Source: United Nations (video statements)
Briefing from the capital of Colombia’s Chocó region, Quibdó, an International Organization for Migration’s (IOM) humanitarian response and recovery specialist told journalists in New York that ten days since a devastating earthquake hit large areas of the country “everything is still urgent,” and there are communities “that haven’t been accessed yet or have only been accessed to once.”
Providing an update on the humanitarian situation in the country following the earthquake, the IOM official, Jean Philippe, said, “the full picture of the impact is still emerging, but according to preliminary data by the National Disaster Risk Management Unit, 282,000 people have been affected. Amongst these, we have many who have lost their loved ones, their homes, children have lost their schools and communities no longer have access to something as simple as a park or as essential as a hospital.”
Antolin said, “nearly 163,000 homes are affected and undergoing structural evaluations.”
He said IOM has launched a flash appeal of USD 30 million, “to expand its earthquake response in the initial six months,” and it aims to cover “both urgent life-saving help now and a gradual shift toward longer term recovery, including shelter, managing accommodation sites, clean water and sanitation, health care, protection for vulnerable people and helping communities to rebuild.”
The response and recovery specialist noted that “recent heavy rains across Colombia’s Pacific region, including Pereira, Buenaventura and here in Quibdó, have further worsened living conditions for many earthquake-affected families.”
He said, “these conditions have increased shelter, water, sanitation and protection needs, particularly for people in open spaces, community centres, sports fields, schools, public buildings and churches,” and is also “making it easier for epidemic vector diseases to spread such as dengue, which is especially dangerous in shelters where many people live close together.”
Antolin said, “we must continue to provide blanket coverage of several items, from shelter to food, to health.”
Among the most pressing urgent needs, he said, is “the need for information,” as “people need to know whether their house is safe, structurally sound.”
The IOM official said, “people are sleeping outside for fear of the roof collapsing over the heads. They need the structural evaluations to carry on. Someone to tell them it’s safe or unsafe to be there.”