Stuck in a Furrow
Monday, February 26, 2007
This Makes Me Sad....
Did you hear about this? It is hardly in the news...why??
Mozambique floods turning 2,000 a day into refugees
View the article here
POSTED: 1517 GMT (2317 HKT), February 26, 2007
Story Highlights• Food supplies stretched as refugees stream into camps
• Fears of disease rise as sanitary conditions in camps deteriorate
• Infrastructure damaged by years of civil war
• Situation could worsen as March is one of nation's wettest months
CAIA, Mozambique (Reuters) -- Thousands of flood victims are pouring into crowded refugee camps in central Mozambique, straining relief efforts and prompting fears of a food crisis, authorities said on Monday.
Weeks of heavy rains have triggered flash floods along the mighty Zambezi river and its tributaries, washing away homes, bridges, livestock and crops in four central provinces in the low-lying southern African nation.
About 170,000 people have been displaced and at least 45 have died as a result of the flooding, the worst to hit the former Portuguese colony since the 2000-2001 floods that killed 700 people and drove another half a million from their homes.
Aid workers were battling on Monday to supply food and fresh water to a ballooning refugee population, with an estimated 2,000 people each day streaming into temporary accommodation centers set up by the Red Cross and other agencies. (Watch how UNICEF is trying to help kids in Mozambique )
"We still have some food, but it's not enough," said Joao Ribeiro, deputy director of Mozambique's National Institute for Disaster Management (INGC).
Ribeiro said sanitary conditions in the shelters were worsening because of a lack of toilets and poor hygiene, raising fears of outbreaks of cholera and dysentery among the estimated 50,000 people living in the makeshift camps.
Mozambican President Armando Guebuza, however, said the relief effort was proceeding smoothly and there was no need for the government to issue a broad appeal for help.
"It's not a declaration on the international front that can help to change the situation. I think we are going in the right direction," Guebuza told reporters in Caia, a central Mozambican town that has become a command center for the relief effort.
Earlier on Monday the Mozambican leader flew over parts of the Zambezi valley that were hard hit by the flooding.
The U.N. World Food Program (WFP) is distributing food to refugees in the affected provinces. Neighboring South Africa and the European Union also have pledged more help for the relief effort.
South Africa will send two helicopters and a mobile water purification plant to its northeastern neighbor this week and could add a field hospital and water and wind-resistant tents to its contribution, the SAPA news agency reported on Monday.
But aid workers say the effort to feed and shelter refugees has been complicated by poor roads in Mozambique, which is still rebuilding after a 16-year civil war that ended in 1991.
The struggle to get food and water to flood victims could become more difficult in the coming weeks as more rain falls on the country. March traditionally is one of the wettest periods in Mozambique's rainy season.
"A lot of areas are still very difficult to get through and there are new pockets of disaster areas forming," said Peter Rodrigues, emergency relief coordinator for the WFP in Caia.
"The challenge is that these people are spread out, making it difficult to reach them."
In southern Mozambique, which is home to the bulk of the country's economically important tourist resorts, authorities were assessing the damage from Cyclone Favio, which came ashore on Thursday with winds of up to 169 mph.
The cyclone slammed into the coast, knocking down buildings, uprooting trees and killing five people near Vilanculos. Mozambique's military on Monday was attempting to restore water and electricity in the resort city.
Mozambique floods turning 2,000 a day into refugees
View the article here
POSTED: 1517 GMT (2317 HKT), February 26, 2007
Story Highlights• Food supplies stretched as refugees stream into camps
• Fears of disease rise as sanitary conditions in camps deteriorate
• Infrastructure damaged by years of civil war
• Situation could worsen as March is one of nation's wettest months
CAIA, Mozambique (Reuters) -- Thousands of flood victims are pouring into crowded refugee camps in central Mozambique, straining relief efforts and prompting fears of a food crisis, authorities said on Monday.
Weeks of heavy rains have triggered flash floods along the mighty Zambezi river and its tributaries, washing away homes, bridges, livestock and crops in four central provinces in the low-lying southern African nation.
About 170,000 people have been displaced and at least 45 have died as a result of the flooding, the worst to hit the former Portuguese colony since the 2000-2001 floods that killed 700 people and drove another half a million from their homes.
Aid workers were battling on Monday to supply food and fresh water to a ballooning refugee population, with an estimated 2,000 people each day streaming into temporary accommodation centers set up by the Red Cross and other agencies. (Watch how UNICEF is trying to help kids in Mozambique )
"We still have some food, but it's not enough," said Joao Ribeiro, deputy director of Mozambique's National Institute for Disaster Management (INGC).
Ribeiro said sanitary conditions in the shelters were worsening because of a lack of toilets and poor hygiene, raising fears of outbreaks of cholera and dysentery among the estimated 50,000 people living in the makeshift camps.
Mozambican President Armando Guebuza, however, said the relief effort was proceeding smoothly and there was no need for the government to issue a broad appeal for help.
"It's not a declaration on the international front that can help to change the situation. I think we are going in the right direction," Guebuza told reporters in Caia, a central Mozambican town that has become a command center for the relief effort.
Earlier on Monday the Mozambican leader flew over parts of the Zambezi valley that were hard hit by the flooding.
The U.N. World Food Program (WFP) is distributing food to refugees in the affected provinces. Neighboring South Africa and the European Union also have pledged more help for the relief effort.
South Africa will send two helicopters and a mobile water purification plant to its northeastern neighbor this week and could add a field hospital and water and wind-resistant tents to its contribution, the SAPA news agency reported on Monday.
But aid workers say the effort to feed and shelter refugees has been complicated by poor roads in Mozambique, which is still rebuilding after a 16-year civil war that ended in 1991.
The struggle to get food and water to flood victims could become more difficult in the coming weeks as more rain falls on the country. March traditionally is one of the wettest periods in Mozambique's rainy season.
"A lot of areas are still very difficult to get through and there are new pockets of disaster areas forming," said Peter Rodrigues, emergency relief coordinator for the WFP in Caia.
"The challenge is that these people are spread out, making it difficult to reach them."
In southern Mozambique, which is home to the bulk of the country's economically important tourist resorts, authorities were assessing the damage from Cyclone Favio, which came ashore on Thursday with winds of up to 169 mph.
The cyclone slammed into the coast, knocking down buildings, uprooting trees and killing five people near Vilanculos. Mozambique's military on Monday was attempting to restore water and electricity in the resort city.
posted by Crystal at 3:01 PM
5 Comments:
Why isn't it in the news? Take your pick. Not trendy yet (needs a celeb to promote it), disaster burnout, any of a number of reasons. I saw it when I was in the relief and development game and we lost almost all our funding for Sudan because Rwanda became the "cause du jour" and everyone wanted to pour money into there (which just resulted in the inevitable corruption and relief supplies being sold in the market!) Do I sounds cynical? Well, that's because I am. I'm tired of donors deciding where the money should be spent with no idea of where the need really is. I'm tired of the news media deciding what disaster is worth working up the public about and which one to ignore. It's a sad, sad commentary on society and very frustrating if you are trying to help people in the third world.
Those are just some thoughts from a cynical old woman!! ;-)
News would rather report on Britney Spears or Anna-Nicole. I would rather chew glass and pass it. Let's hear some news that really matters!
It is really sick what people think news should be now-a-days, "OMG did you hear there is a big uprising because Brad Pitt got snubbed at the Oscar's" I'm not even making that up, front page of the Sun today has that on it. Sad that things like that make front page and things like the flood make no news at all.
I think it's sick that Brad Pitt gets front page coverage and the thousands of people who are displaced and dying are forgotten. But let's face it, this is not sexy or close to home news that North American media has a fixation with. A lot of people are of the opinion that oh, it's just another African disaster. I know how much this country and it's people mean to you but if it didn't and I didn't know anything about Mozambique, I'm heartbroken to say that I'd probably have that opinion too.
What I don't get is who gets to decided what we need to know? Should we be able to hold our media more accountable?
I'm horrible with names but in the paper this weekend, two men who finance Canadian broadcasts have pulled their money. They said the money isn't going where it should and Canadians are not getting any of the news that they deserve or need to hear.
Post a Comment
<< Home