New funding from the United States Agency for International Development (USAID) has allowed IOM to deliver industrial ovens, kitchen equipment, mattresses and water storage tanks to vulnerable flood-affected Afro-Colombian communities living in the southwestern department of Nariño.
The six tonnes of emergency assistance were delivered by road to the Local Disaster Management and Prevention Team (CLOPAD, by its Spanish acronym), in the municipality of Tumaco, whose residents have been severely affected by the overflow of the Mira River due to incessant heavy rains.
The floods have swept away houses, crops and livestock. According to COPLAD, some 32,000 persons have been affected with 22 people still reported missing. More than 1,100 houses have been destroyed, a further 1,400 were damaged and some 20,000 hectares of crops have been washed away.
IOM and its partners are carrying out an assessment of the impact of the floods on schools in Nariño in order to rebuild or repair damaged infrastructures, with funding from the Colombian Ministry of Education.
The heavy rains and floods have also affected the Department of Chocó, located in Colombia's Pacific coastal region. IOM is building shelters for more than 1,100 families left homeless with US$ 460,000 from the UN's Central Emergency Response Fund (CERF) and distributed non-food items, including kitchen sets, stoves, hammocks, mattresses, and blankets to 5,500 persons in that department.
For more information, please contact Juliana Quintero, IOM Bogota. Tel. + 5715946410 Ext. 142, Email: jgallo@iom.int