Floods and landslides devastate
Central America
By Sally Bolton, for the Chronicle
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October has been a horrific month for Guatemala. Hurricane Stan brought 6 days of heavy rain, with as much as 267 mm of precipitation in one day, causing extensive flooding across vast regions of the country. Over 900 landslides have ravaged the countryside. Between 1500 and 2000 people are believed to have died as a result, with a further 137,000 displaced. 251 of 331 municipalities in 15 of the country’s 22 departments have been affected.
But while numbers and figures reflect the extent of the disaster, it is the individual stories of loss and suffering that capture the devastation on a human scale. Jaimi Gardner, a Canadian working in Guatemala with the organization Mujeres en Accion (MEAi), Women in Action, has been documenting the stories of devastation and loss in the communities where MEAi works. “I spent Monday at a community called Chichoy taking photos of one of our clients who has lost his house and a kid because of the floods,” she told the Chronicle. “You can never imagine what I saw. I saw hundreds of people who haven’t eaten for days standing on the side of the road waiting for aid. Many have just the clothes on their back: no money, no food. [A] man told me he found a pair of pants in the river which used not to be a river, it used to be his backyard. He washed them and that is all he has.”
One man told Ms Gardner, “I was unable to go to work for ten days, and because of the rain all of our crops have been destroyed. One day water just broke through the side of our house and we don’t have any money to fix it.” Although the house is unstable and threatens to collapse at any moment, his family continues to live there, as it is the only shelter they have.
UNICEF Regional Director for the Americas and the Carribean, Mr Nils Katsberg, spoke of cases where entire villages have been covered in mud, and may be converted into campo santo, or holy ground: mass burial sites, as there is no hope of finding survivors.
Initial disaster relief was hampered by damage to bridges and roads, isolating many of the worst-affected indigenous communities. The United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) is currently coordinating relief efforts in Guatemala, with various UN agencies working in conjunction with national, departmental, municipal, and local authorities. Immediate priorities include providing such things as food, shelter, blankets, oral rehydration powder, and water containers to prevent the spread of infectious diseases. Predictions of further heavy rains over the coming months caused Mr Katsberg to caution, “things could actually get worse before they get better.”
Hurricane Stan also caused extensive damage and loss of life in Southern Mexico and other Central American countries, but has been largely overshadowed by the soaring death toll of the earthquake which struck Pakistan and South Asia on October 8. An OCHA flash appeal to raise $22 million for disaster relief in Guatemala received over $8 million in pledges from donor countries in its first 8 days, but more funds were desperately needed.
While there is talk of ‘donor fatigue’ in the international community, as a result of huge demands for emergency disaster relief in the past 9 months, Mr Katsberg did not believe that this was the case. Instead he pointed to strengthening private partnerships and reaching out to a wider support base as the keys to meeting the need for aid in the face of natural disasters. He also called for an updated International Emergency Fund which could be used in the initial 36 hours of a disaster, rather than having to worry about chasing funds at the first crucial stage of response.
For Mujeres en Acción, an NGO of Guatemalan women who offer micro-credit loans, education and training to increase the productive capacity of rural Guatemalan indigenous women, talk of millions of dollars in relief funds seems very distant to the work that they are doing at a grassroots level. While their work for now may be as simple as providing tortillas and clean water, and documenting damage in remote communities, in the coming months NGOs and civil society organizations such as MEAi will play a vital role in helping communities to rebuild homes and livelihoods.
The recovery process will be a long one, but the resilience that Ms Gardner has seen in the communities that she has visited suggest that they will be able to move forward. “I seriously cannot imagine losing everything I had. These people are so amazing! The man who has nothing is shaking my hand, with a smile on his face, asking me all about myself and thanking me for helping.”
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Individuals wishing to support the relief and recovery efforts of Mujeres en Acción can contact them by telephone or fax: +502 7849 0368, or by
e-mail: meai@itelgua.com
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