Kinshasa flooding "major threat" but manageable

A joint humanitarian meeting to evaluate the flooding that has displaced 15,000 to 20,000 people in Kinshasa concluded that while it was "a major threat" and would require continuous vigilance until at least mid-January, its "current dimension" was considered manageable with the existing human and financial resources. International relief agencies decided that the
WFP should coordinate food responses; the Red Cross movement, medical and sanitation interventions; WHO, anti-epidemic prevention; and the UNDP and OCHA, contingency planning for worst-case scenarios, a UN press release stated on Monday. The Red Cross was already strengthening its health centres, providing clean water to the cholera section of the general
hospital, carrying out emergency sanitation work and tracking disease. However there were continued dangers in relation to drinking water supplies, the possible contamination of groundwater, and the potential for epidemics and food shortages. [situation report at http://www.reliefweb.int]