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Namibia: Red Cross delivers assistance to 11,000 people affected by floods

Countries
Namibia
Sources
IFRC
Publication date
Origin
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Summary:

CHF 282,917 has been allocated from the IFRC’s Disaster Relief Emergency Fund (DREF) to support the Namibia Red Cross Society (NRCS) in delivering immediate assistance to some 2,500 families (11,000 beneficiaries). Un earmarked funds to repay DREF are encouraged.

Heavy rains and rising river levels in the Zambezi River catchment caused flooding in The Caprivi region, inundating community houses, infrastructures and crop fields.

According to the joint rapid assessment conducted by the government-led regional disaster risk management technical team (of which the Red Cross is a part of) in February, a total of 4,000 families (17,600 people), including 4,527 school children, were identified to be at risk of flooding if the situation continued to unfold. As of 11 March, up to 2,500 families (11,000 people) were identified as most vulnerable in the flood plains of Caprivi region and were evacuated to camps supported by the government. The joint assessment team identified sanitation, the increased risk of water borne diseases and shelter challenges as some of the immediate needs in these camps.

The DREF operation intends to respond to the immediate needs of the 2,500 families living in the camps, through the provision of water and sanitation, hygiene promotion, disease surveillance, emergency shelter materials and non-food items.

This operation is expected to be implemented over a period of four months, and will therefore be completed by 30 July 2013. The final report will be made available three months after the end of the operation by end October 2013. However, with the continued heavy rains to this day in the region, there still may be a need for the operation to be extended in scope and timeframe.