Following devastating floods in Romania, the International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies has launched a preliminary emergency appeal to assist some 13,000 people who have lost their homes, over the next three months.
The appeal seeks 2.4 million Swiss francs (euro 1.5 million / US$ 1.9 million) to support the relief operation, led by the Romanian Red Cross, and to purchase family tents, blankets, tarpaulins, mattresses and sleeping bags, kitchen utensils, jerry cans, rubber boots, food and hygiene articles. Setting up sanitation facilities is also included in the appeal.
“Over the past weeks, hundreds of Romanian Red Cross staff and volunteers have been distributing emergency relief, including blankets, clothing, food and bottled water to flood victims,” explains Anja Toivola, head of the Federation’s Europe department in Geneva. “But we are particularly concerned about the bad sanitary conditions and the possible spread of disease, both for people living in makeshift camps, and for others, where latrines, wells and water networks are flooded out.”
Over the past three weeks, 22 of Romania’s 47 counties have been hit by the heaviest seasonal flooding in 110 years, with the southwest and southeast regions most affected. A total of 11,000 people have already been evacuated - nearly 9,000 people in Dolj alone, the county most affected, with 27 villages and towns underwater.
The Danube has burst its banks and its strong current is destroying dams and dikes. The situation in the Danube delta is most worrisome if water levels continue to rise. In Tulcea, close to the Ukrainian border, many villages have already been flooded and people are living on rafts, totally dependent on external assistance for food and water.
Some 1,200 houses have been affected and those built of mud bricks, a common building material, have collapsed or are about to collapse because of water infiltration.
The situation is expected to continue to deteriorate and the appeal will be revised, as information from ongoing assessments arrives. The International Federation released nearly 170,000 Swiss francs from its Disaster Relief Emergency Fund to support the Romanian Red Cross operation and last week sent out a team to help assess the situation and coordinate relief distribution.