Key Issues
Improved Belg (spring) rains lower requirements for water trucking but have increased demands for water treatment chemicals.
Member States pledge additional funding to El Nino affected countries at “Global Call to Action” event in Geneva.
Federal Ministry of Health completes a one week measles and polio campaign.
Ethiopia is responding to an El Niño-caused drought emergency: The El Niño global climatic event has wreaked havoc on Ethiopia’s summer rains. This comes on the heels of failed spring rains, and has driven food insecurity, malnutrition and water shortages in affected areas of the country. A well-coordinated response is already underway and expanding rapidly, although the scale of the developing emergency exceeds resources available. Given the lead times necessary for the procurement of relief items, the Government and its international partners have called for early action on this slow onset natural disaster.
Improved Belg Rains Continue to Ease Pressure on Water trucking Demands
Improved spring rains continue to ease the burden on water trucking although leading to increased flooding and demands for water treatment chemicals. In most parts of Oromia the Belg rain is improving, leading to localized flooding. Water trucking interventions have significantly decreased, from 184 trucks in first week of April down to 102 trucks by the end of the month. Zones where water trucks have been pulled out are facing cases of Acute Watery Disease (AWD), sharply increasing the demand for water treatment chemicals.
In the Somali region, good performance of the Belg rains is prompting people to move to areas of improved pasture and water availability. Water trucking operations conducted by the regional government and NGOs have been discontinued in the Sitti Zone.
The good performance of the late spring rains is forecast by the National Meteorological Agency (NMA) to continue in the southern and southeastern parts of Ethiopia. The agency has also predicted a high probability of normal to above normal summer rainfall. This is good news for smallholder farmers in Ethiopia’s highlands. The Belg is the short rainy season for northeast, east, central and southern highlands, and the main rainy season for south and southeast parts of the country. The Meher is the main rainy season across much of the Ethiopia except south and southeast of the country.
Member States’ briefing on ‘Global Call for Action: Responding to El Niño’, Yields Additional Funds for affected countries.
The Member States briefing `The Global Call for Action; Responding to El Nino’ convened by OCHA in Geneva on 26 April generated pledges for additional funding of US$ 500 Million for affected countries. But more is needed to address the global El Niño impact. Once converted, the funding gap for global El Nino needs is still over $1.7 billon. At least US$ 3.6 billion is required for the El Niño-related response plans across four affected regions in East Africa, Southern Africa, Central America and Asia Pacific.
The Humanitarian Requirement Document (HRD) for Ethiopia which seeks US$1.4 billion to assist 10.2 million Ethiopians in 2016 has received around US$800 million from the Government and the international community. But ongoing response is threatened by critical funding gaps in all sectors. The Government of Ethiopia, one of the largest funders of the response, jointly with members of the Ethiopia Humanitarian Country Team (EHCT), have been undertaking visits to donor capitals since April 25, including to Oslo and Geneva, to highlight the urgent need for increased funding. The Government of Ethiopia is joining the EHCT this week on visits to New York and Washington.
Federal Ministry of Health completes a one week measles and polio campaign.
On 28 April, the Federal Ministry of Health completed a one-week integrated vaccination campaign for children aged 6 month to 14 years targeting some 28 million children against measles and 16.5 million children against polio in 505 woredas. Measles is one of the causes of death among young children even though a safe and cost effective vaccine is available. The measles campaign will create awareness amongst herd community and prevent the circulation of measles virus in communities. For more information, contact: ocha-eth@un.org