Nigel’s diary entry from Garissa, Kenya – 13 December 2006

The rains return.  After several dry days the rains came to the Tana River basin again last night. Roads that had begun to dry out are now turned back into quagmires.  No distribution of food or other essential supplies has been possible by road today – so the two MI-8 helicopters based in Garissa are the only lifeline to the hundreds of villages and IDP camps on both banks of the Tana River.  But fuel for the helicopters is running low and they are expected to be grounded tomorrow unless the fuel ordered from contractors in Nairobi reaches Garissa.

The situation in the Tana Delta.  Meanwhile conditions are most severe for people living in the Tana delta, which is out of effective helicopter range from Garissa.  Assessments made by Medecins Sans Frontiers (MSF) indicate dozens – possibly hundreds – of villages cut off.  It may be weeks before these can all be reached with the limited number of helicopters available, which will need to be diverted to operate from Malindi and Garsen to the south. Apart from food, people are desperate for mosquito nets and water purification tablets, to keep at bay the threats of malaria and water borne diseases like cholera.

Supporting the FRCC in Garissa.  The MapAction team has been working in Garissa, staffing the Flood Relief Coordination Centre (FRCC) on behalf of the government.  In a little over a week we have produced more than a dozen different orientation and situation maps.  In addition to the team’s normal mapping role, we have been assisting with other aspects of information management and coordination, including drafting and circulating situation reports on behalf of the various UN agencies, Red Cross and NGO partners in the Garissa area.

The difficult conditions at first hand.  Today, Nigel and Darren attempted to reach Hola by road for a coordination meeting scheduled at the District Commissioner’s office there.  Garissa to Hola is normally a two-hour journey along good roads.  However, the heavy rains overnight had made one section utterly impassable so they were obliged to turn back.  Instead they called in at the only other ‘large’ town within hundreds of square kilometers, Bura, where (after having to dig out their vehicle – twice!) they were led by a local through stagnant pools of water to the Catholic mission, from which they eventually made contact with a three-person Kenya Red Cross team. The team reported that they have only in the past 24 hours been able to reach IDP camps within 10km of Bura that have been inaccessible for three weeks.  Clearly, the people living in these spontaneous camps have even their most basic needs unfulfilled.

The deployment draws to a conclusion.   Two of the MapAction team, Darren and Chris, are flying back to Nairobi tomorrow to return to the UK.  Jonny must also return at the weekend, while Nigel and Emerson will spend their final three days next week in Nairobi finishing a capacity building project for the Kenyan government’s National Operations Centre which, thanks to Emerson’s technical assistance, now boasts a modern IT system with a good link to the internet. This gives the NOC for the first time an essential tool for coordination.  The team are sorry to be leaving Kenya, with the flood emergency ongoing.  Unfortunately MapAction’s operational resources can only be funded to provide ‘surge capacity’ for short periods, even though this emergency looks like running on into January and beyond.