SitRep OCHA 01-07 Avril

Overall situation

In its annual Asian Development Outlook report, released 6 April, the Asian Development Bank (ADB) said two million more Asians have joined the ranks of the poor following the Indian Ocean tsunami disaster even though the overall impact on the economies of the affected countries looks small. The bank said it could take the affected populations many years to recover from poverty.

Regarding the impact in Sri Lanka, the ADB has trimmed its economic growth forecast for the country from 5.5 per cent in 2004 to 5.2 per cent because of the impact of the tsunami disaster. The report cited devastation to its fishing communities and small-scale traders that has led to significant job losses, boosting the ranks of the poor by 287,000 people and the national poverty level by 1.4 percentage points to 26.6 percent. Buoyed by strong expansion in the construction sector and quick recovery in tourism, the country’s economic growth will likely bounce back to 5.8% in 2006 and 5.9% in 2007, ADB says.

The Desk Officer for Thematic Funding of the European Commission Humanitarian Aid Office (ECHO), Montsaarat Pantaleoni Giralt, made a three-day joint mission with an OCHA Geneva Representative for Donor Relations and a World Health Organization (WHO) delegation to inspect ECHO funded projects in Sri Lanka. The visit, which included a twoday trip to Ampara, was to assess the operations of OCHA’s Humanitarian Information Centre (HIC) and WHO operations in Ampara district. Four representatives of the Clinton Foundation are in Sri Lanka this week to assess the water and sanitation situation. The visit is being conducted as part of the newly established partnership to address emergency needs for safe water and sanitation as well as long-term health and development goals for families and communities. The group is meeting with representatives of the Urban Development and Water Supply, UN agencies and NGOs, and are traveling to Ampara, Batticaloa and Matara to view first-hand the water and sanitation emergency response and to meet with local authorities in these districts.

Heavy and unseasonal rains over the past week have flooded tents across Batticaloa district, raising concern about the length of time it will take for people to move into permanent shelters. A women’s group from the Puthukudiyruppu temporary resettlement site has approached aid agencies with the complaint that their tents have been flooded and that they have no place to cook since the rains have started as it is too dangerous to cook inside the tent. This group has requested aid agencies to provide them with covered areas that could serve as communal kitchen. The Shelter Taskforce of UN agencies and NGOs in Batticaloa is looking into the situation.

Challenge and response

IOM is supporting the Matara Government Agent’s (GA) office to establish and maintain a database of tsunami affected populations and to track assistance provided to them. IOM is funding staff, equipment and technical assistance for an "Information Management Cell” (IMC) that is to be a part of the office of the Matara Government Agent. The IMC will enter and validate the registration data received from the GA office, the Census Bureau, the Election Commission and other sources of registration. The objective of the cell is to centralize and speed up the processing of information collection, collation and dissemination at district level. The Swiss Development Corporation has embarked on a “Cash for Host Families Programme” in Dikwella, Matara district where it has registered 90 such families and provided some support given the economic strain of long-term hosting of tsunami affected relatives and friends. The financial plight of such host families is seen as an emerging problem that needs to be more fully addressed.

Health

IOM has recruited four local Community Health Surveillance Officers for deployment in Matara, Ampara, Batticaloa and Trincomalee districts. The officers, whose duties involve both medical, mental health and psycho-social work, were trained by the IOM health team and psychosocial staff and were briefed on the IOM counter-trafficking programme.
In a camp in Cheddipalayam, Battocaloa district, the NGO Amigos International reported that there were no toilets for more than 300 children at the school there. UNICEF is responding to the situation as the lead provider, through the Department of Education, for water and sanitation facilities to schools affected by the Tsunami. IOM organised and funded a three-day psycho-social training workshop in Batticaloa in partnership with SewaLanka as part of IOM’s counter-trafficking project. SewaLanka trainers trained 30 psycho-social field workers in implementing psycho-social activities and in ensuring community participation, ownership and empowerment.

Non-food items and shelter

IOM conducted a survey of the 13 tent camps in Kalutara district to identify upgrades needed before the upcoming monsoon season. Camps were assessed in terms of tent replacement requirements, water drainage and water and sanitation facilities.
Save the Children has commenced work in Trincomalee on 218 temporary shelters. In Jaffna, it is in the process of constructing 170 temporary shelters of which, as of 7 April, 65 are now completed.
UNHCR and UNICEF released on 6 April, a report of a rapid needs assessment survey of IDPs that comprises interviews with over 300 families in Ampara, Galle and Jaffna, 226 of which were IDP families and the remaining 76 were host families. The survey revealed that IDPs have little detailed information about relocation and resettlement plans apart from an elementary understanding of the Coastal Buffer Zone (CBZ). In many instances, families voiced an unwillingness to return to their former residences due to a fear of the sea. When they have indicated a wish to return, it is often contingent on the return of other members of their communities. Overall, IDPs wish to be relocated/resettled in close proximity to their former places of work and to their children’s schools and also wish that basic facilities are in place.
The majority of IDPs indicated that they do not want to stay in camps and, for women and children as well as single fathers, transitional shelter in camps was not viewed as a tenable option. Instead, IDPs preferred staying with host families, which in most cases meant with relatives. It was also clear from the responses of interviewees that IDPs preferred cadjan-style transitional housing over tents, be they in camps or with host families, and they also stressed the need for strengthened water and sanitation facilities
The pace of construction of transitional shelters in Batticaloa district remains slow. Only 50 were completed over the previous week. Just over 9,000 semi-permanent shelters are currently required in total in the District. Of these, some 1,600 have been constructed to date.
The Shelter Task Force concluded this week that the main reasons for the slow progress continues to be the lack of sufficient supply of construction material and skilled labour, the wish of beneficiaries to immediately move from temporary into permanent shelter, as well as the limited capacity of the Urban Development Authority (UDA) and the Survey Department. TAP will closely monitor construction activities, including the varying quality of structures, remind all to adhere to agreed standards, and will provide feedback to relevant organizations.
The UNICEF zone office in the South reports that the identification of land for the transitional shelter of IDP families in Matara is slow. Land has been identified for 300 out of the 1,800 families said to be living “in difficult circumstances”, most of whom are reportedly sheltered in tents.
Community Habitat Financing (CHF) has started another 30 transitional shelters in addition to their already completed 10 units.
Save the Children is providing funding for 100 tables and 400 chairs for camps in Matara.

Education

UNICEF has approved the construction of an additional ten semi-permanent school buildings in Galle, bringing the total number of approved temporary/semi-permanent school shelters in the country to 237. The UNICEF zone office in Batticaloa has reported the completion of 15 temporary school buildings in Paddiruppu Zone. An additional 20 temporary school buildings in Batticaloa Zone are expected to be completed later this week.

Livelihoods

FAO handed over Rs 5.6 million (US$57,000) worth of agricultural tools to the Agriculture Ministery for use by the farming community in tsunami affected areas. The tools, donated by the UK firm of M/S Ralph Martindale & Company, consisted of 12,394 hoes and 2,416 harvesting tools. The amount of tools were more than sufficient to meet the needs of the tsunami-affected farm community, according to the Secretary to the Ministry of Agriculture, Tissa Warnasuriya.
Save the Children is in the process of providing a total of 150 sewing machines that are being distributed in Matara district by the Sri Lankan NGO, Women’s Chamber of Commerce, to help restore livelihoods.

Food

Reacting to the recently published nutrition survey that had been carried out by the Ministry of Health, WFP and UNICEF, the Health Task Force in Batticaloa came to the conclusion that the findings did not seem to vary substantially from the pre-tsunami situation. However, the group acknowledged that the nutritional situation in the camps was less satisfactory, mainly as a result of irregular access to food, lower hygiene standards, as well as issues of food preparation and storage.

Protection

An IOM expert on IDP issues presented a report to the Sri Lankan Parliamentary Select Committee on Disaster s last week. It assessed the response to IDP’s basic physical needs and protection rights to date. Recommendations were submitted for consideration in future disaster preparedness and mitigation planning. The report highlighted the expectations and requirements of international norms and legal standards as set out in the Guiding Principles on Internal Displacement, the SPHERE Standards in Disaster Relief and the Code of Conduct for the International Red Cross and Red Crescent Movement and NGOs in Disaster Relief.
To date, a total of 144 family kits have been delivered in Galle district by Child Rights Promotion Officers (CRPOs) and Probation Officers (POs) with the support of UNICEF to children who have lost their parents and have been placed with family members through a fit person order. A further 100 kits are to be delivered over the next two days. Through this exercise, UNICEF has been able to verify names of children, addresses and caregivers.

Transport

IOM donated 40 newly procured mopeds to the Commissioner General for Essential Services and Head of the Task Force for Relief (TAFOR), Tilak Ranaviraja, to be used for staff transport in the Transitional Accomodation Project (TAP) sub-offices in ten districts.
During the past week 61 IOM lorries were dispatched to affected areas on behalf of the Government of Sri Lanka, IOs, NGOs and other donors. It included 29 lorry transports of medical equipment and relief items throughout the country for the Ministry of Health,13 for the Prime Minister’s Office, five each for OXFAM, CARE and UNHCR and two for the Department for Social Services. IOM used sixteen lorries to transport various building materials to different IOM construction sites throughout the country.