Drought exacerbated by El Niño, combined with extensive flooding, disease outbreaks and the disruption of basic public services, continue to have a negative impact on the lives and livelihoods of 9.7 million Ethiopians. Overall food security and agricultural production remain severely affected, with cascading effects on livelihoods, nutrition, health, water, sanitation, education and other sectors.
Key Issues
- Food assistance to be prioritized to underserved woreda/districts in next round of food distribution.
- Ministry of Water, Irrigation and Electricity fast tracks importation of WaSH equipment to assist urgent hygiene interventions following heavy rains and flooding.
Relief operators to prioritize underserved food and PSNP woredas in next rounds
The recent food and productive safety net programme (PSNP) distribution prioritization exercise by humanitarian partners identified some 60 woredas (districts) for food and PSNP distribution which had been previously left out. These woredas are mostly too remote to access and are found in all the affected regions of the country. The humanitarian country team and donors are working with relief operators to ensure these areas gain priority in the remaining rounds of food and PSNP distribution.
Meanwhile restriction of movement to affected communities due to lack of road access and instability in some parts of the country is impacting distribution of relief items.
Nutrition sector reports that while severe acute malnutrition (SAM) treatments continue due to availability of stocks in health posts, the ongoing situation in Oromia and Amhara has slowed down dispatches and distributions of targeted supplementary feeding (TSF) commodities from the Government’s main warehouse in Nazareth, Oromia. The situation also affects dispatches and distributions in Afar, as a large proportion of the commodities allocated to the region are dispatched from the WFP warehouse in Kombolcha, Amhara. The situation in Oromia is improving, and dispatches and distributions are expected to be completed shortly. The delays in relief items distribution has had an impact on over four million people affected by drought and flood.
Importation of WaSH equipment helps cluster to fast-track its response
Recent flooding continues to displace people as well as damaging several water points. This has led to an increase in the demands for water treatment chemicals and rehabilitation of water points.
Rapid assessment undertaken by the Water, Sanitation and Hygiene (WaSH) cluster from hotspot woredas (districts) in six regions shows that there were more than 320 motorized and non-motored water sources that were non-functional as a result of the 2015/16 drought and an additional 384 damaged by floods in the 2016 belg season.
Ministry of Water, Irrigation and Electricity has facilitated the importation of equipment required for (WaSH) related response. The equipment will help the cluster to fast-track its response in affected communities.
Provision of safe water through water treatment chemicals, emergency water supply, safe water-kits, water trucking and rehabilitation and maintenance of non-functional water schemes are key WaSH priorities identified in the mid-year review of the Humanitarian Requirement Document (HRD). Following the review of the HRD, the WaSH funding requirement increased due mainly to impact from the flood which has led to water borne diseases like the acute watery diarhoea (AWD). The Wash cluster is currently reprogramming funds to support WaSH related AWD response.