ReliefWeb

A. SITUATION ANALYSIS

Description of the disaster

From 12 to 18 April 2018, torrential rainfall hit various parts of Tanzania mainland and Zanzibar, causing flood in Dar es Salaam (Kinondoni, Ilala, Temeke and Kigamboni Municipals); Arusha (Arusha District Council, Meru, Longido, Monduli districts); Zanzibar;
Kilimanjaro (Same, Hai, Mwanga districts); Tanga (Handeni, Lushoto districts); Manyara (Simanjiro, Kiteto, Babati districts); Tabora (Nzega and Kaliua districts); Pwani (Mafia and Rufiji districts); Mwanza, Morogoro, Dodoma, Mbeya, Rukwa, Mtwara, Shinyanga, and Geita.

Immediately after the disaster hit, Tanzania Red Cross Society (TRCS) deployed a National Disaster Response Team (NDRT), a Branch Disaster Response Team (BDRT) and volunteers from TRCS branches of Arusha, Dar es Salaam and Zanzibar to evacuate affected people, administer first aid to people in need and conduct a rapid initial assessment of the situation.

Based on TRCS volunteer assessment and Dar es Salaam Multi-Agency Emergency Response Team (DARMAERT) reports, a total of 15,862 people was directly affected by floods in the above-mentioned locations. In Arusha, a total of 548 households were displaced due to the floods and 203 houses were damaged. In Dar es Salaam, some 2,151 households were displaced, 42 houses and 21 latrines completely collapsed and 342 houses severely damaged and on the island of Zanzibar, 191 households were displaced, and 225 houses damaged. As a result of this, the majority of flood victims sought refuge with relatives and neighbours.

Given the limited means available in country to respond fully to this emergency, TRCS requested CHF 196,499 from the International Federation of Red cross and Red Crescent Societies (IFRC) through the Disaster Relief Emergency Fund (DREF) to launch a three months relief operation. This DREF operation, launched on 30 April 2018, focused on providing emergency shelter, health and WASH services including NFI distribution to. 800 most affected households (4,000 people) in Arusha, Dar es Salaam and Zanzibar.

Soon after the start of the DREF operation, it was clear that procurement of non-food items would be challenging, due to the absence of a pre-qualified suppliers list, the limited capacity of the logistics department and the existing procurement workload for other projects and operations implemented in Tanzania. To support the National Society with the DREF procurements, a logistic RDRT was deployed for this operation. However, some delays in the procurement process could not be prevented due to the above-mentioned reasons. As such, an Operation Update was published on 25 July 2018, granting a one month no-cost timeframe extension to the operation, to ensure that all activities were implemented within the timeframe to reach the set target of improving the living conditions of targeted 800 households.

The major donors and partners of the DREF include the Red Cross Societies and governments of Australia, Austria, Belgium, Britain, Canada, Denmark, Finland, Ireland, Italy, Japan, Luxembourg, Monaco, the Netherlands, Norway, Spain, Sweden and the USA, as well as DG ECHO, the UK Department for International Development (DFID), AECID, the Medtronic and Zurich Foundations and other corporate and private donors. On behalf of Tanzania Red Cross Society (TRCS), the IFRC would like to extend many thanks to all partners for their generous contributions.