increased the number people leaving their homes and moving to evacuation centers since last month. Five countries in Asia – India, Bangladesh, Nepal, Pakistan, Vietnam, and Myanmar – have experienced severe flooding from monsoon rains since July. About 1.1 million people in India have been displaced and 105,000 people in Myanmar.
ACT Alliance Members in India: Church’s Auxiliary for Social Action (CASA), Christian Agency for Rural Development (CARD), and United Evangelical Lutheran Churches in India (UELCI) are on the ground for assessments.
Alert India and Myanmar Floods
In the afternoon of Saturday, 10 August 2019, the provinces of Zhengjia, Jiangsu, Shandong, Anhui, and Fujian in China, were hit by Tropical Cyclone Lekima. Peak wind gust was 240km/h with as much as 211 mm rainfall, making it the strongest 2019 typhoon to hit the country so far. As of 12 August, Lekima has left 48 dead and 21 missing, affecting nearly 14.02 million people and forcing the relocation of 1.7million people. Heavy rains and strong gales as well as floods and landslides have caused the collapse of 13,000 houses, damages to 119,000 houses, while 996,000 hectares of crops were affected by the typhoon.
ACT member Amity Foundation will be providing assistance in Anhui Province.
Alert China Typhoon Lekima
South Asia: Monsoon Floods
More than 14 million people are affected by heavy rains, landslides and flooding brought about by monsoon rains this mid-July, in Bangladesh, India, and Nepal. Myanmar has also been affected. Some areas are still inaccessible because of the floods and landslides. There are about 152 deaths across the region. About 650,000 families in the three countries have been displaced.
Areas most affected are Central and Northeast Bangladesh; Assam and Bihar States in India; and Provinces 1, 2, and 3 in Nepal.
ACT forum members in India, Bangladesh, and Nepal are currently doing their assessments. India and Bangladesh will submit a proposal to access ACT’s Rapid Response Fund.
Alerts South Asia Floods
In the evening of Tuesday the 25 June 2019, the region of Irkutsk in Russia, was heavily flooded. From June 25 to July 1 various areas of Irkutsk region in Russia and neighboring regions were hit by long heavy rains. The maximum amount of precipitation fell in the Western, Southern and Central territories of Irkutsk region: here in three days the amount of precipitation reached from 1.5 to 4 months averages. The current flood in the Irkutsk region broke the record highs both in terms of the level of precipitation and the water level of rivers that flooded the banks. Heavy rains led to the rise of rivers, specifically the tributaries of the Angara river which rose by 10-14 meters, much higher than the critical mark. According to officials, more than 37 thousand people have been affected to date, including more than 7,000 children; 25 persons were killed, 11 are missing; 410 hospitalized; and 2,563 were evacuated. 110 settlements and cities were flooded, 48 sections of roads were covered by water, and 20 bridges were damaged. About 6,700 houses were flooded or swept away. In seven districts of the Irkutsk region, a state of emergency was declared, with three of them (Tulun, Nizhneudinsk, and Taishet) almost completely flooded.
The floods have put the region in a state of crisis. The flood affected persons find themselves in a desperate situation, with many unmet vital humanitarian needs such as access to: safe shelter and basic non-food items and safe drinking water, as well as sanitation and hygiene infrastructure.
Alerts_Russia_Irkutsk Floods
Bolivia: Emergency response to floods/RRF_ 6_2019
Heavy rains have affected different regions in Bolivia. Overflowing rivers and floods were reported in Alto Beni, Palos Blancos, Guanay, Rurrenabaque, Riberalta, Villa Montes, Cutaiqui, San Borja and San Buenaventura. According to the Ministry of Defense reports, 79 municipalities (of 338 in the country) are under a state of disaster and 25 are under a state of emergency. A total of 47,125 families suffered partial loss of assets, 23,683 families have been left homeless, 34 people were reported dead and 26 people are missing. The Government has reported that the greatest number of affected people are found in Potosí, La Paz, Chuquisaca, Beni, Santa Cruz and Cochabamba – more than 70,000 families affected between February and April. Major damages include loss of crops, housing and other assets. The rains that have been falling since the beginning of the year, influenced by the El Niño phenomenon, have caused different degrees of impact. On 2 and 3 of April, heavy rains affected areas between the departments of Chuquisaca and Santa Cruz, affecting 3,059 families in two municipalities in Monteagudo and Cami. The Bolivian Government declared a national emergency on 27 February, and on 10 April declared an emergency for the departments of Potosí, La Paz, Chuquisaca, Santa Cruz and Cochabamba.
The Methodist Church from Bolivia, through its Rural Development Department is going to provide food security and psychosocial support to 500 affected households. The RRF will contribute to assist the needs of native indigenous households living in very remote communities from the departments of Potosi and Beni.
RRF_Floods_Bolivia_06_2019
