Attachments
Highlights
UNICEF has provided humanitarian assistance in WASH, Protection, Nutrition, Health and Education to 123,560 children and families in the most affected district of Piura.
• UNICEF and Plan International have implemented 16 temporary classrooms located in the following shelters: Nueva Santa Rosa (10), Cristo Viene (2), Tupac Amaru (2) and Jesus de Nazareth (2). This action has reached around 450 children.
• To date, UNICEF has provided 220 school kits to the students of Santa Rosa, Cristo Viene and Tupac Amaru shelters.
• A total of 3,390 people now has improved access to water, thanks to rehabilitation of water systems conducted by UNICEF, COOPI and community organizations in the districts of Morropon, Chulucanas and La Matanza.
• UNICEF and Plan International have distributed 895 ceramic water filters to communities in Castilla and Tambogrande districts, reaching around 4,000 people.
• UNICEF and Action Against Hunger (AAH) have repaired the chlorination system that purifies water for 6,000 people in the community of El Pedregal Grande located in Catacaos District.
• Thanks to UNICEF, The Ministry of Women and Vulnerable Population, and Save the Children, 644 children and adolescents have received psycho-social recovery services. Psycho-social support has been provided for 1,352 children and adolescents through roving spaces and school-promoted actions.
• UNICEF and the Piura Regional Directorate of Health have hired twenty health professionals to provide psychological care to children and adolescents. To date, 1714 children have received psychological support.
• UNICEF Health and Nutrition brigades are monitoring 1,107 children who were referred to health centers, having been diagnosed with health, nutrition and immunization issues.
SITUATION OVERVIEW & HUMANITARIAN NEEDS (reporting 27 June to 25 July)
Between January and April 2017, 1,716,019 people were affected by El Niño Coastal Phenomenon in 25 regions of the country, with around 27 per cent located in Piura and another 27 per cent in La Libertad. Lambayeque and Ancash are also among the most severely affected departments. Based on figures from the National Civil Defence System (INDECI) as of 28 June, 559,251 children and adolescents have been affected or severely affected in the country, with 60,747 of these children under two years of age.
Although the Multisector Commission in charge of the National Study of the El Niño Phenomenon has established that the El Niño Coastal Phenomenon ended in May, the Declaration of State of Emergency remains in force for the departments of Ancash, Cajamarca, La Libertad and Piura. INDECI also reports that 55,182 homes are destroyed or uninhabitable nationally and more than 347,000 homes have been affected. In addition, 307 schools have collapsed or are uninhabitable, with a further 2,915 affected, and 61 health facilities have collapsed or are uninhabitable.
The humanitarian needs for families remaining in affected areas has been underestimated. The affected families have moved in various ways, and less than 10 per cent chose to go to shelters. Many families are not officially categorized as affected however they are also challenged by the disaster, facing also decrease in income due to barriers in finding jobs. In the affected areas, food insecurity has increased and families face inadequate public and environmental health conditions that expose them to endemic diseases such as Dengue and leptospirosis, among others.
Despite the ongoing efforts of the Ministry of Health (MINSA) to prevent Dengue and ZIKV transmission, the number of cases of Dengue continues to increase dramatically. The Ministry of Health (MINSA) has reported 67,294 cases of Dengue and 56 confirmed deaths attributable to the disease nationwide as of 1 July. Piura has the highest number of Dengue cases, with 33,134 probable and 9,919 confirmed cases. This is followed by La Libertad with 2,981 probable and 3,561 confirmed cases; Ica with 2,623 probable and 1,560 confirmed cases; and Tumbes with 3,413 probable and 424 confirmed cases.
People living in shelters are the main concern.
According to the official figures, between May and the current date, more than 30,000 people are living in shelters across the country, including an estimated 13,370 children. This population is distributed in 205 shelters located in eight departments, of which the vast majority, housing around 50 per cent of the affected population, are in Piura. Even though these are the official figures, the situation changes regularly with portions of the population constantly moving from the shelters to where their destroyed houses are with the hope that the Government will give them ownership of the land they now occupy in tents and camps.
There is uncertainty among the population in the affected areas due to a lack of information. For example, no information is available on which areas will be declared at high or very high risk of disaster, which could allow or prevent rapid access to temporary housing. Even though the national Government has prioritized the rebuilding and rehabilitation of roads, schools and health facilities, this process is progressing slowly, with the assessment and identification of damage still in progress. While the Government is designing an integrated plan to provide housing and basic services to families living in shelters, these families currently lack a concrete solution from the Government to enable them to leave the shelters and return to their normal lives.
Although the Government, humanitarian organizations and local NGOs are working to provide safe water, sanitation and hygiene solutions to the population in shelters, coordination and supervision need to be further strengthened to ensure the appropriate support to operations and maintenance of provisional water systems and latrines. Difficulties remain in access to education for those living in shelters, with one factor being the lack of family resources restricting children’s access to school.