New UN appeal for flood victims

At the request of the Malagasy government, the United Nations this week launched a new "flash appeal" seeking US $15.7 million from donors to provide urgent humanitarian assistance for over 300,000 people affected by the devastation wrought 10 days ago by cyclone Hudah. In some areas in the northeast of the giant Indian Ocean island, only two days of food remain, a UN spokesman said. The UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) said the cyclone with swirling gales faster than 300 kmh at its epicentre had left the northeast of the country "extremely fragile". The appeal document, which can be viewed in French at (http://www.reliefweb.int/w/rwb.nsf), cited widespread flooding, the devastation of most economically important crops, the destruction of hospitals, schools, homes and other infrastructure. In all, it added, preliminary assessments by the humanitarian community estimated at least 309,000 people - 61,600 of them children under five - to be in need of immediate assistance. The scale of the damage "We are confronted with a situation where at least 50 percent of the villages in the northeast of the country are now isolated," Donato Kiniger-Passigli, the OCHA spokesman in Madagascar told IRIN on Tuesday. "In the northeast coastal town of Antalaha, for example, only eight out of some 400 buildings are still standing." A vanilla industry official told local newspapers that cyclone Hudah had destroyed 80 percent of vanilla plantations in Antalaha, the world's most important source of vanilla. Plantations in Andapa had been similarly devastated. The official said it would take at least three years for production to return to normal. The neighbouring coastal town of Maroantsetra further south was 75 percent destroyed, while Andapa, inland from Antalaha, was 50 percent destroyed. Kiniger-Passigli said the main problems were in the food and health sectors. After the two earlier cyclones Eline and Gloria, which also brought devastation to neighbouring Mozambique, rice production in the northeast of the Indian Ocean island was virtually brought to a halt. Since the beginning of the year, 1,600 people had died of cholera in a situation which had become exacerbated by the cyclones because people were forced to drink contaminated flood waters, he said. "With only two days of food left in some parts of the northeast, we need helicopters to get the people out there relief urgently, otherwise they will go hungry," he said. "At least half the small villages in the northeast are isolated, their roads are cut, and the only means of reaching people in these areas is by helicopter," Kiniger-Passigli told IRIN. The appeal In the appeal, OCHA said winds and heavy flooding had destroyed coffee, vanilla, and rice crops bringing "severe" economic consequences for the country. It said many thousands of trees had been uprooted or ripped apart by heavy gusts of wind causing considerable ecological damage, especially in the region's nature reserves. It described the plight of the local population as "extremely fragile" because not only had they lost their livelihood, crops and homes, but also because stocks of food and medicines had also been destroyed. "The cholera epidemic may spread, not to speak of the malaria, and respiratory diseases," the report said. The school year for children had been brought to a stop because so many school buildings were destroyed. The breakdown of UN humanitarian assistance required * While WFP is preparing a separate appeal for emergency food aid, OCHA said UNICEF required US $2.6 million for emergency food, shelter material, cooking utensils, water purification needs, soap, blankets, mosquito nets, jerry cans and medicines. * The UN Population Fund (UNFPA) will need an estimated US $70,000 for medical equipment to assist pregnant mothers, a group described in the report as among the most vulnerable of all. * WHO will need an estimated US $5.5 million to rebuild hospitals, clinics, and to provide medicines, vaccines and clean water. * FAO will require an estimated US $ 3 million for evaluation, and technical and logistical support needed to revive the farming sector. This will include seeds, tools and other equipment. * UNDP and UNICEF will need an estimated US $3 million to provide tents for people without homes, rebuild schools and equip pupils and classrooms. Roads and logistics The new OCHA appeal said: "It is important to underline that the areas affected by cyclone Hudah are in a region where access by road is extremely difficult. There is no road linking this area to the capital, Antanananarivo, and likewise to the country's main port at Toamasina. Access is only possible by boat or by air, which is why the costs of logistics and communications are so high." It said immediate needs were for a medium-size cargo plane, two helicopters, and four motorised rubber boats. UNDP required four all-terrain vehicles. UN humanitarian teams in the area would also require three satellite telephones, four lap-top computers and other office equipment. OCHA said at least 10 international disaster relief experts had to be deployed with local assistance at a cost of about US $705,000. Coordination The relief operation will be coordinated by two logistics headquarters being set up in Antalaha and Maroantsetra. It said the government disaster agency, the Conseil national de secours (CNS) had already dispatched 34 specialists to the three towns on Monday from where they are attempting to reach those whose plight is most desperate by helicopter. Rehabilitation The UN system expects to maintain the relief and rehabilitation operation over the next three to 12 months, OCHA said. It will help the government draft a rehabilitation plan covering all sectors which it expects to publish later this month. Donors Kiniger-Passigli told IRIN that the French government had sent an Air Force Transall cargo plane and a naval ship to the area.