General view from an Ethiopian Army helicopter shows the flooded area of the Southern Nationalities, Nations and People's State in Ethiopia, 18 August. Ethiopia braced for more damage from deadly nationwide flash floods as the government warned unusually heavy seasonal rains could force the release of water from dangerously swollen dams.(AFP/File/Abraham Fisseha)
Dear friend,
The Ethiopian Team has paused our fundraising efforts for the UNICEF Polio vaccinations for the month of September and for the remaining days of August. Since 6 August 2006, Ethiopia has witnessed devastating floods affecting the Southern Omo region and the eastern Dire Dawa city and its surroundings. About 900 are confirmed dead, 15,000 displaced and over 50,000 are affected by this. Now fears of water born illnesses such as malaria are on the rise. The Ethiopian Team asks you in the kindness of your heart to please donate whatever amount you can to our relief effort. Please refer to the PDF downloadable attachment for more information on our bank account and on the flooding. This is an EMERGENCY NOTICE and we ask that you circulate it through your email contact lists and/or your website (s).
On behalf of the 50,000 affected and the 900 dead, thank you and please help.
For more information, please call: 1 617 441 3140 or email us (refer to the PDF). Also please read the below articles on the floods. This should be reminding of the devastation caused by Katrina in New Orleans last year for Americans. Please do help as this is a devastating extraordinary flood for Ethiopia and poor farmers.
Addis Ababa - Thousands of Ethiopians stranded by rising floodwaters are hampering rescue efforts by refusing to leave their homes and livestock, said officials on Wednesday.
Police said: "About 3 000 marooned villagers are defying helicopter attempts to airlift them to higher ground, despite warnings of further flooding across southern Ethiopia."
"The situation is not under control yet," said southern regional police commissioner Petros Gebre.
"Convincing these people to leave their homes is difficult, and forcing them to leave is not a tactic we are using, but of course if we leave them behind we fear for their safety and we tell them that.
"People have lost most of their livestock already, but have been unwilling to leave remaining cattle behind for fear they will die or be stolen."
Heavy rains unleashed countrywide
In addition, bad weather was hindering rescue efforts, Gebre said, while the United Nations warned that more flooding was expected.
Heavy rains unleashed countrywide floods earlier this month, leaving at least 626 people dead and 50 000 displaced from their homes, according to officials.
Gebre said it was unlikely more bodies would be recovered until floodwaters receded.
UN's Office for the co-ordination of humanitarian affairs said: "The water level is continuing to rise, and new villages are flooded everyday."
With rivers swollen, the country's five dams reaching bursting point, soil saturated and more rains predicted, "the risk of additional flooding with heavy consequences appears high".
More helicopters and boats needed
Search and rescue efforts were continuing in the worst-affected area in southern Ethiopia, near the Kenyan border, where 364 people have been killed.
Rescuers said they needed $18m (about R127.6m) to prevent further loss of life in the area, and appealed for more helicopters and rescue boats.
One man said he lost 25 relatives when the Omo River burst its banks on August 13.
Lokonoch Areko, 28, said he swam and walked about 40km in two days to reach safety in Omerate town, 800km south of the capital.
Flooding has also hit the east, north and west of the country.
150 people died from diseases
Malaria, cholera and diarrhoea, owing to poor sanitation and overcrowding in makeshift shelters, were threatening survivors, international aid agency ActionAid said.
Already 150 people have died of waterborne diseases, and 12 000 have been infected, according to relief organisations.
"Right now, the urgent need is to get people to higher ground and provide them with relief supplies," said Retta Menberu, head of ActionAid in Ethiopia.
ADDIS ABABA, 24 August (IRIN) - Malaria could become the major threat to thousands of people whose villages have been submerged in flood waters along the Omo River in southern Ethiopia, local officials said on Wednesday, calling for a more rapid distribution of bed nets to displaced people.
"Outbreaks of malaria are becoming our major concern. We are distributing mosquito nets to the stranded and rescued people who are in various shelters in the area," said Kaidaki Gezahegne, the administrator of the South Omo Zone.
He said more malaria cases were being reported in the flooded villages in the zone, and as a result, about 4,000 mosquito nets had been distributed in the past five days. The most severe flooding occurred in South Omo Valley, affecting more than 14 villages in two remote woredas (districts) in the Southern Nations, Nationalities and People's Regions. The Ethiopian government said 364 people had died in that region and an estimated 6,000-10,000 had been displaced.
In total, severe floods have claimed the lives of 620 people around Ethiopia since the end of July, according to the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA), and 35,000 people have been displaced. About 118,000 people have been affected by the flooding, the agency said in its latest update on the Ethiopian floods released on Tuesday.
Heavy rainfall caused the swelling of nearly all major rivers in Ethiopia and the five dams across the country were nearing their maximum capacity and the water still rising, OCHA said, adding that the soil in much of the central highlands was saturated. Weather forecasts indicated more rains, which could lead to more flooding.
The Ethiopian government has appealed for emergency assistance, particularly search and rescue teams, food and non-food items to fill the immediate humanitarian gaps.
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Water is being released from the Gilgel Gibe power distribution dam through floodgates as the level of water in the dam rose by 40 centimeter due to the heavy rain recently, the Ethiopian Electric Power Corporation (EEPCo) said.
EEPCo General Manager Mihret Debebe told senior government officials Sunday that the release of the water from the dam was a precautionary measure to avoid overflowing and subsequent flooding.
Water Resources Minister Asfaw Dingamo on his part said the corporation needs to take appropriate follow up measures so as to avoid the possible overflowing of the water from the dam.
Mines and Energy Minister Alemayehu Tegenu stressed the need for the establishment of a mechanism enabling to release water in time before the dam is filled beyond its level.
State Minister of Information, Tesema Fote said the media are striving to inform the public on the efforts being made by the government to tackle flooding and the damage it is causing on human lives and property.
The Team also visited the Gilgel Gibe II Power Generating Project.
UNICEF: Acute Water Diarrhea Spreading in Ethiopia
By Lisa Schlein Geneva 22 August 2006
The UN children's fund, UNICEF, reports acute watery diarrhea, or AWD, is spreading at an alarming rate in Ethiopia, especially among children. Since April, UNICEF says AWD has killed about 140 people and 11,000 others have been diagnosed with the illness.
UNICEF says it is continuing to spread throughout the country. Its range now stretches from the Gambella area in western Ethiopia southward, to about 200 kilometers from the Kenyan border.
UNICEF spokesman Michael Bociurkiw says children are especially vulnerable because of the dehydration AWD causes. "AWD brings about severe dehydration. It is usually sparked by consumption of raw or improperly cooked food, lack of access to safe drinking water, and poor personal hygiene and environmental sanitation. It can spread swiftly through a population. In the case of Ethiopia, it has hit along a main transport route, so it is going about at a very rapid pace. We are monitoring the situation very carefully with daily situation reports," he said.
Bociurkiw says AWD is treated with oral rehydration salts. He says UNICEF has begun an education campaign that it hopes will eventually help stamp out the disease. As part of the campaign, the organization is printing out leaflets and pamphlets to tell people about proper cooking methods and good personal hygiene practices, such as washing hands.
UNICEF is working with the World Health Organization, the Organization for the Coordination of Humanitarian Assistance, and the government to bring the disease under control.
ADDIS ABABA, Aug 22 (Reuters) - Rains that caused rivers to burst their banks in southern Ethiopia, killing hundreds and uprooting tens of thousands, will continue to mid-October, the head of the national meteorological agency said on Tuesday.
"Under normal circumstances, rains in the Omo Valley and other lowland areas of the country will continue until mid-October," said the agency's director general Kidane Asefa.
The flash floods that began earlier this month have killed some 900 people and displaced about 48,000. The United Nations has warned many of the homeless are now at risk from disease.
While the southern lowlands would continue to be swamped by downpours, Kidane said heavy rains in Ethiopia's northeastern highlands were expected to reduce by early September.
"Within the next 10 days the rains are expected to move southward and Lake Tana and its environs in northeast Ethiopia, threatened by flood ... will turn to normal," he added.
He blamed the recent floods on the short April-May rains running into the main rainy season, which began in June.
"The two seasons were combined creating a long rainy season which caused rivers to overflow their banks," Kidane said.
On Monday, the U.N. said acute diarrhoea had killed 150 people and infected nearly 12,000 others. It said water-borne diseases were spreading at an alarming rate.
Addis Ababa - Ethiopia braced itself on Sunday for more damage from deadly nationwide flash floods as the government warned that unusually heavy seasonal rains could force the release of water from dangerously swollen dams.
A task force set up to deal with the flooding crises that have affected nearly 75 000 people said three dams in the west, south and north of the country were close to breaking point, and advised residents in their vicinities to leave.
Although controlled, it said the release of water from the threatened dams on the Omo, Awash and Blue Nile rivers could compound devastation from floods that have already killed at least 626 people in the south, east and north.
Overwhelmed authorities have appealed for aid
"Currently, the main dams are planning to release some waters, and the national task force is advising people living near the dams and downstream to take precautionary measures and, if possible, move to higher ground," it said.
The facilities are the Gilgel Gibe dam on the Omo River, which has already flooded huge areas in the southwest, the Koka dam on the Awash River that has flooded in the east, and the Tise Aby dam on the Blue Nile in the north.
The release of water from these dams "may flood some areas", the task force said in a statement released by the information ministry.
In addition to the confirmed deaths, about 250 people are missing and 73 000 are affected, many of them left homeless by the raging waters that have killed thousands of valuable livestock and flooded huge tracts of farmland.
Overwhelmed authorities have appealed for international aid and in the town of Dire Dawa, about 500km east of Addis Ababa, that was hit by floods on August 6, US soldiers began relief work this weekend.
The 35 Djibouti-based US naval engineers were setting up 52 large tents to house many of 6 000 people displaced by the waters that killed 256, and erecting sanitation facilities amid growing fears of the spread of water-borne diseases.
With poor weather continuing to hamper relief efforts, particularly in the southwest Omo River valley where 364 people drowned last week and up to 8 000 remain marooned in 14 inundated villages, officials feared a rise in the death toll.
"The rain in the highlands has continued and the river waters are showing no signs of decreasing," said Major Solomon Gebere Michael, commander of army relief operations in the Southern Nationalities, Nations and People's state.
"It is hurting the search and rescue mission," he said by phone from Amorate, some 800km south of Addis Ababa.
Military helicopters dangling special forces troops from ropes and ladders continued to fly over affected areas, dropping food and water and trying where possible to pluck survivors from roofs and tree tops, Solomon said.
At the same time, he said, rescue teams in boats had begun to face difficulties due to powerful currents and obstacles in newly created vast marsh areas in the Omo basin.
Meteorologists have warned that six areas in the north, west and south of the country will likely face further flood threats from the downpours expected to continue till the end of the June to September rainy season.
Ethiopia has repeatedly suffered heavy floods and droughts in recent years, devastating agriculture that provides a livelihood for the majority of its 70 million people. - Sapa-AFP
Ethiopia began releasing water from dams taxed by two weeks of heavy rain to prevent them from bursting as the death toll from devastating floods climbed, state media said Tuesday.
With forecasters predicting yet more rain in this impoverished nation, floodgates from three major dams were opened, the Ethiopian News Agency reported.
Officials said they were releasing water from the dams in the central, southern and eastern parts of the country as a precautionary measure to prevent them from overflowing or bursting and causing uncontrolled flooding, according to the report.
Flooding caused by the heavy rains has left 626 people dead and displaced about 50,000, according to officials.
Ethiopian Army soldiers prepare 18 August to bring help to residents. The death toll from flash floods in Ethiopia rose after police reported an unknown number of bodies had been found in the country's southwest, where 364 deaths have already been confirmed.(AFP/File/Abraham Fisseha)
Meanwhile, officials issued fresh flood alerts in southern, northern and western Ethiopia as more bodies were recovered in the south, where the Omo River burst its banks on Aug. 13.
"This is a dangerous time for everyone and we are doing our best to prevent further deaths," Sisay Tadesse, spokesman for the government-run Disaster Preparedness and Prevention Agency told The Associated Press.
He said 1,300 people have been rescued by boat or helicopter in the south but he did not know the number of new bodies that had been recovered by rescuers.
Meanwhile, U.S. Navy personnel began relief operations in Dire Dawa, 310 miles east of Addis Ababa, where the first flash floods ripped through the town on Aug. 6, killing 256 and leaving 300 missing and feared dead.
U.S. naval engineers, who are part of the anti-terror Combined Joint Task Force Horn of Africa based in neighboring Djibouti, set up tents to shelter thousands of displaced residents. Sanitation facilities have also been built.
Waterborne diseases have compounded the rescue efforts, with 150 people having died countrywide from acute diarrhea and nearly 12,000 infected, the U.N. said.
-- The Ethiopian Team PO Box 391805 Cambridge, MA 02139 Tel: 1-617-441-3140 Website: www.ethiopianteam.org (not yet)
About us The Ethiopian Team is a legal non-profit tax-exempt 501(c)(3) youth-based organization based in Cambridge, MA in the United States of America. We work for the development of Ethiopia by fundraising and supporting the programs of institutions through the efforts of the Ethiopian-American public
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