IDP camp established in one day.

Khartoum August 3 2007 - According to Sudanese Red Crescent assessments, the floods that had hit Sudan this year is by far the worst disaster in the last two decades.

“Flooding and torrential rainfall have destroyed or damaged nearly 60,000 homes throughout the country. North Kordofan State in central Sudan has suffered the most – with more than 60,000 people affected – followed by Kassala and Khartoum. Some 67,500 people have been left homeless in southern Sudan alone”

In Upper Nile state, thousands of people saw their homes being swept away from the banks of the seasonal Kurachia river. Renk town was flooded from the recent rains affecting approximately 9,000 households, of which 2,000 have moved into government sponsored camps; and the village of Donglei was destroyed leaving 42 families to rebuild their lives.

UNDP’s early recovery response came through the 54 Million Euro Recovery and Rehabilitation Programmeme (RRP) funded by the European Commission and managed by UNDP on behalf of the Government of National Unity and the Government of South Sudan.

 

Part of Mercy Corps (outside of RRP funding) hired heavy machinery digging drainage trench along the road & draining flood water from Block 10 within in about 12 hours.		Water flowing through the canals enables resettlement activities to begin.

In Renk, the RRP has distributed 200 hoes and 100 shovels and helped villagers dig a drainage canal along the tarmac road. With many health facilities destroyed or inaccessible, the recovery Programmeme set up a mobile health clinic in “Camp 1”, and IDP camp in Renk, with 5 drug kits supplied by UNICEF and the Ministry of Health, which Medair NGO will soon take over. The clinic treats an average of 60 to 70 people per day, mostly children with watery and bloody diarrhea, intestinal parasites, and malaria. The drug kits primarily contain antibiotics, re-hydration fluids, and malaria drugs.

Considering the large number of camp inhabitants, sanitation is very poor, with very few latrines available for the entire camp. The RRP constructed so far 13 pit latrines around Camp 1, which opened on July 16 and hosts about 6,500 people. The construction of pit latrines is ongoing. At the end of July, the ratio of pit latrines to people in Camp 1 was 1 to 70. The RRP hopes to bring the ratio down to 1 pit latrine to 15 people.

With the risk of waterborne epidemics, the lack of clean water has been a major concern. The UNDP managed Programmeme contributed to addressing this issue by chlorinating water for the 6,500 people in Camp 1, which is just off the tarmac road in Renk.

RRP temporary mobile clinic in Camp 1		Evacuation activity.

The RRP consortium in Upper Nile is managed by UNDP, executed by Mercy Corps in partnership with 4 other NGOs: Tearfund UK , Fellowship for African Relief (FAR) , and Stromme Norway and the Episcopal Church of Sudan (ECS).

Since 2006, the RRP has managed to bring together 10 consortia of NGOs made up of some 50 national and international NGOs implementing a range of recovery and rehabilitation projects in Blue Nile, Red Sea, River Nile, South Kordofan, Northern Upper Nile, Central Equatoria, Eastern Equatoria, Warrap, Northern Bahr El Ghazal states, and Abyei Area. The 10 consortia of NGOs are implementing activities such as building schools, healthcare centers, water networks, vocational training, farming and agriculture, and extensive training and capacity building Programmes.

For more information on the RRP, please contact:
Jami Schievelbein
Information Liaison Officer
Jami.schievelbein@undp.org