Other countries

ACT members respond to floods

© AlerNet/Reuters: Mihai Barbu

Romanian soldiers reinforce a sandbag dyke in the flooded village of Manastirea, Romania, April 30, 2006.

Members of the global alliance Action by Churches Together (ACT) International have already mobilized to assist evacuated residents and people working on dams and dikes to control the flooding.

The members are also preparing to provide relief if control efforts fail and flood waters spread.

Hungary

In Hungary, where the Tisza River has also risen to dangerous levels, Hungarian Interchurch Aid (HIA) is reporting that 4,500 people have been evacuated from three settlements of Szolnok county - Csépa, Szelevény, Tiszasas - and moved to Cserkesz?l?, Kunszentmárton and Tiszaföldvár. The evacuations became necessary when a dike weakened under the flood waters. The dike is being reconstructed, with materials being transported to the area by helicopters, as it can not be accessed by road.

HIA staff have been sent to provide assistance in the regions where the evacuated residents have gone. The staff were expected to distribute drinking water, non-perishable food and hygiene kits over the weekend.

HIA also responded last week in the most threatened regions of the northern and southern sections of the Danube River and at the most critical points of the Tisza River in the northern region at Tokaj, in Vezseny near Szolnok and in the Szeged area. HIA distributed food, drinking water and hygiene items to almost 2,000 evacuated individuals and supplied food and water to volunteers working on the dikes in places where they were needed.

HIA is using resources obtained within Hungary only for its response so far.

The other ACT member in Hungary, Hungarian Baptist Aid (HBA), has been active in providing assistance in the flooding in the last few weeks.

Several days ago in the plain of Budapest, where the rising of the Danube has caused the most problems, approximately 600 residents had to be evacuated, and, because of the danger of dams bursting, authorities were prepared to evacuate 25,000 more.

HBA had water pumps and rescue boats in place in the area. One rescue boat was involved in rescue operations near the island of Szentendre. In addition to providing help to the fire brigade in several operations, HBA boat crews transported people with medical conditions that needed attention. HBA reports that its staff in the area were working 16 hours a day and frequently at night.

In all, HBA had six vehicles, two rescue boats, 20 divers, 20 rescue personnel and a logistical unit with a mobile kitchen included that were being used in the affected areas or were ready to be deployed.

Responding to a request, on April 20, HBA staff started to provide assistance to people working on the Körös dam on a tributary of the Tisza River in Szentes and Kunszentmárton. Three villages – 4,500 residents – in the area were evacuated, and on April 21, three HBA vehicles departed for the area where the residents had been brought with 100 beds, packages with food and hygiene items for 200 families, drinking water and 2,000 packages of non-perishable food.

In the city of Csongrád, another 2,000 relief packages were to be distributed to workers trying to contain the flood waters.

Serbia

Despite the extreme flooding in Hungary, HIA reports that it is also assisting in the even more critical situation in Serbia, Hungary’s neighbor to the south. Working with the Ecumenical Humanitarian Organization (EHO), an ACT member in Serbia, HIA has sent two staff members to an endangered region in Serbia at the crossing of two of the biggest rivers, which are at flood stage. The HIA staff will carry out joint assessments and relief with EHO staff. The two agencies responded together to last year’s flooding in Bánát.

On April 20, HIA and EHO staff visited other regions that are at high risk of flooding – the Zabalj area, Zrenjanin, Belo Blato, Titel and Mosorin. In Titel and Zrenjanin, where farming is the main way residents earn an income, high levels of underground water have already flooded fields, bringing work to a halt. According HIA, in some parts around Mosorin, farmers have had to leave their farms and more than 11,000 animals have had to be moved out of the area.

The visiting HIA staff have been in contact with the emergency headquarters in Titel and Zrenjanin daily. Authorities at the headquarters expressed a need for daily supplies for workers shoring up dams in the area, and HIA was able to supply emergency food packages and drinking water for 500 workers. The staff plan to stay in daily contact with the headquarters and offer immediate support in case other humanitarian needs arise.

Norwegian Church Aid (NCA), another ACT member working in Serbia, has requested Rapid Response Funds from the ACT Coordinating Office in Geneva to be used by its local partner, Philanthropy, an arm of the Serbian Orthodox Church, in the villages of the Banat region, in northeast Serbia.

With the approved US$37,200 in Rapid Response Funds, Philanthropy plans to assist in draining flood waters from houses to prevent outbreaks of water-borne diseases and provide clean drinking water and at least 500 packages of hygiene and disinfecting products to affected residents of the area.

Other ACT members in Serbia are also considering their responses to the situation. Church World Service is currently carrying out an assessment, and International Orthodox Christian Charities is discussing potential responses with an implementing partner.

NCA is scheduling a coordination meeting of the ACT members in Serbia for this week in Belgrade or Novi Sad.

Romania

AIDRom, the ACT member in Romania, is expected to submit a proposal for an appeal to the ACT Coordinating Office in the coming days. AIDRom has indicated it would like to assist evacuees from the villages of Rast, Negoi, Catane, Bistertul Nou and Bechet in Dolj county, where there is the largest number of displaced people and where AIDRom can work with a local implementing partner, the Social Service of the Orthodox Archbishop Office from Craiova.

AIDRom’s emergency unit coordinator and field coordinator left for this area on April 19 to carry out surveys and damage and needs assessments. They reported from the area that the greatest needs were non-perishable food items and drinking water for people who were evacuated and those who chose to stay in their homes.

Last week, AIDRom Emergency Unit began packing 500 family relief food parcels, each with 35 to 40 kilograms of non-perishable food and 20 liters of mineral water, for distribution early this week to the communities where the staff assessments show these supplies will be most needed.

DanChurchAid is a member of ACT International - a global alliance of churches and related agencies working to save lives and support communities in emergencies.