UN Disaster Officials Scramble to Keep Pace With Demand

Caused by a low depression in the Pacific Ocean off Guam and New Caledonia, the swell affected five provinces - East Sepik, Madang, Manus, Morobe and New Ireland - as well as the autonomous region of Bougainville.

The swells destroyed houses, food and water supplies, damaged crops and led to the loss of gardening tools. Main needs initially identified by the government include water containers, tarps, water purification tablets, food rations and insecticide-treated anti-malarial bed nets.

An inter-agency assessment group including the UNDAC team has been deployed in East Sepik. The team, set to remain in the islands for seven to 10 days, is supporting the National Disaster Centre in Information Management by compiling available data on damage, impact, and needs.

In another part of the world, the UN Children's Fund's first ever airlift of critical emergency supplies to Zimbabwe landed in Harare on Monday, as Zimbabwe struggles with spreading cholera and a collapsing health system.

The cargo - which includes intravenous fluids, drip equipment, essential drugs, midwifery and obstetric kits - will boost the UNICEF cholera response and help the government to deliver some essential health services to expecting mothers.

"This is a strategic measure to address a desperate situation," said Roeland Monasch, the UNICEF acting representative in Zimbabwe. "We are already supplying 70 percent of the country's essential drugs, and these airlifted supplies will further boost UNICEF's lifesaving support."

A flooded village in the Colombia's northern Magdalena department, one of the worst hit by the flooding. (Photo by UNETE courtesy WFP)

The World Food Programme has launched an emergency operation to assist 30,000 people in different parts of Colombia who have been hurt by flooding and avalanches caused by the eruption of a volcano.

Since September, heavy rain has plagued much of Colombia, affecting more than a million people and claiming the lives of 66. In northern and western Colombia, 24,000 people are in need of assistance in what authorities say is the harshest and most destructive rainy season on record. Meanwhile, in southern Colombia, the eruption of the Nevado del Huila volcano in late November left 6,000 people in need of help.

"Although the Government of Colombia's response to the various disasters has been effective and timely, the number of victims has surpassed our expectations," said Praveen Agrawal, WFP representative in Colombia.

United Nations disaster officials were kept busy this year by the rise in hurricanes, floods and other natural disasters caused by extreme weather as well as by increased demand from governments worldwide for disaster awareness training.

Sixty-seven countries, including Spain and the United Arab Emirates which joined this year, are now part of the UN Disaster Assessment and Coordination system to better manage emergency relief after natural disasters strike, the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs said today in a statement.

"This ensures that more of the world's disaster managers are available to the international community to share their valuable knowledge and expertise on how to prepare for and respond to disasters," said Arjun Katoch, head of OCHA's Emergency Services Branch.

In 2008, UNDAC sent teams of disaster management professionals to 16 areas, including 10 stricken by floods and hurricanes.

UNDAC also organized disaster awareness training programs in Russia for members of the Commonwealth of Independent States and in the Middle East. Next year, it will organize training for the West African region. All countries that join the UNDAC system must receive the training.

UNDAC, which helps disaster-stricken countries rapidly assess priority needs and coordinate relief on-site, has deployed 183 missions since it began in 1993, including five missions to tsunami-affected countries in late 2004 and early 2005, and to Pakistan after an earthquake hit there in October 2005.

"Climate change endangers human health," said World Health Organization Director-General Dr. Margaret Chan on World Health Day 2008. In response, WHO is coordinating and supporting research on the most effective measures to protect health from climate change - particularly for vulnerable populations such as women and children in developing countries - and advising member states on the necessary changes to their health systems to protect their populations.

UN food aid is unloaded in North Korea, where about 40 percent of the population is hungry. (Photo by Gerald Bourke courtesy WFP)

World Food Programme Executive Director Josette Sheeran of the United States urged countries to step up and allocate to urgent hunger needs a fraction of what is proposed for financial rescue packages to address the global economic downturn.

"As we take care of Wall Street and Main Street, we can't forget the places that have no streets. We need to send a bold signal of hope to the world with a human rescue package," said Sheeran last week, speaking from New Delhi during her first visit to India, the country with the single largest population of undernourished people in the world.

Sheeran says the WFP aims to feed nearly 100 million of the world's hungriest people in 2009. The world's largest food aid program will start the New Year needing US$5.2 billion for urgent hunger needs.

Copyright Environment News Service (ENS) 2008. All rights reserved.