Contingency plans to mitigate impact of floods under way

A team of disaster-management experts in Kenya is making early plans to minimise the potentially devastating impact of floods, which are anticipated during the long rainy season that has just started, on the country's vulnerable populations. The Rapid Onset Disaster Committee, co-chaired by the Kenyan government through the Office of the President, and by the Kenya Red Cross (KRC), comprises members who include representatives of the UN and NGOs. The committee has been meeting monthly to develop contingency plans to deal with any emergency that may arise out of the flooding. The Kenya Meteorological Department said in its March-May forecast that Kenya would receive "enhanced" rainfall in several parts of the country, but the rains would drain into river and lake basins where the majority of people displaced by last year's floods live. Samuel Mwangi, a meteorologist, said the department had warned the government of the possibility of flooding, particularly in major river and lake basins of the Rift Valley Province and western regions. The floods would have potentially devastating consequences for thousands of vulnerable people recovering from last year's floods. He said areas that needed to be on the alert included those already prone to flooding, such as Busia, Budalangi, Tana River and the Kano plains. "Whenever we experience enhanced rainfall, we see floods. The government has been alerted," Mwangi told IRIN on Monday. A KRC programme officer told IRIN that the next contingency planning meeting to chart the way for a more comprehensive emergency intervention was scheduled for 22 March. He noted, however, that the input from the national committee would only act as a "back-up" to contingency plans already being made at the district levels by disaster management committees. The KRC network, which already has stocks of humanitarian items left over from last year, would work closely with the district disaster management committees on the ground to assess the situation and the population's needs that might arise out of areas prone to flooding. "We have been meeting with all stakeholders to try and put in place contingency plans to chart the way forward," the programme officer said. "By next week, we will have a more detailed plan to see what each of the stakeholders can do. Each district has a disaster management committee, so ours is just a backup," he added. A programme officer from the UN Development Programme, told IRIN that this year's plans had been better prepared than in previous years. "Should anything happen, we will be able to do something effectively and in a better way than we have done before," he said. Meanwhile, the Roman Catholic Church, which in previous disasters has offered refuge and relief to the flood victims in western Kenya, said although many parts of western Kenya were recovering from the effects of last year's floods, little had been done by the government to improve the infrastructure in order to minimise the impact of renewed flooding. Drainage systems in major towns like Nairobi, Mombasa and Kisumu also needed improvement, it added. The Catholic Information Service, CISA, said the church lacked the capacity to build a strong dyke against the deluge, while the government was "merely" repairing existing ones through its National Youth Service personnel. The local people, mainly in Bungoma District, had damaged some of the dykes, when families moved with their belongings to higher areas that included the dykes, while others, whose homes had been submerged, had been using the dykes to bury their dead, CISA said.