Oxfam Tsunami Emergency Appeal: Situation Update
Situation Update
For Immediate Release: 18 January
2005
Oxfam Tsunami Emergency Appeal: Situation Update
HEADLINES
• Oxfam’s distribution of hygiene
kits and supplying of water and sanitation facilities and
temporary shelter continues steadily across affected areas
of India, Sri Lanka and Indonesia.
• Longer term
livelihoods strategies and alternative sources of income are
being developed in several areas.
• Oxfam distributes
food to ‘forgotten communities’ of secondary fishing
industry workers in India; ice makers, net menders, fish
driers, packers, transporters etc who were not eligible for
government compensation as they were not directly
hit.
• Indonesian government confirms NGOs will not be
expelled at end of March.
• Oxfam identifies new areas of
need where it will work on North East coast of
Indonesia.
• Andaman islander rescued by python!
Sri
Lanka
Oxfam is working from five field offices in the
North, East and South of the country. The scale of the
disaster in so many regions has meant that most of our
longer term development work has been suspended in order to
deal with peoples’ emergency needs.
Amongst the wider
overall emergency response work in Sri Lanka, some of the
most recent items Oxfam has delivered include non-food items
(buckets, plastic sheeting etc) to 720 families in Batticloa
and to 335 families in Trincomalee. A water and sanitation
assessment team went out to Vaharai on the 15th of January.
In the north, relocation sites are being cleared and latrine
construction will commence later this week. Oxfam New
Zealand Water Programme Manager, Kate Medlicott is working
with the Oxfam team in this area together with Richard
Weaver, a water engineer seconded from the consultancy,
Maunsell.
In the South, Oxfam’s coordinating engineer is
meeting with local authorities to discuss the construction
of 102 temporary shelters in part of the Hambantota
district. Packing and preparing of 2,300 family kits by the
NGO forum is underway for distribution next week. 260
hygiene packs and 3500 buckets have been distributed in
another part of the Hambantota district.
India
Oxfam GB
in India has established operations in 5 of the worst
affected districts in mainland India, three in the state of
Tamil Nadu (Cuddalore, Nagappattinam, Kannyakumari), Kollam
district in Kerala, and Karaikal in the Union Territory of
Pondicherry. In addition, we are undertaking relief work in
the Andaman and Nicobar Islands. The number of people
returning to their homes from relief camps in rising, but
survivors with nowhere to return to are staying in camps
until they receive compensation.
In Cuddalore, 6,399
hygiene kits have been distributed so far, and 105 temporary
shelters with thatched roofs and tarpaulin flooring have
been constructed. Some people have already moved in and
received household items such as stoves. Oxfam distributed
sugar cane so families could celebrate the important local
festival of Pongal on the 14th. The team is developing a
strategy for longer term livelihoods in the district.
In
Nagapattinam this week, Oxfam has distributed food to 72
families from the ‘forgotten community’ of people who
normally earn their livelihoods by supporting the now
shattered fishing industry; ie fish driers, packers and
transporters, ice makers, net repairers and so on. If they
were not directly hit by the tsunami they were not eligible
for full government aid.
The fishing community itself
has agreed that no-one will start fishing until everybody
who lost their boats has had them replaced so that no-one is
at an unfair advantage. They are surviving in the meantime
on government compensation money. Oxfam has started
discussing the idea of diversifying their means of
generating income, but this will be challenging given that
they have relied on fishing for countless
generations.
Farmers will be affected too as a government
survey has confirmed that the salinity of the soil has been
affected.
In Kannyakumari local authorities are inviting
NGOs to put in ‘tenders’ for house repairs – those with the
lowest estimates of repair costs will be allocated
responsibility for the work. They have allocated water and
sanitation work for people living in 658 temporary shelters
to Oxfam. Oxfam has completed bathroom complexes in 6
neighbourhoods and conducted a livelihoods assessment in 6
villages.
In Karaikal 3,890 hygiene kits have been
distributed across 26 villages to date and a further 1,100
are planned for distribution in the next few days. Oxfam is
also providing water and sanitation facilities.
Andaman
Islands
In South Andaman discussions are underway for the
construction of about 19 temporary latrine units and washing
places in 9 different locations and safe ways of disposing
of sanitary napkins are being considered. In Hut Bay,
Little Andamans, Oxfam is supporting 665 families through a
local youth group and in the Nancowrie group of islands, we
plan to support 1,500 households in 9 camps with bicycles
and sewing machines, fabrics, garments and thread.
The
team was told about a man from Kondul village in Greater
Nicobar island who grabbed on to what he thought was a tree
as he was swept out to sea. When the water receded and he
realised he was clinging to a python which had attached
itself to the tree – he ran!
Indonesia
Oxfam has an
operational base in Banda Aceh, with a logistics base in
Medan. We also have a programme base in Meulaboh and plan to
have 2 bases in other locations on the East and West coast.
We are working with local organisations where possible – for
example with Jakarta University to survey the number and
location of displaced people, information which Oxfam is
sharing with the UN.
The Indonesian government confirmed
yesterday that international troops and aid workers involved
in the tsunami relief effort in Aceh would not have to leave
the province by the end of March. After meeting America's
deputy defence secretary, Paul Wolfowitz, the defence
minister, Juwono Sudarsono, said the date was now a target
for Indonesian officials to take over most of the work and
not a deadline for foreigners' expulsion.
Oxfam has
completed a 2-day survey with the Public Works Department
along the North East Coast and identified evident needs that
we could address.
In Banda Aceh and Aceh Bazar we are
still supplying 23,000 people with water, planned to rise to
50,000 (in Aceh and Meulaboh) by next week. Enough latrines
have been built for close to 10,000 people. Jerry cans,
plastic sheeting and hygiene kits have been distributed to
about 12,000 people.
The team in Meulaboh on the west
coast is being strengthened with finance, logistics, food
security experts and a programme manager. The team is
currently led by two Kiwi engineers, Les Collins and Dave
Neru, seconded to Oxfam from by the New Zealand Water and
Waste Association. Four tons of water and sanitation
equipment has been delivered by Oxfam’s helicopter and is
now being installed. Water storage and distribution
facilities have been set up for 2,000 people and 40 latrines
have been completed.
For our latest updates, and stories
from the field visit our
website:
www.oxfam.org.nz