Published: 24 September 2004
Nine months after a devastating earthquake reduced the Iranian city of Bam to rubble, the Iranian Red Crescent Society (IRCS), backed by the International Federation, continues to meet the extensive needs of the city’s population. The latest example of the Red Cross Red Crescent’s long-term commitment to the people of Bam is the transfer this week of the city’s hospital from the tented facilities in which it has been since the disaster to a new prefabricated construction.
“This remains a well-used and crucial facility for the population of Bam. With all the other permanent medical facilities in Bam having been destroyed in the earthquake, this has been the only fully functioning hospital for the city and surrounding area,” explains Mohammed Mukheir, head of the International Federation’s delegation in Iran.
The hospital began its existence as a field hospital deployed as an emergency response unit immediately after the earthquake and staffed by a joint Finnish Red Cross and Norwegian Red Cross team, with funding from the European Commission’s humanitarian office, ECHO. Handed over to the IRCS in April, its role has shifted to that of primary referral hospital for 200,000 people. In nine months, it has treated 182,000 patients.
The new hospital, built with contributions from the Red Cross Societies of Australia, Belgium and Germany, is a potent symbol of the reconstruction programme that the IRCS and International Federation are beginning to implement in Bam. A revised appeal will be issued in the coming days to take account of the need to rebuild key facilities in the city, including a number of schools. Some 191 educational establishments in Bam were destroyed in the disaster.
“The emergency relief phase has passed, but the International Federation is not leaving. The needs of the population remain, especially in terms of health services and socio-economic infrastructure. We will be there for the foreseeable future to support the Iranian Red Crescent to address these priorities, and we hope the donor community will step forward to support the rebuilding of Bam just as it helped in the relief phase,” Mukheir says.
The Iranian authorities estimate that more than 26,000 people were killed in the earthquake, which struck on 26 December 2003. Around 30,000 were injured and up to 75,600 left homeless. About 85 per cent of housing and infrastructure was destroyed.