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Subject: [cerninfo] Situation report Gonaives, 22/9/04 6 pm
Date: Thu, 23 Sep 2004 21:08:51 EDT
From: jvoordouw@...
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Situation report. Gonaives,



1800hrs, 22 September, 2004



(This is the latest information received from the OCHA-UNDP-Protection
Civile coordination team in Gonaives)



Overview



Both local authorities and the international community are struggling to
meet the challenge of identifying the victims of the floods and to
respond to their urgent needs. With the start of food and water
distribution, however, it is hoped that their will be increased optimism
in the town. There is however, an urgent need to step up deliveries,
deal with the corpses and dead animals in the streets and to continue to
maintain public security. At least it is possible as of this evening to
say the architecture of the humanitarian operation is now in place with
the basic essential coordination. This should be further improved
tomorrow with the deployment of part of the UNDAC emergency team to
Gonaives. Perhaps most progress has been made on health issues though
the danger of epidemics remains given the damage to sanitation structures.



1 Main issues;



* Food and Water distributions began today, lead by CARE and with
MINUSTAH security support, based in three fixed distribution points with
some mobile distributions. In general the distributions were successful
and passed off without major incident. According to CARE, some 40 tons
of food were distributed. There were, however, unconfirmed reports of
some cases of looting of aid vehicles. An ICRC jeep was stopped by a
crowd but the team was able to persuade the crowd to let them continue.
CRS reported concerns that some water distribution was happening in a
chaotic fashion with no security support or coordination with the
authorities.



* In general, the atmosphere is reported to be tense but there have been
no reports of violence. Clearly, though, the security situation is
precarious and will be constantly monitored. There is a clear need for
aid convoys to be escorted by MINUSTAH once they arrive in Gonaives and
we recommend that all deliveries be notified to the MINUSTAH Joint
Operations Centre in the UN compound in Port-au-Prince. There is an
unconfirmed report from the head of the Haitian Police in Gonaives that
two distribution points run by the local authorities with support of the
PNH were looted today in Raboteau and Descahos. Reports suggest that
the four police officers had their guns stolen and they were stoned by
the crowd. They managed to escape. There were no reports of activities
of armed gangs although one NGO reported suspicious characters near the
road in Savannes Desolees on the main road south of Gonaives.





* It needs to be borne in mind that the authorities in Gonaives are not
strong and have themselves been affected by the floods. Gonaives is a
complex and politically divided town with a record of gang, criminal and
political violence. The various areas of the town have different
allegiances and it will be important for the humanitarian effort and the
rehabilitation following that will have to be seen to be even handed,
politically and geographically.



*There is now a regular schedule of general coordination meetings at
0800 and 1600 in Gonaives. These are being attended by Action Contre la
Faim, Oxfam, MSF, MduM, CARE, World Vision, Caritas, International
Federation of the Red Cross, Direction de Protection Civile, the mayor,
the regional delegate, the director of health for l´Artibonite, OCHA,
UNDP and the military and police components of MINUSTAH in Gonaives.



* There is still no electricity or land-line telephones in Gonaives.
Radio Gonaives is back on the air and is the most effective means of
communicating with the population.



*Dead and missing;

Civil Protection estimates the total deaths currently at 1,013 and
1,200 missing. The majority are in Gonaives. UN staff estimate that
this could rise quite dramatically in the coming days as there are still
two areas of town which are under water and inaccessible; sections 1 and
5. The number of missing remains at over 1,000. ICRC has taken on the
task of listing the dead and tracing the missing and attempting to
organize reunions. They report a number of unaccompanied children
wandering in the town of Gonaives, abandoned or orphaned.



*Three members of the UN Disaster Assessment and Coordination, UNDAC,
team out of seven arrived in Port-au-Prince today. A fourth member with
the basic equipment will arrive in Haiti at 0830 tomorrow and the
MINUSTHA JOC has scheduled a special helicopter flight to take the team
and the equipment to Gonaives at 1300. Given the conditions in
Gonaives, the current plan is to retain a couple of the team in
Port-au-Prince and do rotate every three days.



*OCHA and UNDP did a 30 minute briefing on the situation in Gonaives to
the Cadre de Cooperation Interimaire, the Interim Cooperation Framework,
meeting of donors and a number of governments and institutions expressed
their intention to allocate funds to the disaster; Canada, Japan,
Brazil, France, EU, IDB, World Bank etc.



* Protection Civile reports that the government of Haiti has allocated
1.5m gourdes for the Ministry of Health and a further million for the
Ministry of Agriculture. It further reports that it has been able to
dispatch some 20 volunteers to assist the clean-up operation.



2 Health



Medecins Sans Frontieres (MSF) and Medecins Du Monde (MDM),14 Cuban
doctors and the Argentinean military medical team continue to run four
small field hospitals. It is reported that the Argentinians alone have
carried out over 800 consultations since Sunday including amputations
and deliveries. At this stage it is generally agreed that the health
situation is under control but the danger of epidemics can not be ruled out

UNICEF plan to send a team of 30 psycho-social workers tomorrow who will
begin their work with the population already in temporary shelters. .
The World Health Organisation today delivered to 10,000 basic health
kits. The Haitian Ministry of Health has sent 4 Haitian doctors to
Gonaives, ten health officers and chemicals to deal with the corpses.
ADRA has sent medicines to Gonaives (no details available). The
International Federation of the Red Cross has received a colleague from
the Norwegian Red Cross to look at the possibility of establishing a
semi-permanent field hospital.







3 Shelter and non-food items

Protection Civile reports the delivery to Gonaives of 15 hospital beds,
two containers of food aid, 3 generators, 20,000 packets of bread, 500
packets of biscuits, 700 cases of sardines, 50 cases of juice. 383 rolls
of plastic sheeting has been delivered to Gonaives



4 Food and water

The OCHA officer in Gonaives has reported that the three CARE
distribution points supported by MINUSTAH and in coordination with local
committees all functioned well and some 41 tons of food was distributed
to an estimated 20,000 people. The plan is to operate another three
distribution points tomorrow but in different parts of town. Some water
was also distributed but figures are not available at this stage. Plan
Haiti and Oxfam are providing significant amounts of water, in part at
least through CARE. WFP has transported 71.5 tons of food to Gonaives
over the past 48 hours and four of their trucks will remain in Gonaives
tonight to assist distributions tomorrow. It is reported that WFP bread
has been distributed, some 4,500 loaves, through the temporary
shelters. There is still a clear need for kitchen kits and fuel of some
sort for cooking.

There would appear to be possibilities of soon reopening sources of
water in Gonaives itself. A water committee has been set up with Action
Contre la Faim, Oxfam, Red Cross Federations and the Haitian authority,
SNEP. Water could be available in wells in the ice factory and one
other reservoir but in both locations the generators are broken.

There is a report that a private truck carrying bottled water was looted.



5 Education;

No information available today.



6 Agriculture

FAO will begin its evaluation tomorrow.



7 Coordination

.



There was a further coordination meeting in the UNDP Conference room in
Port-au-Prince at 1600hrs on 22 September with the participation of some
50 delegates including NGOs, DPC and UN agencies.



8 Areas north of Gonaives

One of the tasks of UNDAC will be to identify affected areas north of
Gonaives and receive more information from areas known to have been
affected such as Gros Morne and Chansolme as well as Port de Paix where
only a couple of NGOs operate, including CARE and Action Contre la
Faim. Agro Action Allemand reports that there could be up to 100 dead
in the village of Passereine, north of Gonaives on the Cap Haitian road
and report widespread agricultural damage. They report that the road is
badly damaged near Ennery and is unlikely to be properly repaired within
the next 2 or 3 weeks. They also report that the water system in Ennery
could be destroyed.



Adama Guindo

United Nations, Humanitarian Coordinator.

Port-au-Prince, 22/9/04


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