ReliefWeb

In early April 2014, three days of heavy rain over the Solomon Islands resulted in widespread flash flooding in Honiara City and all of Guadalcanal Province. The worst-affected areas were communities living next to the Mataniko and Lungga Rivers in the capital, Honiara, which burst their banks on 3 April. A total of 22 fatalities have been confirmed across Honiara, Guadalcanal and Isabel Provinces, with an estimated 52,000 people affected. There is extensive damage to homes, infrastructure, health, livelihoods and agriculture, with over 12,000 people initially displaced in over 30 evacuation centres.

The Government is leading response efforts with the support of humanitarian and development partners. On 9 April, the National Disaster Council (NDC) resolved to develop a three month Humanitarian Action Plan (HAP) to address the immediate and short-term needs of the affected population. This Honiara and Guadalcanal Flash Floods HAP was developed by the Government of the Solomon Islands and its humanitarian and development partners to meet the needs of the affected population for a three-month period.

Based on the needs identified during preliminary assessments, priority response areas are in Health, WASH, Shelter, Protection and Food Security. The Plan aims to facilitate coordination of humanitarian response and early recovery efforts by documenting cluster priority activities and identifying gaps/requirements for response. In total, 68 activities have been identified addressing needs across seven (7) national clusters.

The immediate requirements over the next three months are SBD 99.5 million of which SBD 85.1 million remains unmet. Three clusters also identified medium-term requirements over the next 12 months which include recovery and reconstruction needs in Infrastructure, Shelter Livelihoods and Food Security. In total SBD 212.7 million are required of which SBD 190.6 million remains unmet.