Farmland destroyed by floods

Flooding, particularly in the Afar region of northeastern Ethiopia, has destroyed some 9,500 hectares of cropped farmland, both private and state-owned. A UN-Emergencies Unit (UN-EUE) assessment mission to flooded areas along the Awash river found it was difficult to assess the number of affected people, but they ran into tens of thousands. The total area flooded this year was also unknown, a mission report said. The mission noted that a number of human settlements, especially within the affected commercial crop farms, had been inundated and some others were surrounded by water and inaccessible by road. The health situation may become an “issue of concern” once the water level regressed, the report warned. Stagnant water left behind in the crop fields could become breeding grounds for mosquitoes. So far, health, security and relief coordination committees had been established in Zones 1 and 3 of the region. Evacuation and transport facilities to stranded villages in Zone 3 had been made available, protective dykes built and some eight mobile clinics established in Zone 3 to supplement local health centres.