EC gives €12.5 million to combat drought, disease

The European Commission (EC) has allocated a total of €12.5 million (US $15,923,750) in humanitarian aid to alleviate the suffering of people affected by drought and disease in the Horn of Africa countries of Eritrea, Ethiopia, Kenya and Somalia. Eritrea will receive €1 million; Ethiopia, €6.5 million; Kenya, €3.85 million; and Somalia, €1.15 million, according to an EC statement issued on Wednesday. The money will be channelled through the EC's Humanitarian Aid Office (ECHO). "This EU support will provide a lifeline for thousands of pastoralists suffering from the effects of water shortage," Poul Nielson, EC Commissioner for Development and Humanitarian Aid, said. "Emergency operations will be linked with development assistance to reduce the vulnerability of populations in the long term to future drought." In Eritrea, receding ground water levels following successive years of drought are leading to pockets of acute need as water supplies fail. Poor rainfall has led to poor harvests exacerbating the situation. According to a livestock, agriculture and drought preparedness expert with ECHO's Nairobi-based regional office, Lammert Zwaagstra, the emergency aid would secure essential water supplies, including emergency repair and maintenance of existing water sources, deepening of the existing boreholes and shallow wells and building small dams on rivers in grazing areas. Some of the funds would also be used for supplementary nutritional aid in the form of targeted destocking and slaughtering of livestock where the meat would immediately be made available to the most vulnerable. An estimated 150,000 people, mainly women and children located in rural areas, are expected to benefit from these activities over the next one year. In Ethiopia, acute needs have arisen in the southeast due to drought, while in a number of regions malaria is reaching epidemic levels, notably in areas where populations have recently been resettled. ECHO will provide emergency water and nutritional aid to drought-affected areas. In addition, ECHO will provide emergency medical aid, including more effective medicines to address epidemic malaria. In total, up to one million people are estimated to benefit from this aid over the next 12 months. Seasonal malaria epidemics are common in Ethiopia and mostly affect the highlands where people have lower resistance to the disease compared to residents of lowlands where malaria is endemic. The disease is the third biggest killer in Ethiopia, claiming up to 114,000 people each year, according to the country's health ministry. In Kenya, most of the northern and northeastern regions inhabited by pastoral communities are suffering from the effects of a prolonged drought. An estimated 600,000 people will benefit from a range of activities financed by ECHO, including emergency water, health and veterinary aid. "While each of the four countries does have its specific problems, the overriding strategy for the vulnerable pastoralist communities in each of these countries will be to address threats to livelihood security through support to the livestock sector," Zwaagstra, told IRIN. "This support will be in the form of ensuring water supplies and appropriate veterinary interventions." The drought problem has over the years been exacerbated by a rapidly growing population that needs increasingly larger herds of livestock, which the land cannot continue to support, Zwaagstra said. "The population growth may already have outstripped the land carrying capacity resulting in serious environmental degradation," he added. In Somalia, as a result of almost 14 years of civil strife, health indicators are among the worst in the world. The most vulnerable people have little or no access to health care. ECHO's assistance will focus on providing access to primary and secondary health care through support to clinic and hospital facilities including vaccination, paediatric and maternity care. This decision will help an estimated 250,000 people, especially in the capital Mogadishu. ECHO's intervention will also support livestock through the provision of water and veterinary services to Somali pastoral communities, particularly in the northern Sool and Sanaag regions that have been severely hit by drought, Christophe Reltien, ECHO’s technical expert in charge of Eritrea and Ethiopia, said. The support is intended to "maintain the core assets for the pastoralist households" during the drought period, Reltin added. In southern Somalia, ECHO's focus is on drought-related health and malnutrition problems. "We still continue to support therapeutic feeding centres and health centres to enable paediatric wards to deal with severe malnutrition cases," Reltien said.