India: Earthquake - OCHA-11: 12-Apr-01
OCHA Situation Report No. 11
India - Gujarat Earthquake
12 April 2001
Situation and Damage
1. National and international efforts in the transition process for
sustainable recovery and vulnerability reduction have been going on
following the emergency relief phase in response to the Gujarat earthquake
on 26 January 2001.
2. Latest official information on impact of the disaster (as of 3 April).
|----------------+------------------------------------------------|
| Districts | 21 districts (Kachchh-Bhuj, Ahmedabad, Rajkot, |
| affected | Jamnagar being the worst affected) |
|----------------+------------------------------------------------|
| Bodies | 20,005, including 18,416 in Kachchh-Bhuj |
| recovered | |
|----------------+------------------------------------------------|
| People injured | 166,812 |
|---------------+------------------------------------------------|
| Population | 15.9 million |
| affected | |
|----------------+------------------------------------------------|
| Houses/huts | 358,000 destroyed, 873,000 damaged |
| affected | |
|----------------+------------------------------------------------|
| Estimated | USD 4.6 billion |
| damage | |
|----------------+------------------------------------------------|
National and International Response
3. The Government of India has not appealed for international assistance.
However, as a matter of policy, assistance offered in a spirit of
international solidarity has been gratefully accepted. The Gujarat state
government has been implementing the Rehabilitation and Reconstruction
Projects with support from the Central Government. The activities
undertaken by the Indian authorities are reflected on their Internet
website at http://gujarat-earthquake.gov.in or http://www.ndmindia.nic.in
(Krishi Control Room website) or http://www.gujaratindia.com (Gujarat
government website).
4. The UN Disaster Management Team (UN-DMT) in country has allocated
sectoral responsibilities to agencies who are coordinating activities in
their relevant sectors.
|-----------------------+----------------+--------------------|
| Sectors | Focal Agency | Cooperating |
| | | Agencies |
|-----------------------+----------------+--------------------|
| Coordination | UNDP | UNDMT members |
|-----------------------+----------------+--------------------|
| Health | WHO | UNICEF, UNFPA |
|-----------------------+----------------+--------------------|
| Water and Sanitation | UNICEF | WHO |
|-----------------------+----------------+--------------------|
| Education and Child | UNICEF | ILO |
| Protection | | |
|-----------------------+----------------+--------------------|
| Food and Nutrition | WFP | UNICEF, WHO, FAO |
|-----------------------+----------------+--------------------|
| Shelter and Survival | UNDP | UNICEF, UNV |
|-----------------------+----------------+--------------------|
| Livelihoods | UNDP | ILO, UNFPA, UNV, |
| | | FAO |
|-----------------------+----------------+--------------------|
| Logistics | WFP | UNDP, OCHA, UNICEF |
|-----------------------+----------------+--------------------|
5. The long time functioning and active UN-DMT in Delhi has divided up
responsibilities among the various agencies such as UNDP as the focal
agency for the Indian Government and WFP to interface with the NGO
community etc.
6. UNDP/UN-DMT's overall strategy for coordination is to develop
collaborative working partnerships with the Indian Government, donors,
NGOs and UN agencies. This partnership is supporting the transition
process in the affected area by providing a coordination mechanism for
sustainable recovery and vulnerability reduction. The coordination
mechanism is being supported by a Transition Recovery Team (TRT) led by
UNDP-Emergency Response Division. This dynamic platform will enable the
Indian Government, donors, NGOs and UN agencies to share information and
plan the recovery activities.
7. UNDP has coordination offices in Bhuj, Ahmedabad, and Delhi. The
coordination mechanism in Bhuj helps to coordinate the work in Gujarat and
serve as an international help-line working in tandem with local
government authorities. The team is headed by a senior UNDP Programme
Manager and supported by National UN Volunteers.
8. In the Kutch district the UNDP co-ordination mechanism is working with
the local network of 22 NGOs, namely Kutch Nav Nirman Abhiyan. Abhiyan
has set up 30 sub-centres for coordination of village level activities.
UNDP is supporting 10 of the sub-centres in different locations in Kutch
(5 in Bachau block, 4 in Bhuj and 1 in Khadir) and the remaining 20 are
being supported by other organizations. The sub-centres are officially
mandated by the District Administration to play a crucial intermediary
role and, act as the key nodal point between government authorities and
the affected people for coordinating the relief and recovery efforts in
the Kutch district.
9. The Ahmedabad antenna office is functioning as an information cell and
liaison unit between the Indian Government, NGOs outside the Kutch
district and the UNDP coordination office in Bhuj.
10. The key roles of the Coordination Unit in Delhi are as follows:
- Overall management and coordination of the UNDP TRT;
- Strengthening the coordination mechanism in Gujarat and ensuring the
effective coordination of recovery activities among the different
stakeholders;
- Facilitating the resource mobilization activities and sharing
information
11. UNDP regularly holds general coordination meetings at Bhuj. UNDP is
currently responsible for the On-Site Operations Coordination Centre
(OSOCC) handed over by the UN Disaster Assessment and Coordination (UNDAC)
team late February. The databases developed by the UNDAC team during their
mission are now being maintained and updated regularly by UNDP with
information collated and compiled from the Offices of the District
Collector, District Development Officer, Relief Coordinator, Bhuj, NGO
sources and other key partners on the ground.
12. Information sharing to facilitate coordination is being enabled by
the GIS-based database system which has been established to provide
village-level information for the Indian Government, donors and NGOs. This
system will compliment DEVINFO, an in-country UN data base system, which
is currently being modified and prepared for Gujarat.
13. In addition, Disaster Mitigation Institute (DMI), Ahmedabad, will
launch an information and awareness campaign (funded by UNDP) in
Surendranagar and Patan/Banaskantha districts, focussing on collecting
information on relief and rehabilitation projects and making it available
for public domain using its existing network of governmental
organizations, NGOs and community based organizations. Awareness of the
people will be raised regarding people's legal rights, and technical
counselling will be provided to increase the access to the relief and
rehabilitation packages. DMI will also build the disaster management and
preparedness capacities in selected 50 villages through hands-on training
as well as through the use of participatory tools. Participatory impact
assessments and action planning aiming to assess the real needs of the
communities and most vulnerable groups is envisaged in the villages, to
increase the efficiency and effectively of the recovery efforts.
14. WFP has already distributed 634 MT of biscuits, 500 MT of Wheat
flour, 125 MT of pulses and 500 MT of Indiamix. In addition orders for the
supply of 500 MT wheat flour, 125 MT pulses and 568 MT Indiamix at a total
cost of USD 332,980 have already been placed.
15. WHO has assisted the local government in disease surveillance. The
Government of the United Kingdom has decided to provide GBP 76,000
(approximately USD 110,000) to WHO to establish a water surveillance
programme.
16. UNICEF has formulated a second request with an estimated budget of
USD 16 million which focuses on medium and long term rehabilitation in the
sectors of health, nutrition, education, water supply and sanitation,
child protection, communication, coordination based on a multi-hazard
strategy.
17. UNFPA plans to revitalize the health and family welfare services in
the affected areas through a multi-pronged strategy and will also
collaborate with other sister agencies to provide and support technical
assistance on counseling, targeting women and female adolescents.
18. For detailed information on activities of the in-country UN System
see the UN System in India website at http://www.un.org.in
19. Following an IOM financed pilot project of 121 shelters, IOM has
started building an additional 493 shelters for those displaced and for
migrant workers and their families with a contribution of USD 500,000 from
the UK/DFID.
20. Based on a damage and needs assessment jointly conducted by the World
Bank and Asian Development Bank (ADB), which have estimated that improved
reconstruction in Gujarat will cost about USD 2.3 million, the USD 400
million first phase of the World Bank's emergency earthquake assistance
was available. The World Bank is working on the second phase of its
assistance of Gujarat for earthquake reconstruction to be made available
in about six months. ADB approved USD 500 million emergency loan to
rebuild earthquake-hit Gujarat.
21. The coverage of IFRC emergency appeal seeking USD 15.6 million to
assist 300,000 beneficiaries stands at 122.7 %. IFRC plans to launch an
International Federation appeal for the recovery and rehabilitation phase
which will be based on detailed project proposals which are currently
under preparation.
22. In all, over USD 138 million of contributions provided or pledged
bilaterally or through aid agencies had been recorded by OCHA by 11 April.
23. For coordination purposes, donors are requested to inform OCHA
Geneva, as indicated below, of relief missions/pledges/contributions and
their corresponding values by item.
24. Information on contributions to this disaster may be found by
clicking on Financial Tracking at the top of the page for this disaster on
the OCHA Internet Website (http://www.reliefweb.int). Donors are requested
to verify this table and inform OCHA Geneva of
corrections/additions/values. Donors are encouraged to notify OCHA Geneva
of their contributions to this disaster using the OCHA Standardized
Contributions Recording Format, available electronically in the above
mentioned Financial Tracking Website.
25. This situation report, together with further information on ongoing
emergencies, is also available on the OCHA Internet website at
http://www.reliefweb.int
Telephone: +41-22-91712 34
Fax: +41-22-917 00 23
E-mail: ochagva@un.org
In case of emergency only: Tel. +41-22-917 20 10
Desk Officers (OCHA Disaster Response Branch):
Mr. R. Mueller / Ms. S. De Souza / Mr. S. Matsuka
Direct Tel. +41-22-917 31 31 / 16 36 / 40 34
Press contact:
(in GVA) Mr. Donato Kiniger-Passigli, direct Tel. +41-22-91726 53
(in NY) Ms. Phyllis Lee, direct Tel. +1-212-963 48 32
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India Earthquake 26-Jan-01 http://www.cidi.org/disaster/ind.1a26