Emergency Assistance
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Two devastating earthquakes shook war-torn northeastern Afghanistan during the first half of 1998. |
Afghanistan
1.
Purpose: Relief for earthquake victims
Amount: US$150,000
Approved: February 9, 1998
Grant administrator: OPEC Fund
The grant helped provide assistance to the victims of the earthquake that struck the northeastern province of Takhar on February 4, 1998, killing 4,000 people, injuring many thousands more and causing severe damage to homes and infrastructure. Landslides set off by the aftershocks caused even further destruction and loss of life. The earthquake was a devastating blow for a population already suffering from prolonged civil strife. The proceeds of the grant were channeled through the IFRCS and used to procure essential shelter and relief items.
2.
Purpose: Relief for earthquake victims
Amount: US$200,000
Approved: June 8, 1998
Grant administrator: OPEC Fund
The grant was made to help the victims of the earthquake that shook Shahr-e-Buzurg in Badakhshan Province on May 30, 1998, killing more than 5,000 people, injuring hundreds and leaving thousands without shelter. The second quake to devastate northeastern Afghanistan in less than six months, this one destroyed over 100 villages and wiped out roads and bridges throughout the area, making it virtually impossible to bring relief to the survivors in remote villages except by helicopter. The Fund's contribution helped finance the cost of helicopter deliveries of tents and other urgently needed supplies and was channeled through UNOCHA.
Bangladesh
Purpose: Relief for flood victims
Amount: US$150,000
Approved: September 22, 1998
Grant administrator: OPEC Fund
This grant was extended to help provide humanitarian assistance to the victims of the worst floods since 1988. After weeks of heavy rainfall in late summer 1998, two-thirds of the country was inundated and over 800,000 hectares of crops were ruined. Over 24 million people were affected by the floods, which damaged homes and essential infrastructure, and caused widespread outbreaks of waterborne diseases. Channeled through UNOCHA, the grant went for the purchase of emergency supplies, including food, water purification tablets, and shelter and medical supplies.
Bolivia
Purpose: Relief for earthquake victims
Amount: US$100,000
Approved: June 8, 1998
Grant administrator: OPEC Fund
The grant was extended to provide emergency relief to the victims
of the earthquake that struck Campero province on May 22, 1998 claiming
many lives and leaving 3,000 families homeless. Hardest hit were the towns
of Aiquile and Totora, where most inhabitants are poor Quechua
Indians. The devastation in Aiquile was virtually total, while in Totora
nearly half of the buildings were destroyed. Serious damage was also caused
to roads, telecommunications networks and water supply and sewerage systems.
Proceeds from the Fund's grant were used to procure shelter and relief
supplies for the survivors' camps and were channeled through the IFRCS.
CARE International
Purpose: Relief for refugees in Kosovo
Amount: US$100,000
Approved: December 1, 1998
Grant administrator: OPEC Fund
The grant went to supply food, shelter, warm winter clothing and
other urgently needed relief items to thousands of refugees in Kosovo
province (Yugoslavia), who had been displaced by violence and "ethnic
cleansing". Many of the estimated 270,000 who fled during spring and summer
of 1998 were unable to return to their homes because their houses had
been burned and their fields mined. By mid-November 1998, as many as 50,000
people were still without proper shelter and in grave danger of having
to spend the winter in the open. The proceeds of this grant helped finance
the Rapid Response Emergency Program launched by Care Austria,
which provided winter relief supplies to around 30,000 refugees in Srbica,
one of the worst affected municipalities.
Guatemala
Purpose: Relief for Hurricane Mitch victims
Amount: US$100,000
Approved: November 5, 1998
Grant administrator: OPEC Fund
This is one of three separate grants extended to assist the IFRCS in its efforts to provide immediate relief to the survivors of Hurricane Mitch in three severely affected countries. The hurricane, since classified as the third worst on record, battered Central America and the Eastern Caribbean in October 1998, laying waste to everything in its path and leaving tens of thousands homeless. The hurricane caused 10,500 known deaths, with many thousands more reported missing. Four million people were directly affected and 1.3 million had to be evacuated. In Guatemala, over 50,000 people were severely affected by the storm as it swept across three of the country's Atlantic departments. This grant went to provide the survivors with urgently needed food, water, medicines, chlorine tablets and shelter.
With roads and bridges destroyed, helicopters were often the only way to deliver emergency supplies to the survivors of Hurricane Mitch. |
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Honduras
Purpose: Relief for Hurricane Mitch victims
Amount: US$200,000
Approved: November 5, 1998
Grant administrator: OPEC Fund
In Honduras, 85% of the country was flooded by Hurricane Mitch.
Two million people were directly affected, and a quarter million had
to be evacuated from low-lying, coastal areas. According to official estimates,
some 5,000 lives were lost and 70% of all agricultural production was
laid waste. In addition to estimated damages topping $2 billion, tens
of thousands of people dependent on fishing, tourism, or the banana, coffee
or tropical fruit industries (among others) have lost their jobs. The
proceeds of the grant were used to provide food, blankets, chlorine tablets,
kitchen utensils and building materials for 6,000 families in the Atlantic
region whose dwellings were destroyed by the storm.
Nicaragua
Purpose: Relief for Hurricane Mitch victims
Amount: US$150,000
Approved: November 5, 1998
Grant administrator: OPEC Fund
This grant was used to provide emergency assistance to the victims
of Hurricane Mitch in Nicaragua, where mud-slides and severe flooding
wrought enormous damage on buildings and infrastructure, ruined thousands
of hectares of crops and wiped out 2,500 km of roads and highways. Half
a million people were directly affected and 1,300 died. Nearly 200,000
people in over 170 communities were totally isolated by floods or landslides.
In all, 615,000 had to be evacuated. This grant was used to finance the
distribution of food and other emergency provisions for a period of three
months to 2,500 families in the Chinandega and Granada departments who
had lost their homes and crops.
Papua New Guinea
Purpose: Relief for tidal wave survivors
Amount: US$100,000
Approved: September 22, 1998
Grant administrator: OPEC Fund
This grant helped finance emergency relief for survivors of the devastating tidal wave that swept over the northwestern coast of Papua New Guinea on July 17, 1998, flattening five villages in the Sissano Lagoon area and killing an estimated one-third of the population of 10,000. Hundreds of the survivors were injured, some seriously, and nearly the entire population was made homeless. Rescue efforts were delayed by massive damage to roads and bridges. Urgently needed relief supplies, including medicines and shelter items, were purchased with the proceeds of the Fund's grant.
Sudan, The
Purpose: Relief for drought victims
Amount: US$200,000
Approved: May 8, 1998
Grant administrator: OPEC Fund
This grant was used to purchase medical supplies for refugees in Bahr El Ghazal and other regions of southern Sudan, where three consecutive years of drought, crop failure and civil war have forced hundreds of thousands to leave their homes. Severe shortages of food and safe water, crowding and the lack of adequate sanitation created conditions highly conducive to the spread of malaria and severe respiratory and diarrhoeal diseases. With mortality rates rising alarmingly, the international community moved to provide not only food, water and shelter, but also medicines and vaccines.
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In the Sudan, severe drought for the third year in a row forced hundreds of thousands to leave their homes in search of water and food. |
Zanzibar
Purpose: Sanitation and drainage improvements
Amount: US$50,000
Approved: February 16, 1998
Grant administrator: OPEC Fund
The grant will cofinance a project to improve sanitation in a low-lying
area in Zanzibar town, where poor drainage and frequent flooding have
often led to severe outbreaks of malaria, cholera and other waterborne
diseases, claiming many lives, especially among small children. The Kwahani
Drainage System Project aims at reducing the frequency of diseases
associated with contaminated water by upgrading the community's sanitation
system. Under the project, a new drainage system will be constructed with
twice the capacity of the existing one for draining storm water and discharging
it into the sea. The reduced risk of water-related diseases should bring
about dramatic improvements in the health of area inhabitants.
Building the Kwahani Drainage System in
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