Saltar al contenido principal

IDP Hosting Sites and Abs City Flood Hazard Analysis - Pilot analysis in Abs District, Hajjah Governorate

Países
Yemen
Fuentes
REACH
Fecha de publicación
Origen
Ver original

With the Yemen conflict now in its seventh year, the Yemeni people continue to bear the brunt of ongoing hostilities and severe economic decline. Households are increasingly exhausting their coping mechanisms, and as a result the humanitarian crisis remains widespread. As a result of the ongoing crisis, an estimated 4.3 million people are currently internally displaced in the country.1 Due to the occurrence of torrential rains in Yemen, flash floods are and will continue to be a recurrent hazard with destructive consequences, which exacerbates the effects of ongoing conflict and the humanitarian crisis in the country. In the past years, Yemen has been hit with torrential rain and flooding on several occasions, leading to displacement, injuries, and deaths, and causing severe damage to homes, shelters, and infrastructure, while also driving the spread of diseases, and harming agricultural yields and livestock.2

In 2020 the situation was especially drastic, where it was estimated that nearly half a million people were directly affected by flooding by September. A total of 189 districts in 19 governorates were impacted, and approximately 44 people died.3 According to the Sana'a-based Ministry of Public Health and Population, estimates of casualties are 250 people and a death toll of 131 people in northern Yemen alone.4 Several international reports1,2,3 indicated that the lives of tens of thousands of Internally Displaced People (IDPs), many of whom were already in vulnerable shelters because of the conflict, were further disrupted. In this instance, the most affected governorates were Marib, Hajjah, Al Hodeidah, and Sana'a. In 2021, an estimated 13,596 families were affected by heavy rains and flooding across the country by August alone, with country-wide losses of life and property and an immense impact on displaced families in the governorates of Hajjah, Ma'rib, Sana'a, and Ta'iz.5 In Ibb governorate, key roads such as the Ibb-Sana'a Road, which was already poorly maintained, were further damaged and limited civilian movement and access to services, with one key example of this being the temporary suspension of operations in the Al-Thawra Hospitals in Sana'a.4 Local media has also reported damage to a bridge linking the Al Musaymir area of Lahj Governorate with Ta'iz City. Water from floods also created physical blockages and logistical barriers for humanitarian personnel and partners in providing urgent interventions.1,5 Finally, the August 2022 OCHA Situation Update estimated that more than 51,000 households have been affected by heavy rains across the country since mid-April 2022, with Mar'ib and Hajjah governorates being the worst-hit, as more than 13,000 and 9,000 households were affected respectively, and the majority of those affected were reportedly in displacement sites.6

Along the western coast of Yemen, one of the more affected districts, Abs in Hajjah governorate, also has one of the highest concentrations of IDPs and vulnerable people in the country. Since 2019, Hajjah has experienced a series of heavy rains that have destroyed shelters in IDP sites and infrastructure, leaving thousands of people in need, and disrupting humanitarian distributions.7,8 On top of the immediate sectoral needs of the affected population, relief actors have expressed concern regarding the health impacts of the floods, particularly the heightened transmission risk of vector-borne and waterborne diseases amid an ongoing cholera outbreak at the time.4 In 2020, Hajjah governorate showed the highest number of households affected by flooding events in Yemen (18,195 households).3 Within IDP hosting sites, from March 2021 to May 2022, Hajjah reportedly experienced infectious diseases, conflict-related incidents, water contamination, and flooding as the most common threats to sites.9 In August 2022, Hajjah has once again been one of the most affected governorates in Yemen due to recurrent heavy rains and floods that resulted in infrastructure, homes, food stock, and livestock being washed away.10 Based on findings from the CCCM Site Report aggregated from May 2021-March 2022, in Abs district infectious diseases and flooding were reportedly the most common threats to sites, with 31% and 30% of sites reportedly at risk of infectious disease and flooding respectively.9 In fact, according to the CCCM Flooding Incidents Report between December 2021 to August 2022, 87% of sites in Abs that experienced a flooding event were reportedly in flood-prone areas, either on agricultural lands, near drainage channels, or on steep slopes.11 Moreover, during the past year, flooding events obstructed road access in 32% of flood-affected sites in Abs, and water-borne diseases such as typhoid fever, malaria, and dengue have been reported.

The report will continue as follow: the rationale section explains the reason why this analysis was made, followed by the methodology section which highlights the general and technical methods used for the analysis, along with its limitations. Furthermore, the key findings are presented followed by a series of site-level flood hazard and flood depth maps. The report concludes with a summary of the analysis and recommendations for next steps.