Funds needed to help hurricane-ravaged countries in Central America – UN official
Funding for United Nations operations to provide humanitarian aid to hurricane-devastated parts of Central America has fallen far short of needs.
Only $677,000 has been committed out of a needed $22 million in Guatemala, and $2.1 million out of $7.9 million has been pledged to El Salvador, according to the UN Relief Web’s Financial Tracking Service.
At a press briefing in New York, Hans Joerg Strohmeyer, the Chief of Staff to the Under Secretary-General for Humanitarian Affairs, said that funding remains a critical issue.
According to Guatemalan authorities, more than 650 people are dead, hundreds more are feared dead, and thousands have been reported injured and in need of food and shelter since at least 100 communities have been hit by mudslides and flooding from Hurricane Stan the 8 October.
Access for relief workers continues to be a problem in Guatemala, and now with rains predicted for the rest of the week, there is concern that the region will become even more vulnerable to mudslides, the UN World Food Programme (WFP) reported today.
Health and sanitation have also become precarious, and government sources have indicated that most of the shelters are overcrowded and collapsing due to the great numbers of people in need. The High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) Deputy Emergency Relief Coordinator, Margareta Wahlström, is planning on travelling to the region next week to make an assessment of the relief effort, Mr. Strohmeyer said.
WFP said today that the situation remains critical in El Salvador, Honduras, and particularly in Guatemala where many of the hardest-hit areas are still inaccessible to humanitarian agencies.
As of Wednesday, the WFP had provided the government with 1,700 tons of food, enough to feed nearly 87,000 families for 7 days, and assistance will be provided to the most affected areas, in the Departments of Escuintla, Retalhuleu, Suchitepéquez, Quetzaltenango, Huehuetenango, San Marcos, Totonicapán, and several others
Family rations consisting of maize, beans, corn soy blend, and vegetable oil as well as 5 tons of locally purchased biscuits are being airlifted today to the most isolated areas of Guatemala, the agency said.
In addition, as of today 14 tons of high energy biscuits have been distributed to 8,000 people in the isolated Department of San Marcos, where chronic malnutrition rates average from 49 to 89 per cent.
In El Salvador, the 32,000 people who were evacuated either as a result of Hurricane Stan or due to volcanic activity in Santa Ana remain in shelters. But worries about renewed activity from the Santa Ana (llamatepec) volcano continue, as it registered increased activity on Thursday night, WFP said.
In addition, the National Service for Territorial Studies reported increased activity coming from the Chaparrastique (San Miguel) volcano, which is located 10 kilometres west of the third largest city, San Miguel, and is historically one of the most active in the country, the agency said.
The UN country team in El Salvador and the World Bank were informed by the Economic Commission for Latin America and the Caribbean (ECLAC) that they will be sending a damage assessment team to the country on 25 October, with a report early next month.
To date, 304 tons of food supplies have been delivered to 77,000 people in 402 shelters and communities, the WFP added.