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01-05-2017 | Latest News , Americas

Peru floods. More than 1.2 million people affected

ENG

El Niño weather patterns over Peru have caused heavy rainfall, floods, landslides, hail and electric storms since December 2016. The northern coastal regions are hardest hit, but all of Peru’s 24 departments have experienced heavy rains. To date, there have been 133 deaths and 18 missing people in the flooding.  Basic services have been disrupted with significant damage to health centres and schools.

Continuing rains throughout much of April has raised the number of disaster-affected to 1.2 million people nearly a third of whom are children, youth and the elderly. Vector borne, and water related diseases are on the rise.  Seven regions have witnessed an increase in dengue cases. 

Four hundred Peruvian Red Cross volunteers are providing humanitarian support to the affected population. This includes the distribution of non-food items (NFIs) and water, sanitation and hygiene activities, psychosocial support and pre-hospital health care for children, youth and adults. More than 83.16MT of humanitarian aid have been delivered to 6,322 families which include non-food items and more than 244,000 [litres] of safe water in Lambayaque, Piura and Ancash.

The International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies (IFRC) and Peruvian Red Cross have appealed for 4.7 million Swiss francs to support 50,000 people in the worst affected departments of Piura, Tumbes, Lambayeque and La Libertad. So far, only about 15.4% per cent of what is needed has been received, preventing the start-up of critical interventions.

 


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