Averting crises upon crises

In just a few minutes the city of Padang in Indonesia was reduced to a pile of rubble. An earthquake, measuring 7.6 on the Richter scale, hit the city on 30 September, causing devastation. Houses collapsed, thousands were buried under tonnes of rubble, more than 1,000 people died, and roads and bridges were destroyed. Within hours Oxfam's teams had distributed 5,000 tarpaulin sheets for shelter, 2,500 hygiene kits and clothes for those who had survived. Responding to emergencies is one of Oxfam’s areas of expertise and we have years of experience on which to draw.

Our priority right now is to provide clean water for the people affected, because the earthquake damaged the local water supply. Clean water is essential at times like this to prevent the spread of water-borne diseases like cholera because they can lead to another wave of deaths and make the emergency situation even worse. We have one water tanker that can deliver 5,000 litres of water already in action, and we have flown in three water purification plants that will provide enough clean water for more than 40,000 people.

Getting aid into the affected areas hasn’t been easy because the earthquake destroyed the country’s infrastructure and there have been fuel shortages which have made it difficult to reach all those in need. Oxfam’s local partners have been on the ground working tirelessly since the earthquake first struck, and we are working closely with other aid agencies to ensure that we reach as many people as possible.

But Indonesia is not the only country in the region that needs emergency assistance right now. On 26 September, Typhoon Ketsana caused devastation in Manila, the capital of the Philippines, killing nearly 300 people. As much rain fell in six hours as would normally fall in a whole month and the water flooded two million homes leaving around 400,000 people homeless. A few days later the country was hit again—this time by Typhoon Parma. Although it missed Manila it caused severe damage in the north of the country, killing 17 people and causing further flooding. Meanwhile, Ketsana was still on the rampage and went on to hit Cambodia and Vietnam. On 29 September, 66 people were killed in Vietnam and hundreds of thousands of homes were damaged, with 6000 being completely washed away, while in Cambodia at least 15 people died and over 2,000 homes were destroyed. More than 30,000 hectares of rice crops were flooded, and thousands of families have been displaced and their livelihoods washed away.

Relief efforts are underway and Oxfam has been providing water and non-food items like blankets, soap, cleaning equipment, clothes and water containers, as well as shelter. However, we are urgently seeking tanks for trucking water supplies to people as an emergency measure while we start repairing water sources. As well as our staff on the ground, we have humanitarian support personnel, such as logisticians and engineers, who are posted to disaster zones to help co-ordinate the relief effort. A warehouse in Bicester, near Oxford, is filled with everything that could possibly be needed in an emergency situation that can be flown out to people in need.

In the first months after a disaster people are totally reliant on outside aid, which can be anything from soap and toothbrushes to clothes and food. However, after the initial rescue operation has got under way it starts to become possible to rebuild roads and water systems, and to move people from tents into more permanent homes. We may employ local people to either move rubble to make a road passable, or dig a hole to fit a pipeline into. In exchange, they are provided with money to live off.

As time moves on, long-term planning becomes a priority. Schools have been destroyed and teachers have lost everything, so we try to get them back on their feet. We can provide small loans for people to restart local businesses or to buy a new fishing boat, but these things take time.

On 4 October we joined together with 13 of the UK’s biggest humanitarian aid organisations to launch a Disasters Emergency Committee (DEC) appeal for the East Asia region. The DEC only launch an appeal when a disaster is of such a scale and the need for assistance is of such urgency that it would be impossible to raise enough money for the relief effort in any other way.

Although these disasters are soon forgotten in the media, the situation in the affected areas continues to be dire. In order for the reconstruction work to be sustainable and as effective as possible, we need help from the public—it is your generosity that keeps us, and the victims of such disasters, going.