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KENYA: Relief aid sent for 47,000 in flood-hit Tana River

NAIROBI, 4 June (IRIN) - The Kenyan government and the World Food Programme (WFP) have jointly sent emergency food aid to some 47,000 residents of Tana River District, eastern Kenya, who have been cut off by heavy rains that have caused flooding in western and eastern parts of the country in the past few weeks.

A road convoy carrying relief food left the north eastern Kenyan town of Garissa on Monday under military escort, heading for Ijara division, Tana River District, where some 40,000 residents were in urgent need of emergency relief, a humanitarian source in the Kenyan capital, Nairobi, told IRIN on Monday.

The convoy was expected to arrive in the district by Wednesday, after which the food would be distributed by the Kenya Red Cross and CIDRI NGO officials, according to the aid official.

"The Government of Kenya/WFP food aid is already in Garissa, and around Wednesday a military trucks convoy should reach Ijara from where it will be distributed," the source added.

Another convoy is on its way to neighbouring Garsen division to some 7,000 beneficiaries via local boats.

The Sunday Nation newspaper that about 40,000 residents in the Hulugho division, Ijara division, who depend largely on relief food, had been cut off from the rest of the country following heavy flooding that had washed away a bridge, blocking humanitarian access to the area.

According to the report, work on the Masalani bridge had stalled after a four-kilometre stretch on the road was submerged in water. Area District Commissioner Abdi Hassan told the paper that only some four-wheel drive vehicles could wade through the flooded areas of the district, the other options available being to ferry supplies by helicopter.

"The situation is desperate and it is sad that no food or medicines can reach the people who need them," the Nation quoted Hassan as saying.

However, humanitarian sources said the area could be reached from Garissa. Some parts of Ijara division have been isolated for the past two months, but the Ministry of Health there says there is no urgent need for drugs, according to this source.

"We don't know the situation there. We are just using suppositions," he told IRIN.

Tana River District is the latest area to be negatively affected by heavy rains and flooding in recent weeks, considered the worst since the El Nino phenomenon in 1998. About 60,000 people have been displaced and at least 175,000 affected countrywide.

The flooding in Ijara followed serious flooding in the Lake Victoria basin in western Kenya, where floodwaters have largely receded, but left destruction of homes, crops and infrastructure in their wake.

"Thousands of people have required temporary shelter and emergency drugs, sanitation and water as unseasonably heavy rains caused flooding in western Kenya and along the Tana River," WFP stated in its latest emergency report on Friday.

"Although flood-waters have now subsided in most areas of the country, floods are still occurring in Nyanza province, in parts of Ijara and along the Tana River area," it added.

According to the UN Office of the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) in Nairobi, the emergency response to most flood-hit areas of the country was "accurate and timely", with only Garsen and Ijara divisions still in need of urgent relief food.

The emergency operation is expected to continue in this region through June, an OCHA official told IRIN on Monday.

Although the floods have subsided in many parts of the country, some districts were still in urgent need of more anti-malarials, and the Ministry of Health was already studying their needs, according to an informed aid worker.

Despite the heavy rains in some parts, WFP reported on Friday that it had approved a new Kenya drought emergency operation [for other parts] on 24 April, to last until October. The agency said its ongoing long-term drought and post-drought emergency programme had been severely affected by a shortage of over 5,000 mt, and that it had placed an urgent appeal for pledges to bridge the gap. Just five of nine districts in need had received general food distributions in April, WFP said.

"By June, some existing stocks will be totally depleted. Urgent pledges are needed to ensure that beneficiaries in both Dadaab and Kakuma refugee camps [in northeastern and northwestern Kenya respectively] receive an adequate diet," its report added.

[ENDS]

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