"Having secured an arrangement with government units to provide relief in remote areas, Oxfam's five relief teams are putting all of our resources into helping people stranded in rural areas away from the epicenter," said John Sayer, director general of Oxfam Hong Kong.
Oxfam has now committed more than $3.2 million to an initial effort that has commanded response from around the world as headlines continue to bear bad news: A week after the 7.9 magnitude quake struck, Reuters is reporting that 34,000 have died and 30,000 others remain missing; 4.8 million people have lost their homes; and Sichuan Province alone is facing $9.6 billion in economic losses. Hundreds of aftershocks and heavy rain have brought further devastation, including landslides that have reportedly killed 158 relief workers struggling to repair roads in recent days.
"Oxfam is teaming up with medical and hygiene professionals and working in and around the city of Mianyang to prevent an epidemic from starting," said Sayer. Oxfam is also carrying out disease monitoring, control, and prevention in Guangyuan and Zhenzhong.
The organization is concentrating on securing an adequate supply of drinking water for survivors as well as helping to provide safe sanitation services, and carrying out public health education.
Oxfam's first shipment of goods reached Dujiangyin and Guangyuan on Monday. A second shipment is due to reach Qingchuan on Tuesday.
Among the health-related goods Oxfam is sending into the region are portable toilets, intestinal drugs, first aid materials, face masks, and sanitary supplies for women. It has also provided clothing and high-energy biscuits.
Five villages in Gansu Province will also be getting a delivery of aid that will include tents, flour, oil, blankets, and milk powder. The goods will help meet the needs of 3,000 people in Wudu County.
Oxfam, which has more than 20 years experience working in mainland China, is now working alongside the Civil Affairs Department, the Poverty Alleviation and Development Office, several mainland-based aid groups, medical schools, and a variety of volunteer groups.
Additionally, the organization is preparing to reach remote areas of Aba Tibetan and Qiang Autonomous Prefecture.
]]>Oxfam has committed $1.55 million to this initial response. It is also preparing for longer-term projects such as helping to rebuild damaged infrastructure.
Oxfam colleagues based in the neighboring province of Yunnan are now traveling to Wenchuan County in Sichuan, the epicenter of the 7.8-magnitude quake, for assessment and coordination of the relief work. The organization is also planning to provide assistance in Gansu Province where it had been working on development projects prior to the disaster.
Based on our communication with local organizations in the affected areas, our initial assessment is that earthquake survivors need clean water, food, medicine, clothing, and blankets. We also anticipate that there will be a huge need for rehabilitation and reconstruction assistance. Damage to infrastructure and other facilities is significant and Oxfam expects it will take months for the region to recover.
"This is the worst earthquake in 30 years, with a huge impact on people's livelihoods," said John Sayer, director general of Oxfam Hong Kong. "With over 20 years of experience working in China on long-term development work and emergency relief, Oxfam Hong Kong is determined to help as quickly as possible, to guarantee people's safety in the short term, and in the end, as a long-term goal, to improve their livelihoods."
]]>In April, the Ethiopian government announced that 2.18 million people now need emergency food assistance. Citing the toll water shortages have taken on crops and pastureland, Ethiopia has asked donors for $67.7 million in aid to help it meet the nutritional needs of people in six of the country's nine states, as well as needs for emergency water provision, animal care, and seeds. The government has also said an additional 947,383 people would have their emergency needs met through Ethiopia's existing safety net.
Oxfam and the local groups with which it partners are responding to the crisis in the Somali and Oromia regions through a multi-pronged approach which not only addresses the immediate requirements families have for water, but also provides some help to reduce the risk of hardship during the next water shortage.
In Ethiopia, the daily chore of fetching water usually falls to women and children. In drought situations, when local sources such as shallow ponds or wells dry up, the trek for this essential resource becomes even more grueling.
The Liben Pastoralist Development Association, an Oxfam partner working in the southern part of the country, realized how acute the water shortage had become when it began receiving reports of women, some of them pregnant, walking more than 18 miles from their villages to the nearest water point. Laden with 20-liter jugs of water, some of those women miscarried. Others delivered their babies along the road.
In one part of the Somali region, Oxfam learned that people were selling jerricans of water for 30 birr, or about $3.20—a small fortune in a country where poverty is widespread. Some private businesses had even started importing water from Hargessa in Somaliland.
An assessment team that traveled to the Borena zone in southern Ethiopia reported in March that more than 17,000 animals had died since January in the 11 districts it visited. Herding families in the area depend on those animals—cows, goats, sheep, camels, donkeys—not only for food but also as a critical source of income. The team found that drought had prompted the closing of 29 schools in that area because there was no water for the students. And local officials told team members that many elderly residents were showing signs of malnutrition—a possible indication that the Borena people were using one of their traditional coping strategies. In their culture, the first priority of women during food shortages is to invest in the youngest generation: children eat before their elders do.
Families in these dry pastoral areas have developed a number of ways to cope with recurrent drought. Some of them have been able to keep reserves of hay on hand for their animals when the pasture dries up. Sometimes, people slaughter their cows and goats and use the meat to help feed their families. When they can, they hunt for wood to sell or to turn into charcoal. If families lose their entire herds, other families contribute animals to get a new herd started.
But over the years, the persistent crises have depleted the assets of many people and exhausted their ability to cope. For herders, their traditional means of managing are also running headlong into modern realities. For instance, the populations of both people and their animals are growing. The allocation of communal grazing areas to private investors and a system of regionalization is limiting the amount of land herders can have access to. And bush, once burned off by fires that have since been banned, continues to encroach on valuable pastureland.
One of the consequences of the current crisis is a plunge in the value of animals. Without enough water or pasture they become sick, and many die. The Gayo Pastoralist Development Initiative, an Oxfam partner, reports that the drop in value of livestock has been extreme in districts such as Dire and Dillo in the Borena zone.
And herders are facing a double hit. As they are earn less for their animals, they are simultaneously confronted with spiraling costs for grain—a food staple. Gayo notes that grain prices have jumped by almost 100 percent in some districts.
To help ease some of the severe hardships caused by the drought, Oxfam is working with four local groups to distribute water, provide needy animals with feed and veterinary care, and rehabilitate a series of local ponds so they can provide water in the future.
With support from Oxfam, the Liben Pastoralist Development Initiative's plans have called for providing drinking water to 6,000 people in two areas in the Liben District of the Oromia region's Guji Zone. The water is being trucked in from wells about 28 miles away and stored in four large tanks—and providing enough to allow each person about 4 gallons a day.
The Liben group is also transporting hay and a wheat-bran feed into the region to help shore up the strength of the animals on which people depend. But in an indication of how challenging it can be to work in remote areas, the nearest place Liben can find the necessary fodder is Addis Ababa, Ethiopia's capital, more than 370 miles to the north.
In the Dillo and Dhas districts of the Borena Zone, Action for Development is restoring three wells that typically serve 4,000 to 5,000 head of livestock each day. But because of the drought and shrinking water supplies elsewhere, the number of animals relying on water from these sources could double. The plan calls for the purchase of generators and sub pumps to get these wells running at maximum efficiency.
Like the Liben group, Action for Development is also trucking water in to Dillo and Dhas to help more than 5,000 people with access to a clean supply. The trucks are transporting the water from wells up to 34 miles away.
An estimated 13,500 people and 2,500 head of cattle will benefit from a series of projects the Gayo Pastoralist Development Initiative is also carrying out with Oxfam's help, including the restoration of two ponds in the Borena zone. Ponds provide one of the central sources of water for animals in the area, but during long dry spells they dry up, especially if silt has made them shallow.
By hiring local people to deepen the ponds, Gayo is able to provide families with an important source of income while also helping them to increase the holding capacity of these critical water sources.
"Rehabilitation of ponds during the dry season tremendously increases their capacities and enables them to serve for a longer period of time during drought," said Gayo in its grant application to Oxfam. Gayo pointed to its successes with three ponds in the Moyale area during the 2006 drought.
"The three ponds rehabilitated in response to the drought have still enough water and serve the community at the moment," Gayo said.
]]>The reservoir is at the base of large, steep hill, more like a small mountain really. At the top is a spring, from which water flows through pipes to the pond. It was constructed three years ago by a nearby organization called Action for Development with support from Oxfam America. Before then Jarrso's clan members had to herd their cows up the steep hill, the only means to get water in the dry season. Every day cows would expire on the path up to the spring.
"During the dry time there is no grass to eat," Jarsso says. "They could not climb, so we pushed them up, and some would die." There were years in which more than 10 a day would die on that hill.
Piping the water down the hill helps tremendously. More cows can access the water, the herders and their families can retain more of their wealth and can better survive the dry season, and they get clean, fresh water to drink and cook with, and wash their clothes in.
But the reservoir does not help one ongoing problem: herders are reporting that good pasture for grazing their cattle is harder and harder to find, and not just in the dry season. Jarsso and others in his clan say there are three main reasons for the disappearing pasture:
"The Borena people have many different methods for coping with drought," says Abera Tola, director of Oxfam America's program in Ethiopia. "But some of these bushes are new to them, and the increase in tick infestation may both be related to changes in the climate. We want to research this to find ways to help them."
Bilalo Jarsso said the Borena are trying to survive despite these challenges, and are accustomed to traveling two to three days at a time looking for decent pasture.
"We used to find grass somewhere," he said. It is becoming more and more difficult now.
Oxfam America's partner AFD is helping herders take a more active approach, teaching the Borena to manage their range land more aggressively and actually clear away the encroaching bushes to improve the pasture for grazing. This would be particularly crucial in the dry season, says Tolusa Kemaio, a project officer for AFD.
"The dry season is a very serious time here," he says. "People really struggle, and they can't just slaughter their animals to survive."
]]>— Maria Paulo, Chueza Temporary Camp resident
It is very hard to forget the trauma of the past but easy to rebuild hope for a better future. This is probably the most appropriate description of the emotions flowing in the hearts of thousands of people directly affected by the floods in January 2008 in Mozambique. The cyclical floods that have begun to occur are pushing people affected by them to look at climate change and their own vulnerability in a different way—and to change their approach for the future.
The government has announced the end of the emergency period, which means that efforts are now being focused on creating long-term sustainable services to help people living in the resettlement centers recover from the flooding.
It's time to build the future, say some in the temporary camps based in Marromeu, in Sofala Province, one of the most affected by the floods. It's time to reflect on the capacity local communities have to withstand the effects of drought and flood. In themselves, extreme weather events don't necessarily result in disasters. Disasters are often a consequence of human vulnerabilities—of people who have no choice but to live in dangerous locations, such as on flood plains or steep slopes prone to landslides.
According to official figures, the January flood displaced 115,000 people. In the provinces of Sofala, Zambezia, Tete, and Inhambane, many displaced people lost all their belongings, including houses, goods, and crops.
Oxfam is helping more than 48,000 people in the resettlement centers recover by providing things such as clean water, hygiene facilities, household utensils, plastic sheeting for shelter, and other materials for construction.
"We understand that the process of resettling people should be as flexible as possible, to provide motivation and the environment for the affected people not to return to their places of origins," said Michael Tizora, former head of Oxfam's humanitarian action program in Mozambique.
Oxfam has an operational base in Marromeu District, where a field team is assisting displaced people in the temporary camps of Chueza 1 and 2, Nhapirundo, Chapa 30, and Zona C, downstream of the Zambezi River and in the resettlement sites of Chupanga, Chiburiburi , and Amambos.
"Our need now is to get seeds to produce enough food in enough quantity to feed our families," said Paulino Chueza, the traditional head of Chueza center. "We promise the government not to go back to our houses, but we still need a lot of help and assistance to forget what happened and look forward."
In the district of Mutarara, Tete Province, where Oxfam has been operating, the program is helping farmers to recover their livelihoods in addition to providing a water and sanitation program that has targeted 30,000 people. In Tambara, in Manica Province, Oxfam has been working with Magariro, a local organization that is assisting 13,500 people with water and sanitation and supporting them in restarting their agricultural activities after the floods.
In almost all camps, people have basic necessities such as latrines, drinking water, health facilities, and schools for children. Oxfam recruited and trained local health promotion activists to assist beneficiaries in the proper use of these facilities and to promote good hygiene to avoid an outbreak of diseases like diarrhea. However, the future is still quite uncertain for most of the people. There are lessons to be learned from the floods of 2001, 2007, and 2008. The challenge now is to build local capacity to avoid the troubles caused by weather-related events and climate change.
Many people have lost everything, but not the sense of hope in changing the present and building the future. Positive change demands confidence, hope, and a lot of work.
]]>And they're exactly what Oxfam America and its local partner, the Gayo Pastoralist Development Initiative, hoped to spot when, together with the Harvard Humanitarian Initiative, they piloted an innovative early warning system for the region. Now just beyond its first six-month trial period, the system is designed to track changes in local conditions that could signal the advent of hardship for people—and get them help before the problems spiral out of control. The program is targeting 21,346 people scattered in the villages of Tuka, Arganne, Danbii, and Mudhi Ambo.
Oxfam and its partners started this initiative following a devastating drought in 2006 that left more than 60 percent of the livestock dead in some pastoral areas. The drought was accompanied by conflict that forced the displacement of many people.
How does a disease with no name in a remote and dusty part of Ethiopia find its way onto the radar screen of an international aid group a third of the way around the world? Through a lot of hard work.
It starts with data collectors—four of them, hired by Gayo—with strong legs and the commitment to make a monthly trek to five far flung households in each of the four villages. Sometimes, the data gatherers, who are all women, will walk a full day to reach the households that are participating in the program. Selected by Gayo, the households represent a range of prosperity, with some better off than others.
And it's the women in those households that the data collectors have come to see—because they are the ones with the hard facts about the well-being of their families. The women are available most of the time while the men are away, traveling with livestock in search of pasture and water. Out and about in their villages, the women have been keeping mental tabs on what's been happening with others, too.
How much water seems to be in the ponds and streams this season compared to last? Are there more cases of diarrhea in the village this month—or less? How many meals a day are children getting? And how about the adults?
"Women know it all," said Miriam Aschkenasy, Oxfam's public health specialist who helped to develop the program, including those questions. They are designed to reveal critical information that can paint a comprehensive picture of a community's health. And they give the women a way to voice the knowledge they have of their community and local environment.
"The women make sure they're informed about what is happening in their villages. They talk to other women in anticipation of the data collectors' arrival," said Aschkenasy.
"The community saw this program as having a lot of value," added Emily Farr, Oxfam America's deployable humanitarian officer who, with Aschkenasy, recently made a field visit to Ethiopia. "Never before has someone come to their houses to collect information on them. It makes them understand people are concerned about what's affecting them. It makes them feel valued."
The data collectors spend 20 to 30 minutes at each of the five houses on their list, and plot the answers to 24 questions on a visual analog scale—a tool that gauges attitudes and perceptions that cannot be easily measured. And in this case, it's particularly useful in gathering data from people who may not be able to read. It's also easily convertible for charting on a graph—from which the trends then become visible.
"We are using scientific methodology to convert feelings into comparable data," said Aschkenasy. "That's what makes this cutting edge."
Once the collectors return home with their data—about malaria and milk production, plantings and harvests, livestock deaths and births—Gayo compiles it, along with anecdotal comments gleaned from the villagers as well as statistics gathered from district markets and health posts, and from the Oxfam office in Addis Ababa the material gets emailed to Boston.
"One of the things important to me is that this early warning system is based on evidence," said Aschkenasy. "That increases your ability to do monitoring. It also lets you know that the programs that follow are based on real information, rather than conjecture, and can be sharply focused."
For instance, said Farr, if there is a problem with food availability, this kind of tracking system will help aid groups, local partners, and the communities themselves develop solutions that address that problem very specifically.
In meetings with community elders about the early warning system, they told Oxfam staffers that changes in local conditions occur seasonally—or every three months. They agreed that it would be useful to analyze those changes on a quarterly basis. Regular analysis would allow them to pool their resources and develop timely solutions to their problems.
Community elders also said that they could use the data to address ongoing issues, too, such as with the quantity and quality of water available for villages.
"One solution is to reduce the distance to water by digging more ponds and building cisterns," said one of the elders. "We can contribute the manpower and may ask for small inputs like cement."
But for now, what about those camels?
Nazareth Fikru, Oxfam America's regional humanitarian coordinator based in Addis Ababa, said that data gathered from the communities around Moyale show that about 189 of these highly prized animals have died in the last six months.
"The disease was initially reported in May, 2005 in Afar—eastern Ethiopia—some two years ago and gradually expanded to other pastoral areas like the Somali region and the Borena area of Oromia," said Fikru. "Some research is going on by the ministry of agriculture and rural development together with the Food and Agriculture Organization, but so far, no information about the causes or controls has been shared."
Oxfam is not planning to address the camel illness itself, but the fact that it has showed up in the data-gathering will help the organization and Gayo stay alert to the problem and the effect it could have on the overall health of the communities they are working with.
]]>"When a cyclone hits, it means you can lose everything," said Khan, Oxfam America's humanitarian response officer in East Asia. "Rich and poor alike."
The entire coastal zone is prone to violent storms and tropical cyclones between April and May—before the monsoon season starts—and again in October and November, when the monsoon has ended. Khan estimates that cyclones have killed nearly one million Bangladeshis since 1820. In 1970, one event alone took about half those lives. With a storm surge topping 30 feet, that November 12th cyclone killed 500,000 people and more than one million heads of cattle.
The disaster pushed the United Nations to ask the International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies to develop an early warning system for the country, said Khan. The result was the establishment of the Cyclone Preparedness Program, a community-based volunteer organization that provides early warning to people, and then helps with relief work and first aid after the storms hit.
But 21 years after the deadliest storm in Bangladesh's history, another devastating cyclone struck the country in late April, 1991, killing 138,000 people. It was at that point, said Khan, that Bangladesh began to look seriously at the steps it could take to help people prepare for the inevitable.
At the urging of aid groups and the donor community, the government of Bangladesh began to shift its emergency response programs to focus more heavily on preparedness. When Cyclone Sidr struck a few weeks ago in mid-November, evacuation planning, early warning systems, and the establishment of cyclone shelters helped to save about 100,000 lives.
Nevertheless, the physical devastation left in the storm's wake was stunning: Sidr damaged or destroyed 1.4 million homes, hurt more than two million acres of crops, and wiped out more than four million trees. What all of that means is that people have nowhere to live, many of them have lost their means for making a living, and food reserves have been wiped out.
While aid groups like Oxfam are responding with programs to provide clean water and sanitation to prevent the spread of waterborne disease and to supplement food in the months ahead, there is a great deal more that can be done to help people stay safe—and recover quickly—from storms like these.
Khan points to the need for more research on how to build low-cost but cyclone-tolerant housing in coastal areas. And then work needs to be done on developing programs with commercial banks to finance the construction of those homes. Additionally, aid groups need to help communities explore alternative ways for people to earn their livings, so that storms like Sidr don't wipe out all their options.
For these disaster risk reduction programs to be successful, added Khan, they need to be based at the community level—where local people will know best what the particular dangers are and what steps are needed to grapple with them. But there is an international component to this too: Donors need to support the preparedness work that local governments and aid groups are undertaking. It's a smart investment. Typically, each dollar spent on reducing a community's risk to disaster is worth about $8 in emergency relief.
]]>
Tahmina clung to a tree throughout the night.
"The wind sounded like a killer, and the waves ate too high," she said. "I was on a coconut tree. The wave took me there. I had no clothes on me when the sea was gone."
When dawn broke, Tahmina discovered that her sons Masum, 17, and Monir, 13, were both dead. In her village in the southern Barguna region of Bangladesh many people lost their lives.
The people of Bangladesh are still picking up the pieces after their country was battered by Sidr. The intense storm killed more than 3,000 people, wrecked hundreds of thousands of homes, and caused massive loss and damage to crops. In total the storm is thought to have affected more than eight million people.
In another village, a boy named Rahim and his family have started rebuilding their home, which was destroyed in the cyclone. But great uncertainty lies ahead.
"Father can't go to the sea now," Rahim said, "because the boat he works in is lost and the nets are on top of the tree, tangled and torn. Some people are giving us cooked lunch every day in the cyclone shelter."
Oxfam has created cash for work programs in cyclone-affected villages so that people can earn a living while they recover from the storm. To support her family, Rahim's mother has taken a job in one of these programs, clearing the village pond for 100 taka a day, or about $1.50.
Women and men in the cash for work programs clear ponds of trees, branches, and other debris tossed there by the cyclone's winds. Since salinity is high on the coastal area, these ponds are often only source of drinking water for an entire village. The workers also remove trees from roads that were blocked by the storm.
Bangladesh is one of the world's most vulnerable countries to the impacts of climate change. This is both because its population is so poor and because its low-lying geography on the Bay of Bengal makes it especially vulnerable to ocean-borne weather events.
Climate scientists forecast global warming will cause storms of increased intensity like Sidr, and that rainfall patterns will become more variable, leading to more floods and droughts. The sea level rise associated with global warming is also predicted to cause increasing salt content in the soil. These effects present a devastating challenge for a country where 70 percent of people rely on farming for their livelihoods.
]]>For villagers in Mindanao, once known as the food basket of the Philippines, extreme heat, droughts and flash flooding are now annual occurrences. They used to enjoy three planting seasons a year, generating bountiful crops from their fertile soil. Now, villagers are battling regular pest infestations and unpredictable weather, malnutrition is rising, and some villagers are forced to survive on bananas.
The worst crisis so far was the 1997 El Niño, which lasted for nine months. The temperature soared, plants dried, land cracked, and clean water sources were threatened. People left their villages.
In the village of Sepaka, last year's drought lasted for six months. All the crops failed and some farmers only managed to produce one sack of rice. In a good season, one hectare yields an average of 70 sacks of rice.
This year the farmers face an added crisis: many of the rice fields have turned black and dried up because of an infestation of black rice bugs. Nobody knows where the bugs come from, or why. All the villagers know is that they face food shortages again within the next six months. The people of Sepaka are desperate because they do not have staple foods.
One villager has decided to find a new way to survive in the face of a changing climate. He is Rasid Naim, 28 years old, from a family of farmers of rice and corn. In 2004, Rasid started to volunteer for Oxfam's operational project and received training in organic farming techniques. He applied these techniques to his father's hectare of land and soon found he was making huge savings by mixing his own pesticides and fertilizers instead of buying synthetic ones. He was able to pay his previous debts to traders and buy an additional 1.5 hectares of land, which is now an organic farm too.
At first, Rasid's fellow farmers teased him that his new approaches would not withstand the threats from insects and pests. But they did, and his success in organic farming has convinced 18 more farmers to shift from chemical-dependent to natural and organic practices. His experience proves that his own rice field withstood not only rice farm pests, but also intense flash floods and recurring droughts. Now Rasid is experimenting with an organic pesticide against the deadly black bugs.
It is still early days, but Rasid's work is just one of a myriad of grassroots adaptations to climate change that are already happening across the developing world. Rasid hopes for more support from the government for this kind of project.
"Organic farming frees us from poisonous substance from the chemicals found in the synthetic fertilisers and pesticides," says Rasid. "Our land is more fertile, our bodies are healthier, and we are happier that even the next generation, our children and grandchildren, can benefit from it."
Women's groups have also been created to generate income. One of their activities is making organic soap. They sell it to their neighbors and use their income to buy ingredients needed to make organic fertilizers.
"We need to save mother Earth," says Nor-aisa Iskak, one of the women fundraising to make organic fertilizers and pesticides.
]]>Once rich and fertile and capable of producing bountiful crops, the soil is now bone dry. Without water, the community's crops and gardens won't grow. Without these vital fruits, vegetables and grains, people aren't able to get the nutritious foods they need to stay healthy. And in a community affected by HIV and AIDS, this has devastating consequences.
"The ground used to be soft and easy to dig by hand; water was freely available just under the surface and food was plentiful; there was a lake nearby that provided fish for us to eat," Thandi says. "But now the land is dry and hard and there is no water under the surface; even the lake has dried up."
Thandi says rainfall has become more erratic over the last few decades, occurring less frequently and for shorter periods. Other members of the community concur. The seasons are not the same as they used to be; winter is not as cold now and summer rains are more erratic. People here have experienced droughts and floods for as long as they can remember, but since the mid-1990s they have noticed a gradual drying of the land. Even the rainwater tanks that were installed as a solution to the problem now stand dry.
Although Hluhluwe's people know the climate is changing, they have not heard about global warming, nor do they have any knowledge about the current global debates on these issues.
For the men and women of Hluhluwe, one thing is clear?they desperately want to learn how to adapt to the changes in climate in the longer term. At the moment they are simply trying deal with the prolonged drought conditions as best they can, by doing what they have always done but on a reduced scale. They make their gardens smaller, grow different types of crops and walk further to collect water?but these are short-term coping mechanisms, not long-term solutions.
If current trends continue, the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change says, sub-Saharan Africa will be 2-4 degrees warmer by 2050, and have 10 percent less rainfall. There will be more extreme events such as drought and floods and the length of the growing season will shorten even further.
"We need water pipes," Thandi says. "We need to learn how to look after the land and adapt to the drier conditions; we need to grow more drought-tolerant crops and vegetables. We need to learn more about climate change, and we need training in how we can speak up on these issues."
]]>But when they returned, the full impact of the strongest storm in 16 years was all too clear. Sidr killed at least 2,837 people, destroyed or damaged more than 1.1 million homes, and hurt nearly one and a half million acres of cropland.
"There are so many people without homes or basic sanitation, and who are now likely to be unable to get food, that Bangladesh is facing its most serious humanitarian disaster in many decades," said Heather Blackwell, head of Oxfam International in Bangladesh.
Oxfam is responding with an initial $8.5 million emergency relief effort that will provide up to 153,000 people with clean water and nutritional support. Additionally, the program will offer 15,000 households the means to construct temporary shelters. And as many as 400 latrines will also be built—with a design that will ensure privacy for women.
"People urgently need drinking water, food, and medical support," said Enamul Hoque, a public health advisor working with Oxfam on the response. "Many areas are completely cut off from receiving supplies and markets have been destroyed. There is a need for markets to start functioning properly."
Assessment teams visiting the devastated region have reported that dead animals and debris have contaminated many of the ponds on which most people depend for their drinking, washing, and cooking water. The potential for the spread of waterborne diseases, including cholera, remains high.
Oxfam and its partners are working with communities to clean up the ponds and dispose of the animal carcasses. And though access remains difficult, Oxfam has also started to transport water to some of the more remote areas. We plan to install up to 100 solar desalination stills—as a pilot project—in some of those remote areas to provide drinking water.
Our response plans also call for the distribution of water treatment materials to 15,000 households that will allow them to improve water quality to a satisfactory level. In addition, we will provide up to 200 temporary shallow-tube wells in areas where seawater has contaminated the surface.
Sidr caused massive damage to crops in the coastal region which will have both an immediate and long-term effect on Bangladesh. Severe floods in the north a few months earlier also hit the agriculture sector hard, and with the price of food now spiking, aid workers are concerned that people will not have enough to eat.
Oxfam plans to provide supplemental rations for up to 30,000 households for three months. The distribution, intended to complement food programs undertaken by other groups, will meet about 35 percent of each household's food needs.
In addition, Oxfam will distribute basic goods to 30,000 households. Many families lost everything—clothes, tools, animals—and have no means for replacing them. Our distribution of household goods includes buckets, jugs, mugs, blankets, saris, kitchen utensils, and soap.
]]>In advance of the cyclone, around 1,000 volunteers from Oxfam's partner organizations in Bangladesh helped evacuate villagers whose homes were in the path of the storm. We now have teams on the ground and are coordinating closely with our partner organizations and the government of Bangladesh to ensure that Oxfam resources are directed to where they are most needed. Our immediate focus will be helping more than 80,000 people in the hard-hit districts of Daerhat, Pirojpur, Barguna and Patuakhali meet their basic needs for food, water, shelter, and sanitation.
]]>"We lost almost everything," he said. The floods arrived at the end of the second maize harvest. Some of the farmers were able to save a little—half, at best. The unlucky ones lost everything.
The question is commonly heard: How long has it been since something like this happened? "It was around ten years, since Hurricane Roxanne. That one flooded everything," says Alelia Ricárdez. "My children built this house a little higher to avoid the same damage happening again."
So this time she was able to help: the families of her five sons took refuge inside her new house. They lost some animals and a big part of the milpa crop, but they saved most of the furniture. "We lifted it and tied it with ropes to the roof," she said. They couldn't save the refrigerator. No time.
But the problem comes now. It's time for the second maize harvest, but the fields are flooded so the farmers can neither harvest this crop nor plant the next. Moreover, there are no seeds. Normally, farmers harvest enough to save seeds for the next season, but in Tabasco this year there aren't any.
"Right here there are fish and prawns instead." Emigrafio Domínguez from Ejido de Potreritos points at his maize field while he speaks. His farm is 300 meters away from the river, but the water arrived and covered everything. He still tries to salvage something: "I have to pick the oranges now, because the tree is dead."
To save some of the corn, he wades through water up to his knees. He gathers four or five ears and takes them to dry land. Though he managed to save his turkey, he lost his hens and watched his ducks go with the water. "The next season will be really hard."
In Ejido de Potreritos, the worries center around the crops - not knowing what will happen next season if the farmers cannot plant in November. "With a hectare and a half of maize, I had enough for the year," says Francisco Dominguez. "Not this time."
]]>But this year, when these rivers spilled their banks, the consequences were severe. A team of local officials who visited 10 districts in the Gambella region in the end of September reported that the floods had displaced 135,721 people. The flooding killed two people and left 970 heads of livestock dead. High water still surrounded more than 19,000 people at the time of the assessment. Some districts were accessible only by boat.
Now, many people are in need of help. Food, shelter, and blankets are top on the list.
Together with its local partner, Envision Beyond Basic Needs Association, or EBBA, Oxfam America has launched a $39,000 emergency relief project to help about 8,500 people, almost half of whom are women. Plans called for the distribution of blankets for warmth and plastic sheets for shelter to 1,693 families in five localities.
"We are prepared to do more if the request comes through," said Dawit Beyene, Oxfam America's deputy director of humanitarian response. "The flooding continues and subsequent information we got revealed much more damage than we initially received." Five health posts, 20 schools, two farmer training centers, and nine clinics were also damaged by the floods.
Most of the people in Gambella, which is a low-lying region along the border with Sudan, make their living by fishing from the rivers, working small farms, or herding animals. Despite the regular flooding, villagers settle on the banks of region's rivers to pursue their livelihoods. Now, Oxfam is exploring more permanent ways of helping people cope with the challenges of their environment.
"We're discussing targeting Gambella for more preparedness work—such as establishing a permanent warehouse for emergency supplies as well as helping to increase the capacity of the local organizations with which we work in the region," said Beyene.
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