Photo: JWTC

The path (black) and projected path (pink) of Typhoon Lupit, which is expected to make landfall on Thursday

MANILA, – Rescue and relief officials are rushing supplies and food to the north of the Philippines, while thousands of people living in areas prone to landslides and flooding were ordered on 20 October to evacuate to safer areas, as Typhoon Lupit was due to make landfall.

Packing maximum sustained winds of 195km near the centre with gusts of 230km/hour, Lupit’s eye was estimated at 820km east-northeast of the province of Cagayan, in the northern island of Luzon.

While it is expected to make landfall only on 22 October, its wide outer rain bands could bring heavy rains and strong winds to northern provinces a day earlier, the state weather bureau said.

The National Disaster Coordinating Council (NDCC)�in Manila said nearly 100 tonnes of food and other relief items had been trucked or airlifted to northern provinces where Lupit was expected to hit.

Lupit comes as the country continues to reel from the devastation wrought by twin typhoons that left 858 people dead and entire areas under flood waters for the past three weeks.

The UN Children’s Fund (UNICEF) has pre-positioned US$200,000 worth of supplies to four locations in Luzon, comprising emergency kits of essential medicines, sleeping mats and purification tablets for about 8,000 families.

It said sleeping mats, blankets, water containers and cooking pots for people in evacuation centres were also sent to La Union, Benguet, Cagayan and Pangasinan – four provinces that were heavily damaged by Typhoon Parma.

Photo: Jason Gutierrez/IRIN

Children sleep on the cold concrete floor of an evacuation camp in Manila. The country is already reeling from two back-to-back storms

“We know that many evacuation centres are running low on supplies, and many families exhausted their reserves after Typhoon Pepeng [Parma],” UNICEF country representative Vanessa Tobin said.

Evacuation order

Philippine National Red Cross chairman, Senator Richard Gordon, said thousands of people living in vulnerable areas had been told to pack up and leave.

“We’re watching the dams. We’ve already told our people that the moment we ask them to evacuate they must spread the word. As of now, we haven’t made that call yet,” Gordon told IRIN.

“Everybody near rivers, near creeks, those in low-lying areas, should be moved out once it becomes necessary to do so. People who are debilitated or are differently abled, they too should be moved out,” Gordon said, adding that local communities could deputize guards to watch over abandoned homes to prevent looting.

Chief state weather forecaster Prisco Nilo said Lupit was expected to bring 20-25mm of rain an hour, enough to cause flooding and landslides and more than Typhoon Parma had dumped on the north.

“It can cause storm surges, landslides and flooding,” Nilo said as he issued a warning for the public to begin evacuating.

Health risks

The NDCC in Manila said both storms had affected about four million people, of whom 221,000 remain in squalid evacuation camps where relief workers are warning of a disease outbreak.

The UN Resident Coordinator in the Philippines, Jacqui Badcock, said a UN Disaster Assessment and Coordination (UNDAC) team had been sent to the north.

“They are arriving as we speak. They are ready to go out and do an assessment if Lupit hits Luzon, and if it doesn’t they will get involved in relief processes,” she said.

She said Lupit’s arrival could add to the misery of the Philippines, and further strain government’s already overstretched resources.

“You can never predict anything with a typhoon,” Badcock said.

jg/ds/mw source.irinnews.org

Photo: David Swanson/IRIN

Fishing is a major source of livelihood in the Bay of Bengal

DHAKA,� – Fishermen and experts agree: climate change is taking its toll in the world�s largest bay, with more sudden changes in atmospheric pressure and storms.

�Global climate change is responsible for the increasing number of tropical storms in the Bay of Bengal,� A.Q.M. Mahbub, head of Dhaka University�s Disaster Research Training and Management Centre, told IRIN.

�Global warming is raising the temperature of the tropical ocean regions, resulting in more atmospheric disturbances,� he said, estimating that by 2030 the bay�s temperature may rise by 1.3 centigrade.

From 1991 to 2000, 20 depressions originated in the bay, including 12 cyclones, the Bangladesh Meteorological Department (BMD) reported.

However, between 2001 and 2009, there were 39 depressions, six of which intensified into cyclones.

Mohammad Rasheduzzaman, a meteorologist with the BMD, said 2009 had already proven a particularly turbulent year: Of nine depressions to date, two – �Bijla� and �Aila� – had become fully-fledged cyclones, he said.

Impact on livelihoods

For those whose livelihoods depend on their ability to fish these waters, the impact is direct.

If a trawler owner has to abandon a fishing trip due to bad weather, the fishermen return empty-handed as they get a share of the catch in lieu of wages. If a fisherman is lost at sea, his family faces dire consequences: Employers do not provide financial safety nets.

Photo: Contributor/IRIN

Fishing trawlers and boats near Cox’s Bazaar. Climate change is having an adverse effect on weather conditions in the Bay of Bengal

As weather conditions become more changeable, many are increasingly prevented from fishing in the bay.

�Over the past year, the sea has grown more and more turbulent. Atmospheric pressure changes are frequent. In August, we only had five days for fishing, and in September only six,� said Mujibur Rahman, convener of the Cox�s Bazaar fishing boat owners committee, confirmed.

Along the country’s southeastern coast in Cox�s Bazaar District, the livelihoods of more than 100,000 fishermen are under threat, local sources say.

�In the last nine months, I had only about 30 days of fishing. Once the warning signals are up, it�s not safe to go back to sea for almost a week. Never before have I known the sea to be so merciless,� Abdul Jalil, a veteran fisherman of 35 years in the coastal town of Cox�s Bazaar, explained.

Trawlers are prepared for week-long fishing trips, with related costs often exceeding US$1,400 a trip. If a trawler has to return home suddenly due to bad weather that investment is lost.

Most owners say they are losing money, and many have sold their trawlers, with many fishermen leaving the profession altogether, becoming day labourers and rickshaw-pullers instead.

Meanwhile, those who venture out in bad weather do so at their own peril.

�It�s not only the money; deep-sea fishing is fast becoming a very hazardous profession. In the last month alone we lost seven fishermen in 12 shipwrecks,� Rahman said.

�The number of fishing trawlers and fishermen lost to the sea is increasing every day. If this continues, very soon fishing may come to a complete standstill in the Bay of Bengal,� he warned.

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SWAZILAND: Archie Simelane, “With HIV, you can’t see the danger”

Photo: James Hall/PlusNews

“We lose a lot of guys at work, young guys. I am losing friends.”

MBABANE,� – Archie Muntu Simelane, a construction worker in Mbabane, Swaziland’s capital, talked to IRIN/PlusNews about how his HIV-positive status led him to becoming a health motivator at his place of work.

“People tell me it must be very frightening to climb up on the girders, but when I am on the job I don’t think of the danger.

“But I got scared when I got the test results that I was HIV positive. I know all the safety precautions at work – we are trained. The danger is right there, and you are aware; with HIV, you can’t see the danger.

“I couldn’t believe it was me when I got my test results. I was sick and that is why I got a test, but I asked for a re-test. The results were the same; I had HIV, but I was prepared in my mind by then.

“I have friends at work – I think if I am HIV, they can be too, but they won’t test, it’s too scary for them. I take the medication; if I live right I can live a long time.

“But these guys who don’t test aren’t taking any medication; they can go just like that! People get these diseases quickly and lose weight fast, and then they are gone. We lose a lot of guys at work, young guys. I am losing friends.

“My counsellor, who gave me my test results and also spoke to my girlfriend, asked if I wanted to be a health motivator at work. I said I would do that for my co-workers. Some of them act differently toward me now that they know I am HIV, but I know they are also probably HIV. One guy is sick – I see the symptoms – but he won’t test.

“My employer gave me time off to take the training; he says he is losing many workers. Talking man-to-man is the best way to communicate things. Everyone listens; they may not test, but they want to know. Some guys are getting tested, though; that is an accomplishment for me, because I directed them where to go and how to prepare mentally.

“I tell these guys that we don’t remember ever hearing of someone falling off the girders, but every day these guys are ‘falling off girders’ to their deaths having sex, because they don’t wear condoms.”

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Photo: Charles Akena/IRIN

Troops participating in the training march past their countries’ flags

KITGUM, – Military contingents from five East African countries have begun field training in disaster and emergency response as well as anti-terrorism in the northern Ugandan district of Kitgum.

“The joint field training being conducted in northern Uganda is expected to develop further the capacity of the East African Community’s armed forces in humanitarian assistance; disaster relief management; and, to some extent, peace support operations, counter-terrorism operations, disaster management and crisis response,” Beatrice Kiraso, the deputy secretary-general of the East Africa Community (EAC) in charge of the community’s political federation, told IRIN.

Supported by the US army, the 10-day training is codenamed “Natural Fire 10″ because it is the 10th time such exercises have taken place since their inception in 1998. It began on 16 October with contingents from Burundi, Kenya, Rwanda, Tanzania and Uganda participating. At least 550 US marine personnel and 133 military personnel from each of the five countries are taking part.

An LRA connection?

US military officials have dismissed speculation that Natural Fire is being held in preparation for a new offensive against the Lord�s Resistance Army (LRA), whose rebellion has devastated northern Uganda, the Kitgum area in particular. In late 2008 the US was a partner with Ugandan troops in Operation Lightning Thunder, a botched attempt to capture LRA leader Joseph Kony in the Democratic Republic of Congo. Tens of thousands of civilians in the DRC, Southern Sudan and the Central African Republic have been displaced because of LRA activity.

Photo: Charles Akena/IRIN

Senior army officers from the participating countries salute troops parading in Kitgum, northern Uganda

According to long-time regional observer Peter Eichstaedt, author of First Kill Your Family – Child Soldiers in Uganda and the Lord�s Resistance Army, the joint exercises convey a clear, if tacit, message to Kony. �That message being, of course, that a multi-national force of 1,000 – an effective number for a fighting force anywhere in the world – can be assembled in this strategic location with relative ease,� Eichstaedt wrote on his blog.

�Such a force would be a huge problem for someone like Kony, should he think about a return to northern Uganda. It shows that Uganda has allies who are willing not only to donate moral support and money in the fight against Kony and his maniacal militia, but are willing to put boots on the ground.

�This is an acknowledgement that Kony is much more than Uganda’s problem, and has become a regional nightmare,� he writes.

While it makes no mention of the LRA, the US Army’s Africa website says of Natural Fire: �By building capacity within partner nations and increasing our ability to work together, US Army Africa will be better prepared for future engagements. In doing so, the US Army also solidifies military rapport with allies in East Africa, key to supporting stability in the region.�

Regional threats

Kiraso said the training was taking place while the EAC was embarking on a new phase of strengthening regional integration even as the region faces “real and potential complex emergencies”, which could translate into threats to socio-economic, cultural and political wellbeing of East Africans.

These threats, she said, ranged from natural to man-made disasters; poverty and disease; porous borders and the proliferation of small arms and light weapons; internal strife; and insecurity in states neighbouring the EAC.

“It is very important to develop the East African Community�s capacity to handle such emergencies and threats to peace, security and stability,” Kiraso said.

Maj-Gen William B. Garrett, the commanding general, US Army-Africa and US Army-Southern European Taskforce, said the training would help build the capacity of East African armies in combating terrorism and responding to humanitarian catastrophes.

Ugandan army commander, Gen Aronda Nyakarima, said the LRA was no longer a threat to Uganda�s peace as the group was now in the Democratic Republic of Congo and in the Central African Republic. Regional cooperation, he added, was therefore required to get rid of the LRA.

ca/js/am/mw source.irinnews.org

Photo: UNHRD

WFP sending out two airlifts from UNHRD Accra, Ghana to Garoua, Cameroon to assist refugees from Chad

BAMAKO,� – When a storm hits in Togo, disaster relief items must be flown in from Brindisi, Italy, but that is just too far, according to the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS), which is formalizing the region�s first government-operated humanitarian stockpile in Mali�s capital Bamako.

The best-stocked depot that responds to West African requests for help during natural disasters is in Brindisi, Italy. Managed by the UN�s World Food Programme since 2000, the depot is one of five UN humanitarian response depots, with the others located in Panama, United Arab Emirates, Malaysia and Ghana.

ECOWAS�s Director of Humanitarian and Social Affairs, Dan Eklou, told IRIN that during 2009 flooding in West Africa, it took more than one week for some areas to receive materials from the Brindisi depot, which warehouses everything from tents to toilets, biscuits to blankets. �If the goods were in Bamako, it would not have taken that long to reach people who needed help.�

In Abuja, Nigeria in 2000 ECOWAS voted to create two permanent logistical bases in West Africa, one to store humanitarian supplies and the other peacekeeping materials to serve ECOWAS member states. Mali and Liberia were subsequently chosen as sites for the respective bases.

Nine years later, West African governments are preparing to sign the humanitarian stockpile into existence through an agreement with the government of Mali, which is making available 15 hectares at its airport in Bamako to house the planned depot.

Eklou said it will take time to conduct feasibility studies for construction. The organization is considering offers from the United Nations to build and stock the new warehouse.

The region�s stockpile capacity is currently inadequate, according to head of West Africa�s UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA), Herv� Ludovic de Lys. �Given weather trends, climate change pressure and other indicators, it will become increasingly necessary to decrease the distance between depot and beneficiaries and to increase the stock of materials that can be deployed in times of catastrophe or crisis.�

As important as ease of access, is sovereignty added Eklou. �We do not want to depend on others from outside the region. There should be no constraints to disaster response.�

Pending signature of the agreement, all stockpile operations will be tax-free and free from import or export restrictions that govern the movement of goods in and out of Mali. Employees will have diplomatic immunity.

The depot is also intended to serve as a training facility for humanitarian rapid response exercises.

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