FLOODS WHICH HAPPENED IN DAR
ES SALAAM, TANZANIA IN DECEMBER 2011
Heavy torrential rain poured in Dar es
Salaam on Monday December 19, 2011, accompanied by lightning and heavy thunderstorms. It continued to rain until Saturday night on
the x-mass eve to Sunday morning. The
rain caused heavy floods in different areas in Dar es Salaam. The rain also caused a disaster due to flooded rivers as lives were
lost. The road/bridges and buildings/homes
infrastructure were destroyed by floods.
Despite the warning from the meteorological department that there could
be heavy rains due to temperatures rise, the people residing in the valleys,
especially the Jangwani area in Msimbazi river valley did not respond
positively to the call and they did not abandon their homes to safer areas. The picture above shows the flooded Jangwani
area of Msimbazi River in Dar es Salaam.
Sad news of loosing lives spread all-over
Dar and outside. More-over, the floods left many of these people without homes,
as rain continued to pour down for more than 6 hours a day. Given the fact that Dar es Salaam city is the
biggest in the country, in terms of population and business activities, still it
does not have sufficient and reliable infrastructure and good systems to
sustain heavy rains. Even the lack of mitigation
measures to curb such natural calamities increased more risks. The most needed support was not available immediately
until the army team of rescuers came into action, almost too late to minimize the
effects of floods.
Advisory was given out not to visit the
city centre during this time of the day, especially for people residing in the
Dar suburbs who do their businesses at the city centre. They were advised to remain in-doors in their
homes to reduce congestion as well as assist the rescue efforts provided by the
army to the victims of floods. Some
people were stuck on the roads for hours, sitting in cars hoping to see the
rain subsided in vain. The rain was
there to stay and it lasted for five whole days non-stop. Picture on the right shows The Prime Minister
of Tanzania Mr. Mizengo Pinda speaking to the victims at a temporary camp
established at the Mkapa Secondary School in Dar es Salaam.
Staff of Tanzania Red Cross Society
provides services at the flood affected families at Mabwepande area in
Kinondoni district outside Dar city. The camp was prepared as temporary shelter
for the affected families while they awaited the allocation of permanent residential
plots to be offered by the government. Some 200 tents were provided by the Red
Cross Society. The picture on the right
shows the Red Cross staff sticking a Red Cross sticker on the tent set-up by
the society at Mabwepande area, outside Dar es Salaam.
SUPPORT PROVIDED BY
SSVP IN TANZANIA
Given the situation of SSVP in Tanzania,
support was organized based on the basic needs requirements by the affected
families, which included food-stuff such as sugar, washing and toilet soaps,
bread and flour. The total amount spent for
this humanitarian support was about TShs. 300,000 (equivalent to US$ 200). These came from individual efforts and contributions
from those touched by the incident. The picture shows the affected families
being transported from Benjamini Mkapa temporary camp in Dar es Salaam.
LESSONS LEARNT FROM
THE EVENT
In principles of emergency preparedness and
response, relevant authorities and the community at large did not respond in
time to deliver the much needed support, from making pre-disaster preparation, coordination
on disaster preparation itself, disaster response and even post-disaster analysis
to evaluate the whole situation of the floods and flood victims. It was in everybody’s expectation to
anticipate that the concerned authorities would take necessary steps towards
assessing the risk before-hand (undertaking risk analysis) and determining what
would be the action points if such event happened, what kind of support would
be needed to the affected families and how those affected would be helped out
of the situation at the right time and efficiently.
It is in our opinion that the disaster fund
administered by the Prime Minister’s Office should go further to mobilize and provide
support for coordination, organization of rescue trainings to special groups
like army personnel and other special disaster rescue teams to ensure minimum
damage and loss of life to people, infrastructure and damage to family assets
in the future. We think taking
pro-active steps to plan for disaster, disaster management and control will be
crucial learning point in the coming years to avoid recurrence of such losses. The picture shows food being prepared for the
affected at a new camp in Mabwepande area in Dar es Salaam.
BASIC NEEDS AND
SUPPORT REQUIRED BY THE VICTIMS
At the moment, flood victims need
bed shits, blankets, uniforms for school children, school fees, beds and basic home
furniture including clothes. The picture
on the right shows some of the affected flood victims arriving at the camp in
Mabwepande area in Dar es Salaam.
March, 2012
Dar es Salaam,
Tanzania
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