Health and water top priorities in Chupanga camp

Clean water, sanitation and health facilities have become a major concern at a temporary camp in Chupanga, home to about 3,000 people who sought refuge from flooding in central Mozambique, the IFRC reported on Wednesday. Once a small community of huts around the abandoned church of a Catholic mission, Chupanga became a town overnight with the arrival of people evacuated from Kague, Cocorico, Luabo, Chinde, Marromeu, Milha 12 and Sede – villages located too close to the flooded Zambezi river. The camp has replicated the village structure - it is formed by six sectors, each led by a village elder or 'fumo'. "The people in this camp are living on the edge," said Carlos Afonso, a member of the IFRC assessment team. "Right now, there are only five latrines for more then 700 families." Four volunteers from the Beira branch of the Mozambican Red Cross were working with people from the camp itself to build 50 more latrines. "Clean water is an urgent need for the residents of this camp. The only source of drinking water will soon be lost," team leader Niels-Erik Hedlund. "Nearby, at a camp for 1,500 people near Nensa, the situation is even worse - no drinking water, no latrines," he added. To address this need, the IFRC was sending a water and sanitation emergency response unit to Chupanga, which would be capable of purifying thousands of litres of drinking water every day.