Geneva, 22 July 2005 - Less than three months after severe flooding in the Banat region of western Romania
- which caused damage exceeding US$ 600 million - the country has
been hit again by devastating floods. 31 counties out of 42 are
affected by the current flooding with Moldavia (the counties of Bacau,
Vrancea and Galati) being the worst hit. The death toll currently
stands at 28.
The floods, the worst in more than half a century, were triggered by heavy rain causing rivers to overflow. Soldiers and fire fighters evacuated 12,166 people from 13,800 flooded homes. 368 homes collapsed instantly. More than 550 bridges and power lines were brought down and 106 towns had no electricity for 3 days.
Among the devastated communities were also those that had previously received assistance through ACT appeal EURO41 - Agas and Asau - Bacau county. In spite of the many closed access roads, ACT member AIDRom has managed to reach these communities (Agas and Asau) by forest roads and helicopter. The most urgent needs are food and fresh water along with general hygiene items. Army helicopters are regularly delivering supplies, but these are clearly insufficient taking into consideration the magnitude of the flooding. Currently the local and county authorities are working to re-establish road access to the area (the railway will be fixed most probably only within 6 months), in order to be able to make humanitarian deliveries by truck. AIDRom has already initiated the packing of 1,000 parcels (500 food and 500 non-food) plus 500 packages of mineral water to be transported and distributed in the middle of next week. Part of these supplies will be transported by helicopter to areas inaccessible by road.
AIDRom will put together a new ACT proposal for the province of Moldavia, prioritising assistance to the most vulnerable in the county of Bacau (where AIDRom was operational in EURO41). Other severely affected regions will also be included - most probably Galati county. AIDRom will visit Galati and carry out an assessment as soon as access by road is possible. Involvement of the government is obvious in many areas, but as in the Banat floods, there are also forgotten areas.
Taking in consideration that the EURO-51 appeal is currently under implementation in the western regions, for efficient implementation and co-ordination of two Appeals, AIDRom wishes to provide only inputs of food and non-food items along with some reconstruction materials. The target will not exceed USD 250,000.
Any funding indication or pledge should be communicated to Jessie Kgoroeadira, ACT Finance Officer (jkg@act-intl.org).
For further information please contact:
ACT Director, White Rakuba (phone +41 22 791 6033 or mobile phone + 41 79 203 6055) or ACT Program Officer, Elsa Moreno, (phone +41 22 791 6420 or mobile phone +41 79 608 8133)