KENYA: Red Cross estimates 723,000 people affected by floods
Pastor Dale Morgan
*KENYA: Red Cross estimates 723,000 people affected by floods*
28 Nov 2006 13:54:24 GMT
Source: IRIN
NAIROBI, 28 November (IRIN) - The number of people affected by floods in
Kenya has risen to 723,000, the Kenya Red Cross Society (KRCS) said on
Tuesday. Continuing heavy rainfall was causing more rivers to breach
their banks, inundating villages in various parts of the country, it added.
The floods that have decimated mainly the Northeastern and Coast
provinces since late October have spread to the flood-prone Western
Province where River Nzoia had broken its banks, submerging villages in
Busia District. About 1,600 families in the district have been
displaced, according to Linet Atieno, information officer with KRCS. A
landslide caused by heavy downpour in Meru South District in central
Kenya left 100 families homeless, she added.
Flooding has also hit parts of Nyanza Province in the west, Mwingi
District in the south and the Tana River District in Coast Province. An
estimated 34 people have died in flood-related incidents since late
October, according to KRCS figures.
Flood water was receding in Garissa District, where about 100,000 of the
167,000 mostly Somalia refugees in camps in the Dadaab area of the
district were affected, Peter Smerdon, spokesman for the United Nations
World Food Programme (WFP), said.
Atieno said KRCS was "in the process" of revising a 562.7 million Kenyan
shillings (about US$8 million) funding appeal, launched two weeks ago to
meet the needs of the initial 300,000 people affected by the floods
until the end of February, to reflect the increased number of victims.
KRCS has been providing mainly non-food relief items, including water
treatment tablets and mosquito nets, to those displaced by the floods,
while the Kenyan government and the WFP have been distributing food.
WFP estimates that 150,000 flood victims, mainly in remote areas of
Northeastern Province, had not been reached largely because the rains
rendered roads impassable.
Atieno said the flood-hit people would still need longer-term recovery
assistance even after the end of the rainy season in late December.
Funds would be required to rehabilitate water and sanitation facilities
damaged by the floods. Farmers whose crops were destroyed would also
need help, mainly because many of them would have lost their seeds, she
said.
Neighbouring Ethiopia and Somalia have also been devastated by the
floods. Most of the affected populations in the three countries were
already vulnerable because they had lost their livelihoods, mainly
livestock, to the severe drought that hit the region earlier in the year.
jn/mw