Attachments
A. SITUATION ANALYSIS
Description of the disaster
Heavy rainfall between 11 to 14 August 2017 caused widespread floods across 31 of the country’s 75 districts that has affected more than 1.7 million people. Immediate humanitarian needs in the form of supporting shelter items, food, safe water and health service were clearly seen as gaps in the affected areas.
Following the floods and landslides, Nepal Red Cross Society (NRCS) immediately activated its Emergency Operation Centre (EOC) and responded to the situation by mobilizing trained volunteers and staff in the field to conduct assessments, search and rescue, distribute relief items and provide first aid services to the people affected by the disaster. A total of 1,289 Red Cross volunteers and Junior/Youth Red Cross members including District Disaster Response Team (DDRT) members, trained First Aid and National Disaster Response Team (NDRT) members were deployed for immediate response.
On 14 August 2017, IFRC allocated CHF 497,099 from its Disaster Relief Emergency Fund (DREF) to support NRCS in conducting relief operations. Based on preliminary findings from Initial Rapid Assessment (IRA) conducted by NRCS, an Emergency Appeal was launched on 22 August 2017 to meet humanitarian needs of 16,200 families (80,282 people) through relief and early recovery.
During the first few days after the disaster assessments, rescue and relief operations were challenging due to the partial or complete breakdown in communication systems and transportation networks. Moreover, geographical remoteness and scattered communities in the affected areas impeded the timely accomplishment of the operation. Nevertheless, NRCS was able to conduct immediate relief distributions and first aid service to the affected population, through the mobilization of its wide network of volunteers in the community.
The relief distribution phase of flood operation was completed in November 2017. NRCS mobilised relief items from its pre-positioned stocks during relief phase. However remaining relief items such as mosquito nets, buckets, soaps, chlorine tabs, etc. were distributed during recovery phase due to delayed procurement. Immediately after relief activities over in November, IFRC together with NRCS carried out a post-distribution monitoring (PDM) in nine districts (Jhapa, Sunsari, Udayapur, Saptari, Siraha, Mahottari, Sarlahi, Rautahat, and Bardiya). The PDM was useful to measure the satisfaction level of people reached by NRCS during the relief phase of the operation and lessons learnt captured. The final PDM report is available for reference.
The recovery activities of the floods and landslides operation are defined in accordance with findings from preassessment visits conducted by NRCS and IFRC, PFRNA (Post Flood Recovery Needs Assessment) conducted by National Planning Commission (NPC), Government of Nepal. Also, the findings from the PDM were referred during the recovery planning process. Based on this, the IFRC emergency plan of action was revised on 23 March 2018. The recovery programme focused on WASH, health, livelihood, shelter and, disaster risk reduction (DRR), capacity building, community engagement and accountability (CEA), gender equality and social inclusion (GESI) as cross-cutting to the core sectors in an integrated approach. Rolling out of recovery activities on the ground took slightly more time including baseline survey, beneficiary selection as well as orientation of NRCS staff and volunteers. While writing this report, a significant progress has been made and completed construction of toilets, elevated tube-wells as per plan in seven districts.