Title: Somalia Floods: Residents and Displaced Struggle to Survive
Date & location: Belet Weyne, Hiran region, Somalia, 22-23 November 2006
Natural with English and Somali speech
Duration: 8'45''
Produced and realized by: Pedram Yazdi and Nicole Engelbrecht
Source: ICRC – Access all

For broadcast tapes and information on footage: Virginie Louis, International Committee of the Red Cross, Geneva,

Nicole Engelbrecht, Regional Media Relations Delegate, ICRC Nairobi: + (254) 722- 51 27 28
This report was distributed free-to-air and rights free on Reuters Television News on 24 November 2006.

Shows:

Belet Weyne, Hiran region, Somalia (22 November 2006)

00:35 flooded huts, Belet Weyne town, Belet Weyne district, Hiran region
00:46 people walking through water in Belet Weyne town
00:55 donkey carriage with small water tank
01:04 dirty water stagnating, mixing with sewage
01:15 man with small pump
01:32 flooded marked place in the centre of Belet Weyne town
01:50 water being pumped into small canal
02:02 men reinforcing canal
02:10 ICRC water engineer, Yves Degiacomi, inspecting hand dug well with one of his colleagues

02:25 Soundbite ICRC water engineer – 20") (English) saying

"This hand dug well has been completely flooded. And now you can see, the mud came up to here. This well was privately owned and it was distributing safe water to parts of Belet Weyne. Now it will be weeks until the people here can use this hand dug wells again."

IDP camp, near Belet Weyne, Hiran region, Somalia (23 November 2006)

02:47 Various of IDP camp (Internally displaced persons) outside of Belet Weyne
03:15 Old woman (Hasha) fetching water
03:23 Hasha in front of her hut with second woman and children

03:28 (Soundbite Hasha – 45") (Somali) saying

"We did not receive any assistance, just look around, we are 20 families installed here, our children are sleeping outside exposed to mosquito bites. The town is down there, but we had to come here, to higher grounds, with our children, but look at all this, we need assistance."

04:19 (Soundbite Hasha – 40") (Somali) saying

"All of our houses are surrounded by water. We cannot go back to take anything including food. We don't have access. The problem we ran away from is still with us, We don't have pots to cook, no food, not enough plastic sheets. We are all displaced, we don't have anything, but we help each other."


05:13 View from airplane, flooded Belet Weyne District
05:39 Unloading ICRC airplane on airstrip close to Belet Weyne town
05:57 ICRC construction material being loaded onto truck
06:10 unloading truck in camp
06:35 various of constructing distribution ramps in camp
06:48 various of constructing water reservoir
07:09 various of filling water reservoir
07:58 Red Crescent Volunteer filling reservoir
08:27 ICRC water engineer putting chlorine tablets into water
08:39 various of people fetching water from tap

09:30 Ends

Story:

The severe floods in Somalia have destroyed crops and farmland, disrupted food supplies and cut off entire villages. Hundreds of thousands of people are in urgent need of humanitarian assistance.

One of the worst affected towns is Belet Weyne in the Hiran region in Central Somalia. The water level is gradually decreasing, as it has not rained for the last few days. However, many streets are still completely under water. Approximately 70% of the population left their homes for higher grounds in the surrounding areas. The remaining people do not have enough drinking water, only a few private wells still function. In many places, the water stagnates and mixes with sewage producing an unbearable smell.

In this neighbourhood, a few men managed to rent a small pump trying to evacuate some of the water. It seems to be like fighting windmills when looking at the flooded market place of Belet Weyne in the centre of town. The men are reinforcing the small canal they dug to evacuate the water with sandbags.

The majority of the community wells were flooded by water until a few days ago. ICRC water engineer Yves Degiacomi, and his colleague are inspecting the condition of the wells:

"This hand dug well has been completely flooded. And now you can see, the mud came up to here. This well was privately owned and it was distributing safe water to parts of Belet Weyne. Now it will be weeks until the people here can use this hand dug wells again."

A few kilometres outside of Belet Weyne the displaced set up a camp on higher grounds. Here they are safe from the floods but the humanitarian situation is still horrendous. Above all people need food and access to drinking water.

"We did not receive any assistance", says this woman, "just look around, we are 20 families (from my community) installed here, our children are sleeping outside exposed to mosquito bites. The town is down there, but we had to come here, to higher grounds, with our children, but look at all this, we need assistance."

"All of our houses are surrounded by water. We cannot go back to take anything including food. We don't have access. The problem we ran away from, is still with us, We don't have pots to cook, no food, not enough plastic sheets. We are all displaced, we don't have anything, but we help each other."

The year 2006 has been catastrophic for the Somali people. After the worst drought in a decade, they are now facing disastrous floods. Families are pushed to the limit of their capabilities trying to survive under such extreme climate conditions. The floods compound what was already one of the most horrendous humanitarian situations in the world. The country has endured 15 years of armed conflict; it lacks basic health services and infrastructure.

The International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) is one of the few humanitarian organisations active in Somalia. As many roads are impassable, delivering assistance by air is often the only option. In Belet Weyne the organisation is providing drinking water to 45.000 people. The ICRC teams are currently constructing 14 water reservoirs and distribution ramps in the camp. Each reservoir can hold up to 10.000 litres. To make the water safe to drink, ICRC water engineer Yves Degiacomi adds 10 tablets of Chlorine to each reservoir (1 tablet per 1000 litres.) The water is delivered by truck from a well about 10 miles away.

On Wednesday (November 22nd) the ICRC also started airlifting tarpaulins to 324.000 people in some of the worst affected areas in the Jubba, Gedo and Hiiran regions as well as in Middle and Lower Shabelle in Southern Somalia. In the upcoming weeks, the organisation plans to distribute seeds to the same people.

The ICRC assists the affected people in partnership with the Somali Red Crescent Society and the International Federation of the Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies. Besides addressing the needs provoked by the floods, the ICRC continues to carry out other health and agricultural programmes as well as bringing relief assistance to the people internally displaced, as it has done since 1977 and it is ready to increase its aid as the situation unfolds.