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ACT Alliance Rapid Response Fund Egypt: Floods Emergency (RRF03/2020)

Pays
Égypte
Sources
ACT Alliance
Date de publication
Origine
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Background

On the morning of Thursday 12 to 14 March 2020, the country of Egypt was aggressively attacked by rainfall caused flooding in multiple populated areas, causing massive property damages and loss of human life. Eleven governorates in Egypt are vulnerable to flood risks, including Aswan, Luxor, Qena, Asyut, Sohag, Beni Suef, New Valley, and South and North Sinai, according to a report issued by the Ministry of Irrigation1. Dr. Mahmoud Shahin, director of the analysis department at the Egyptian Meteorological Authority, he said that this level of instability in weather conditions with such strength has not happened since 1994.

Moreover, the country depends on a 105-year-old drainage network and has no comprehensive rainfall drainage system2The bad weather wave that has hit the country, causing heavy losses, but the biggest loss was the death of at least 20 people, including children, houses collapse and electrical transistors explode3. People lost their lives and at least six children died, either from electrocution or rubble after heavy rains knocked down their houses4. In addition, 20 people were seriously injured while trying to escape of the enormously strong gush of the downpours. Here, lightning also ignited several fires. A technician was also said to have been electrocuted while trying to fix a lightning column that went off due to the rain in the Western New Valley province, local authorities said.

Another driver died when storm winds blew his car into a water canal in the southern province of Sohag. meanwhile, Egyptian authorities have also closed down the Luxor International airport, as well as the Mediterranean port of Alexandria and the Red Sea port of Sharm el-Sheikh.

Electrical transistors exploded and many homes were left with no electricity, and one 60-year-old man was electrocuted as he walked down the street in Menoufia and a woman appeared to have drowned in Heliopolis.

The country’s railway authorities suspended train service nationwide, citing the bad weather. The announcement came shortly after two Cairo-bound trains collided near their final destination, injuring 13 people, according to health officials.

The official figures reported by the MoSS on the number of people affected by the floods in the country estimates 20,000 people (4,000 families). BLESS field workers acknowledged that hundred people have been gravely affected, losing houses, lacking of medical attention, and material goods. Moreover, the flood has caused almost-radical sweeping of vast areas of agricultural land which means that too many farmers have lost their source of income.