Several thousand permanently displaced by tsunami

An estimated four thousand people in northeastern Somalia who were displaced by the tsunami on 26 December will have to relocate from where they used to live because the massive waves altered the coastline, relief workers said. "The homes of the people of the Hafun peninsula were formerly protected from the high tide by large sand dunes, but these were swept away by the tsunami," Bob McCarthy, the UN Children's Fund (UNICEF) Emergency Officer for Somalia, told IRIN on Friday. "The community must permanently relocate to higher ground to avoid being flooded every time sea levels rise," he added. Nearly three weeks after the tsunami hit the region, the residents of Hafun were still living on higher ground about a kilometre from the coastline. Many were sheltering under plastic sheeting provided by UNICEF or in huts made from tree branches. "The geographical outline of Somalia's northeastern coastline was altered by the tsunami, preventing its former residents from returning home in the foreseeable future," McCarthy added. "Their homes were by the shore but will now have to be rebuilt up to one kilometre inland." According to McCarthy, residents of the fishing community of Hafun, the worst hit area, had more than half their homes destroyed by the killer wave, leaving them without shelter, clean water, sanitation and food. Out of fear that local water sources could be contaminated, UNICEF was collaborating with the Somali Red Crescent Society to provide household chlorination. The agency was also transporting limited amounts of safe drinking water from a distance of 92 km away. Apart from providing emergency assistance to the people of Hafun, Bandar Bayla, and Gara'g, UNICEF has also immunised 200 Hafun children against measles. On Tuesday, it began a fresh drive to vaccinate all women of childbearing age against tetanus. Relief workers said several humanitarian agencies had also either sent aid or announced plans to help the affected people in Somalia. UN-HABITAT said it would repair some properties and basic infrastructure. It also planned to rehabilitate 1,000 houses and build 500 new homes in the future. The World Food Programme (WFP), which was the first agency to deliver aid to Hafun, landed the first flight in a decade on Hafun on Tuesday. The aircraft carried drinking water, other provisions, WFP staff, and reporters. Laura Melo, WFP's Public Information Officer for Africa, also said the agency had shipped an additional 1,300 mt of food from the Kenyan port of Mombasa to assist up to 30,000 people affected by the tsunami. Northeastern Somalia's self-declared autonomous region of Puntland was the worst hit region in eastern Africa when the Indian Ocean tsunami smashed along more than 650 km of coastline. At least 150 people are estimated to have died. The international NGO, World Concern, in a statement on Thursday said its preliminary findings suggested that nearly 600 Somali families had lost lives and/or property. "Camps are overcrowded," it said. "Initial outbreaks of malaria, typhoid, respiratory-tract infections, and diarrhea have been reported." The NGO said extensive damage to the local fishing fleet was of utmost concern because almost all affected families were subsistence fishermen. "Most boats and nets are gone; most of the rest are damaged," it noted. The UN Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO), in a separate statement, said around 2,600 fishing boats had been destroyed along the Somali coast. FAO, which was preparing to assist in getting the damaged fishing vessels repaired, said it would support the provision of fishing inputs. It would also provide short-term financial aid and training in improved fishing techniques and boat building to about 2,000 fishermen.