CERF Allocated $3.6 million in response to flooding in Colombia.
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| Children collecting water in Colombia [Photo:UNHCR] |
9 December 2010: In response to flooding caused by continuous rain in Colombia, CERF has allocated $6.6 million.
In order to fill a 20 percent gap in funding gap to meet the needs of the most affected population, CERF has allocated over $6.6 million to humanitarian agencies working in Colombia. The World Food Programme (WFP) will receive $1 million to provide emergency food assistance. The United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF) will use $850,000 to provide full protection to 7,560 boys, girls, and women. The International Organization on Migration (IOM) will construct single family shelters with nearly $600,000. With $600,000, the Pan American Health Organization (PAHO) will provide health and WASH assistance. Finally, with nearly $500,000, the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) will provide families with time-critical agricultural inputs and livestock.
Rainy seasons occur twice a year in Colombia, causing floods in several regions of the country. This year the La Niña phenomenon prolonged the first rainy season causing it to merge with the second one. As a result, Colombia has experienced continuous rainfalls since the start of the first rainy season in April. Forecasts predict that La Niña might last until the first quarter of 2011, possibly causing rains during the dry season, thus increasing the risk of again merging the rainy seasons. Colombia could experience continuous rains for more than 12 months.
Figures released by the Colombian Government reports that over a million people are affected and 132 people have died with 205 people injured. The continuous rains have caused rivers to burst their banks, flooding large areas of land for prolonged periods. The heavy rainfalls have also caused sporadic events, such as mudslides and landslides that destroyed portions of highways and secondary roads leaving entire towns and villages temporarily isolated. Hundreds of thousands of homes have been destroyed or damaged. Further, some 150,000 hectares of crops have been destroyed and an unknown number of livestock are lost or dead.
The rainy season has affected approximately 52 per cent of the territory. The impact of floods is disproportionate in shanty towns inhabited by IDPs who have fled from violence due to the internal conflict in the country and in vast isolated villages populated by indigenous and afro-descendant communities. For a large part, authorities face dire access difficulties to these areas. It is important to note that women and children require a differentiated assistance given their specific vulnerability to diseases and sexual violence, as well as their socioeconomic conditions.
[Last updated: 17 December 2010]