The first overland relief supplies for tens of thousands of victims of fatal flash floods reached devastated southern Ethiopia on Tuesday, amid fears of a sharp rise in the death toll.
After slogging through hundreds of kilometres of muddy roads and fording rivers where bridges were washed away, aid trucks arrived at a staging post in the region from where supplies will be distributed by air and boat.
The 11-vehicle convoy rolled into the town of Omerate, about 980km south-west of Addis Ababa, with food, water, medicine, tents and sandbags for the survivors of the floods that have killed at least 364 people in the Omo River valley since August 13, officials said.
”We have finally been able to reach Omerate with trucks, which will ease the logistical nightmare we have been facing until today,” said Sisay Taddeses, a spokesperson for Ethiopia’s Disaster Preparedness and Prevention Agency.
He and others said in Addis Ababa that the first shipments would be taken by helicopter and powerboat to up to 8 000 villagers who remain cut off by the floods in the Southern Nationalities, Nations and People’s state.
”We have three helicopters making 10 flights a day to drop material and food to those who are unreachable,” said defence ministry spokesperson Dawit Assefa. ”Our special forces units and helicopters will continue to provide support until all areas are reachable and everyone is accounted for and relocated to safer ground.”
In addition to the 626 people known so far to have been killed across the country, thousands of heads of valuable livestock have drowned and huge tracts of farmland ruined, spelling financial disaster for many.
In addition to the confirmed deaths, the United Nations says up to 10 000 people have been displaced by flooding in the Omo River, one of several Ethiopia waterways to have burst their banks since the beginning of the month.
”As more information is obtained from the remote villages now encircled by flood waters, the level of casualties is expected to be even higher,” the UN Organisation for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs said in a statement.
Nationwide, UN officials say 118 000 people have been affected by the flooding caused by unusually heavy seasonal rains, particularly in the south-west and the east, where 256 people were killed and 6 000 left homeless.
The World Food Programme (WFP) said it made a flash appeal for $5,82-million for the thousands who have been displaced as well as rehabilitation of infrastructure in Dire Dawa township in eastern Ethiopia.
”Funds are urgently needed to allow aid organisations like WFP to undertake additional and much-needed food, nutrition, health, sanitation, water, logistics and road interventions,” said WFP representative in Ethiopia Abnezer Ngowi. ”We must concentrate on the massive humanitarian task ahead.”
Concerns about the spread of water-borne diseases are also growing as rain continues to pound the Ethiopian highlands, threatening dams where water levels are now at a critical stage.
Authorities have warned residents near three dams in the west, south and north to leave their homes as they began controlled releases of water to ease pressure on the facilities and prevent them from breaking.
”We will be releasing water from some of the dams very cautiously to ease the impact on people living downstream,” said Deksyos Tanekepen, chief of hydrology at Ethiopia’s water resources ministry.
The Ethiopian Electric Power Corporation began releasing water from the Gilgel Gibe dam on the Omo River late on Monday. Other dams in danger are the Koka on the Awash River that has flooded in the east, and the Tise Aby on the Blue Nile in the north.
Forecasters have warned that six areas in the north, west and south of the country will likely face further flood threats from the downpours that are expected to continue until the end of the rainy season in September.
Ethiopia, home to about 70-million people, has faced heavy floods and droughts in recent years. — Sapa-AFP