UN HUMANITARIAN OFFICE OFFERS EMERGENCY AID AFTER TAJIKISTAN FLOODS, LANDSLIDES

un humanitarian office offers emergency AID AFTER TAJIKISTAN FLOODS, LANDSLIDES

NEW YORK, 20 July (OCHA) -- The United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) is allocating $20,000 from its Emergency Reserve Fund to help provide emergency supplies in Tajikistan, where unusually heavy rains have resulted in massive floods and landslides.  The grant follows Tajikistan’s request for international assistance.

The damage has been most keenly felt in the capital, Dushanbe, where the flooding has heavily polluted the city’s water supply.  An estimated 40,000 people have been left without clean water and are, therefore, susceptible to disease.  The Government of Tajikistan has begun to conduct campaigns advising the population to refrain from drinking tap water.  However, many people may have no choice but to do so.

Because of the landslides and destroyed bridges, the only north-south road link via Dushanbe has become impassable, leaving an estimated 5,000 people cut off from the outside world.  The damaged bridges and roads are complicating the international community’s plans to deliver clean water by truck.

Other actors responding to Tajikistan’s plea for help include the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP), which has allocated $25,000 to purchase vital logistical and communication equipment, and the United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF), which has been supplying chlorine and helping to enhance hospitals' response capacity.  An allocation of $30,000 from the Government of the Netherlands Emergency Grant was also approved.

For further information, please call:  Stephanie Bunker, OCHA New York, tel:  917 367 5126, mobile:  917 892 1679; or Madelaine Moulin-Acevedo, OCHA Geneva, tel:  41 22 917 3160.

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