150 route de Ferney, P.O. Box 2100 1211 Geneva 2, Switzerland

Tel: 41 22 791 6033 Fax: 41 22 791 6506 e-mail: [email protected] Appeal Coordinating Office

China

Flood Relief in Province - ASCN12

Appeal Target: US$ 139,306 Balance requested from ACT Network: US$ 114,306

Geneva, August 28, 2001

Dear Colleagues, Due to the effect of typhoons Liulian and Youte, large parts of Guangdong, Guangxi, and Provinces in were severely hit by continuous violent torrential rains from 1 to 4 July 2001, Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region being the most seriously affected. On 8 July, the embankment of the Yue river - which is one of the major rivers that runs across Guangxi - was cut apart for about 20 meters. Flood water in the river dashed out to form a sea of water, inundating highways, railways, and a city nearby. - which is another major river that runs across , the capital city of Guangxi - had its water 5 meters above the safety level for about a week, and was 6 to 8 meters higher than the roads and streets outside its embankment.

Flooding is now over, and so is the water logging in most of the affected areas in mountain. However, its impact on human life and property is far from being over. According to the official reports nine persons were killed, the affected population is more than ten million, 621,000 hectares of crops are affected and 49,800 units of houses are destroyed.

ACT Member, The Amity Foundation, proposes relief assistance to help meet the basic needs of the 2,501 families that have suffered serious loss of property, houses, and farm crops in Rongsang and Naman Townships - which are among the worst hit townships - as follows:

• Food assistance: Rice for two months • Non food assistance: quilts and mosquito nets • Housing for 68 families

ACT is a worldwide network of churches and related agencies meeting human need through coordinated emergency response. The ACT Coordinating Office is based with the World Council of Churches (WCC) and the Lutheran World

Federation (LWF) in Switzerland. Flood Relief in Guangxy Province, China 2 Appeal No. ASCN12

Project Completion Date: 30 June, 2002

Summary of Appeal Targets, Pledges/Contributions Received and Balance Requested

US$ Total Appeal Target(s) 139,306 Less: Pledges/Contr. Recd. 25,000 Balance Requested from ACT Network 114,306

Please kindly send your contributions to the following ACT bank account:

Account Number - 102539/0.01.061 (USD) Account Name: ACT - Action by Churches Together Banque Edouard Constant Cours de Rive 11 Case postale 3754 1211 Genève 3 SWITZERLAND

Please also inform the Finance Officer Jessie Kgoroeadira (direct tel. +4122/791.60.38, e-mail address [email protected]) of all pledges/contributions and transfers, including funds sent direct to the implementers, now that the Pledge Form is no longer attached to the Appeal.

We would appreciate being informed of any intent to submit applications for EU, USAID and/or other back donor funding and the subsequent results. We thank you in advance for your kind cooperation.

For further information please contact: ACT Co-ordinator, Thor-Arne Prois (phone +41 22 791 6033 or mobile phone + 41 79 203 6055) or ACT Appeals Officer, Mieke Weeda (phone +41 22 791 6035 or mobile phone +41 79 285 2916)

ACT Web Site address: http://www.act-intl.org

Ms. Geneviève Jacques Thor-Arne Prois Rev. Rudolf Hinz Director ACT Coordinator Director WCC/Cluster on Relations LWF/World Service

Flood Relief in Guangxy Province, China 3 Appeal No. ASCN12

I. REQUESTING ACT MEMBER

♣ Amity Foundation

II. IMPLEMENTING ACT MEMBER & PARTNER INFORMATION

The Amity Foundation is a church related relief and development organisation aiming at promoting health, education, social services projects. It also aims at emergency relief and rehabilitation programs in time of disasters. Amity is legally registered as a non-profitable organisation. It has been serving society and the people in China for the last 16 years.

Amity has been engaged in relief work for the past 15 years. It has established a nation wide relief network through its local partners and local churches. It handles 3 to 4 emergencies in a year. In major disasters, it starts with emergency assistance for 2 or 4 months followed by rehabilitation programs for a period of 1 or 2 years. When there is a need, and when resources are available, it also implements disaster mitigation and disaster prevention programs in an attempt to prevent or reduce the destruction of disasters and to help promote sustainable development of the target communities. Amity does its work in close collaboration with its local partners.

Amity will implement its relief programs in close collaboration with Overseas Friendship Association. Overseas Friendship Association is a people’s organisation strongly supported by the Chinese government. It aims at promoting friendship and co-operation between Chinese people and people overseas.

Overseas Friendship Association has been a close partner of Amity in the fields of relief, rural development and back to school project for the past 10 years. In 1991, when Guangxi was hit by a serious flood, it worked with Amity in close partnership for emergency assistance and rehabilitation in many counties in Guangxi Autonomous Region. Over the years, it has gained itself many experiences in relief and development work.

Amity will also work in close collaboration with the local governments. The county government is to provide the office for the staff from the Overseas Friendship Association who will work for Amity’s project. It will provide salaries and communication facilities for these staff as well. And it will offer vehicles for project staff to travel to target areas. For rebuilding of civilian houses, the county government is to contribute one third of the project fund. It shares duties, responsibilities and risks together with Amity and the association and it co-ordinates related government departments, townships and villages to see to it that the association can carry out their work smoothly.

III. DESCRIPTION OF EMERGENCY SITUATION

Background Information Due to the effect of typhoons named Liulian and Youte, large parts of Guangdong, Guangxi, Guizhou and Yunnan provinces were severely hit by continuous violent torrential rains from 1 to 4 July 2001. Being located in low-lying areas, Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region is the most seriously affected. Besides large numbers of mud and land-slides, torrents of water from Guizhou and Yunnan rushed into Guangxi to join the wild floods and forming serious water logging. As a result, large areas have been covered in flooding waters. Meanwhile, water in lakes and rivers rose rapidly above the safety levels, or overflowed the embankments flooding the roads and fields.

Flood Relief in Guangxy Province, China 4 Appeal No. ASCN12

On 8 July, the embankment of the Yue river - which is one of the major rivers that runs across Guangxi - was broken apart for about 20 meters. Water from the river flowed out and formed a sea of water. Highways, railways, and a city nearby were flooded all at once. 200,000 people including thousands of army men were sent in an attempt to block up the break. Meanwhile, the water in the Yong river - which is another major river that runs across Nanning, the capital city of Guangxi - remained 5 meters above the safety level for about a week. Outside its embankment,the level of water is 6 to 8 meters higher than the roads and streets. Another 200,000 people including 17,000 army men were mobilised to heighten and protect the Yong river embankment vital to the capital city of Guangxi. The army men and the civilian people remained on the embankment for another 8 days to watch for and to fight against possible potential dangers.

Current Situation Now the flooding is over, and so is the water logging in most of the affected areas in mountains. However, its impact on human life and property is far from being over. (See Annex - People after Flooding - for detailed information about the current situation of the many of the affected victims).

Impact On Human Lives The rainstorms and ensuing water logging are said to be the most serious since 1968. They have caused a great impact on human life and property. This is particularly the case for the victimised mountaineers. With the serious water logging rapidly formed in the mountains, many mountaineers had to evacuate from their houses in a rush. They hardly had time to take things with them. Now many of them do not have proper shelter, they have no food rice, and they need quilts, blankets, mosquito nets and other life necessities. In the meantime, mud and land-slides have damaged many parts of roads in the mountains and smooth terrain areas. Many of them are yet to be repaired or reconstructed.

As far as long term is concerned, the affected mountaineers are confronting huge problems. Most of the food crops, which were about to be harvested in the summer, have been lost through the flooding. The affected victims will be in short supply of food rice for 4 months in the latter half of the year. On the other hand, the areas downstream of the Guangdong river, had also been hit by heavy rains. As a result the rainwater that was being held up in Guangxi could not be drained in a very short period. As the water logging continued, thousands of mud and wood houses either collapsed or were seriously damaged, and all the furniture and properties inside rotted. It is almost impossible for a poor family that lives in the mountains to rebuild a new house and to recover everything without external support.

Description of Damages According to the official reports, in Guangxi alone, by 5 July:

People killed: 9 People affected: 10.283 million People seriously affected: 6.348 million People besieged: 271,000 People evacuated: 240,000 People turned homeless: 28,000 Houses destroyed: 49,800 room units Houses seriously damaged: 106,000 room units Farm crops affected: 621,000 hectares Farm crops completely lost to the flooding: 87,200 hectares

Flood Relief in Guangxy Province, China 5 Appeal No. ASCN12

Farmland destroyed: 15,100 hectares Small reservoirs destroyed or damaged: 26 Hydraulic stations destroyed: 5 Pumping stations destroyed or damaged: 1,539 Water transfer channels: 2,689 kilometres Highway base destroyed or damaged: 1,534,344 m3 (2,470 kilometres) Highway and roads surface destroyed or damaged: 3,859 kilometres Bridges destroyed or damaged: 42 School buildings collapsed or damaged: 1,057 room units

The direct economic loss is as high as 2.383 billion yuan (about USD288,498).

Locations For Proposed Response Rongsang and Naman Townships, which are among the worst hit townships in Baise Prefecture, Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region, are intended to be the target areas.

Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region is one of the 10 poorest western provinces and autonomous regions in China. They are mostly inhabited with Zhuang minorities.

Rongsang and Naman are among the poorest mountainous townships in Guangxi. The average annual net income per capita is around 600 yuan (about USD72.60). Because of the flooding, houses of 580 families collapsed, 2,501 families including these 580 families were evacuated and suffered serious loss of property, and the same 2,501 families have lost most of their farm crops of a total of about 3,784 hectares.

The local government has allocated 40 kilograms of food rice to each of the affected households in Rongsang and Naman Townships.

IV. GOAL & OBJECTIVES

Goal: to help meet the basic needs of the 2,501 families that have suffered serious loss of property, houses, and farm crops in Rongsang and Naman Townships.

Objectives: 1. to provide 1 quilt to each of the 2,501 families 2. to provide 1 mosquito net to each of the 2,501 families 3. to provide 15 kilograms of food rice to each of the 8,753 individuals in the 2,501 families continuously for 2 months 4. to help rebuild a new house for 68 families from among the 580 families that have suffered destruction of houses.

V. TARGETED BENEFICIARIES

Number and Type Of Targeted Beneficiaries

Flood Relief in Guangxy Province, China 6 Appeal No. ASCN12

All 8,753 victims in 2,501 mountainous rural families (in Rongsang and Naman Townships) that have suffered serious loss of property, houses and farm crops are our targeted beneficiaries.

Criteria Utilized in Beneficiary Selection 1. Families whose houses and farm crops have been submerged in water and thereby have suffered serious loss will each be assisted with a quilt and a mosquito net. 2. All individuals in these families will each be assisted with 15 kilograms of food rice each month continuously for 2 months. 3. All families - in 2 natural villages- that have suffered the most serious damage of houses due to water logging, mud and land-slide will be helped to rebuild a new house.

Target townships and villages will first work out a complete statistics about the loss and the damage suffered by all individual families within their townships and villages. Then these statistics will be written down on large pieces of paper to be posted on the outside wall of Village Houses. By doing so, they are made known to all the villagers. Then Amity staff and its local partners will make random visit to individuals and families in these villages to see if things are in accordance with facts. Corrections will be made in case of inconsistencies.

VI. PROPOSED EMERGENCY ASSISTANCE & IMPLEMENTATION

Description of Assistance Food rice: Food rice to be provided is locally produced. It is of ordinary quality. Quilts: Quilts to be provided are 1.5 meters wide and 2 meters long. The cotton wadding is 3 kilograms heavy and made of pure cotton classified as state level 3. The quilt cover is made from cotton cloth. Mosquito nets: Mosquito nets to be provided are 1.5 meters wide, 2 meters long, and are made of synthetic. Houses: Houses to be built will occupy a floor space of about 80 to 100 square meters. They will be built with bricks and cement.

Implementation Description Per Activity In order to ensure the quality and to cut down the prices, several potential suppliers shall be invited to bid. Choice of suppliers shall be made based on comparison between the quality, the price, the supply period and the service they offer. Transportation of relief materials to target townships, shall be conducted by the suppliers as part of their duties. Township heads will then arrange to deliver relief materials from Township Houses to Village Houses. The village heads will then arrange to distribute relief materials to individual families within their villages in close collaboration with Amity and the implementation group.

In order to make sure that only and all those who have suffered serious loss of property, houses, and farm crops in targeted townships are assisted, assistance criteria and beneficiaries selection criteria shall be made public in all target villages before hand. Meanwhile, Amity Relief Material Distribution Registers shall be prepared as well. On the registers, the names of the heads of the households, the materials and the number/amount of the materials they are each going to receive shall be written. Before the target beneficiaries are granted relief materials, they are required to write down their names and affix their seals. These registers with names and affixes will again be made known to all villagers for public surveillance.

VII. ADMINISTRATION, FINANCE, MONITORING & REPORTING

Flood Relief in Guangxy Province, China 7 Appeal No. ASCN12

Project Administration Amity Foundation is the main operating body throughout the relief efforts. It plays key roles in planning and managing the relief work. It supervises and monitors during the whole operation process. And it works to ensure that the relief funds are best used as is planned.

In order to implement effectively the relief work, a local implementation group shall be set up. The branch head from the Overseas Friendship Association of the Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region shall be the group leader, representatives from Overseas Friendship Association at the county level, relevant county departments, township departments, and related villages are group members. The implementation group is to provide a feedback on actual situation in the flood affected areas. And it works with Amity to design relief work, and to procure and distribute relief materials.

Project Finance Management and Controls Amity Foundation is responsible for financial management. In order to make sure that relief funds are all used for the target victims as is planned, Amity and its local partner (Overseas Friendship Association) have agreed that Overseas Friendship Association shall pay for the relief materials first. They will be repaid later when the relief materials are distributed and when the following receipts are received and when everything on the receipts agrees to each other to support the total amount: 1. Purchase receipts (with tax bureau seals) provided by the suppliers who clearly state the total amount/number, the unit cost and the total cost of the bought materials. 2. Receipts provided by beneficiary townships which clearly state the total amount/number of the relief materials they have received (with township government seals) 3. Receipts provided by beneficiary villages which will clearly state the total amount/number of the relief material they have received (with village government seals). 4. Relief Material Distribution Registers with names of beneficiary families, and number of family members on it.

Project Monitoring Procedures Amity will collaborate with its local partners to participate in and to monitor the overall process of Amity’s relief work. Target townships and villages are required to make public the beneficiary families, the amount/number of relief materials. Ourselves and our local partners will make field trips together in target townships and villages and visit beneficiary families to see if everything is in agreement with facts and if everything is in accordance with what has been planned and feedback.

VIII. IMPLEMENTATION TIMETABLE

The implementation period, which begins from appeal for emergency assistance and ends in submission of audit report, is estimated to last about ten months.

20 August 2001 - 20 November 2001: appeal for emergency assistance 28 August 2001 - 18 November 2001: implementation of material assistance October 2001 - June 2002: construction of new houses

IX. CO-ORDINATION

The Department of Civil Affairs of Guangxi Autonomous Region is responsible for the overall

Flood Relief in Guangxy Province, China 8 Appeal No. ASCN12 relief work within the autonomous region. It maps out the overall disasters and needs in different prefectures and allocates financial and in-kind support from outside the autonomous region to different prefectures according to their needs. And it co-ordinates different relief organisations for their relief activities to avoid duplication of relief assistance in the same prefectures. The Civil Affairs Bureaux at prefecture and county levels work following the same pattern within their prefectures and counties to allocate financial and in-kind assistance that reaches them to different counties and townships to avoid duplication of relief activities.

Amity co-ordinates these civil affairs departments and its local partners for its relief work there.

X. BUDGET

Description Type of No. of Unit Budget Budget Unit Units Cost RMB USD RMB

INCOME

Church World Service, USA 25,000

EXPENDITURES

Food Inputs Rice Kg 262,590 2 498,921 60,366 Non-Food Inputs Cotton quilts Piece 2,501 82 205,082 24,813 Mosquito nets Piece 2,501 40 100,040 12,104 Civilian houses House 68 4,000 272,000 32,910 Sub Total 1,076,043 130,193

Administrative fee (staff salaries, Lump sum 75,323 9,113 office maintenance & supplies, etc.)

TOTAL EXPENDITURES 1,151,366 139,306

BALANCE REQUESTED FROM ACT NETWORK 114,306

Flood Relief in Guangxy Province, China 9 Appeal No. ASCN12

Annex to Appeal ASCN12

Baise People after the Floods By the Amity Foundation

“Where was your house?” one of us asked a middle aged Zhuang woman in front of a small hut made from striped plastic sheeting, which sheltered her family from the heavy rain. She turned round not wanting the visitors to see her face, but then she burst into tears, turned back, pointing at a pile of debris, and said, “It was there. We’ve lost everything…” She was sobbing so hard she could not continue the conversation and had to be comforted by others.

Indeed, inside the hut, there was very little, and everything looked old, muddy and wet. A few planks were put on a bed frame, covered with a straw mat and topped by a mosquito net. The woman, her aged mother-in-law and two young children slept on this bed at night. A wok was sitting on a small stove; some bowls and washbowls were put on the mud ground near the stove. In one corner was a pile of corn, separated from the ground by some plastic sheeting; the corn was rather dark in color, the color of mould. The ground was wet; the rainwater drips down from the top where the plastic sheets join; it then flew outside from the center of the hut by a sewer dug out with a spade.

Over the two days I spent in Baise, I visited many rural communities (in Debao County, Tianyang County and Baise’s suburbs) and met many villagers like this woman, most of them Zhuang minorities, with little food left, and now living in makeshift huts, school classrooms or in severely damaged houses. When I asked them about their food, housing, schooling or healthcare, I saw many women in tears and old men looking off into oblivion, with pipes in hand.

This was Baise after the unprecedented floods beginning on July 4. Altogether, 155,800 room units collapsed, and 723,300 hectares of crops were flooded. With the help of the Church World Service, USA, Amity is supplying 2,000 quilts and 2,000 cotton blankets to people from two of the most severely damaged villages in Debao and Tianyang Counties, and the project will be completed in a month.

On the walls of brick houses that were still standing, I could still see the watermarks and sometimes dried grass that had once floated on waters. Some of these houses had once been entirely under water; I could see the dried grass on their roofs. In the fields, withered corn stalks and banana trees stuck out of a thick layer of sludge brought up by the floods. As one waded through, sometimes the sludge reached the knees. Some rice paddies had no sludge; there, however, we had to walk through the stench of the rotten rice seedlings. Many villages had lost all their summer crops; they would harvest the corn in about a month when the floods came.

At the time of pain, loss, and frustration, I could also see hope, care and love of life. I saw people feeding newly hatched chucks and ducklings. I saw people whose brick houses had withstood the waters quietly dug up the sludge from inside the house and clean up their living space inch by inch. Villagers learned that the sludge carried a lot of germs and should be removed whenever they could spare the time. To improve the sanitary conditions, the village committee sent out people who sifted lime powder on the ground of each household. In small patches next to collapsed houses, rice seedlings had sprouted, banana seedlings growing in little pots that were neatly lined up. As soon as the rain stopped, the sludge cleaned up, I was told, the villagers will plant these seedlings in order to get some grain and income by the end of the year.

Flood Relief in Guangxy Province, China 10 Appeal No. ASCN12

“We could see the real beauty of humanity,” said many people when they were telling us what happened when the floods came. The Baise area is mostly made up of stone mountains, with the winding through from the middle. The area, together with Yunnan and Guizhou Provinces, was caught in heavy torrential rains for almost 24 hours on July 3rd. The next morning the sun came out, blazing, and people were sunning their clothes and grain and were draining water from their fields. However, at noontime, word suddenly came from the government that an onrush was descending from the upper rivers and all villagers must evacuate immediately. Village leaders were given orders that no human life be lost. At this time, people could hear the thunderous roaring of the You River, and in many places the water had overflowed the banks. The villagers told their children to run for their lives, as they themselves helped elderly neighbors wade through the waters. The flood peak raised the water level by over 10 meters.

Zhong Chengfeng, an 18-year-old Zhuang boy from Dacheng Village, happened to be punting a small wooden boat. His mother asked him to go back to their house to get some grain, but instead he made many trips back to the village and picked up many of his neighbors who were squatting on roofs or holding trees or simply struggling in swift water currents. He took them to safety, but finally, in the riptides, his boat crashed into a cement power pole and broke into pieces, so he himself had to swim to join others.

When I saw this brave young man, he was sheltering himself from the rain in his hut, also made from a few bamboo poles and striped plastic sheets, all these supplied by the county government. He and his younger brother only had a makeshift bed, a mosquito net, and a few junior middle school textbooks that belonged to the brother. “How many people have you saved?” asked one of us. “Oh, I did not count them. I guess many.” “You are very brave, indeed.” “No. Anyone else in my position would do the same,” he said matter-of-factly.

By the afternoon of July 4th, the whole of Naman Township was under water except for the township’s junior middle school, where over 3,000 people were gathered, taking up every inch of room space. These people were well organized. Young men were sent out to look for missing neighbors and look for food, fuel and woks. Women were counting neighbors in their villages. When night fell, the aged, the sick and children were let to sleep under the few mosquito nets. The rest only had enough floor space to sit and had to withstand the mosquito bites.

In the early morning, some young men returned with cornmeal and bowls. Women started to cook porridge. The 3,000 ate from a few woks, each with only a small portion even though it had been more than 14 hours since they ate anything at all.

For eight days, these 3,000 people lived on cornmeal porridge. They shared their straw mats and took turns to sleep. They often had to share bowls and chopsticks. There was very little food, but there was not even a single quarrel. “We Zhuang are a good people,” summed up a village leader, “and we like to help each other at critical moments. I should really thank my people for what they did during those eight days before the floods subsided. It was because of them that not a single life was lost in our township.”

The water finally receded and people started to return to their villages, only to find that all the houses made from wood or mud bricks were gone. Neither could they find their buffaloes, pigs, chickens or other possessions.

As I stepped on the houses completely flattened to the ground and on what was once roofs, under

Flood Relief in Guangxy Province, China 11 Appeal No. ASCN12 the broken tiles, beams and mud walls, I could see shoes, clothes, wardrobes, children’s toys and even a bicycle, still soaked in mud and waters. Some people were trying to uncover their belongings. One young man was washing a small stone grinder that had just been dug up. Not far away, I saw a threshing machine and a diesel engine, just uncovered and looking still usable after some repair.

Life is continuing, but the Zhuang people are faced with great difficulties. A large number of families have not harvested anything, and the next crops will not be harvested until late November. The county government has supplied each villager 15 kilos of cornmeal, which will carry them through the month of July. The government would like to continue to do this, but the two poorest counties, Debao and Tiandong, have no reserve and already owe a great deal of money to the banks and the governments higher up. They are unable to supply more relief grain.

Many people, especially those with some medical and public health background, mentioned the problem of mosquitoes in the Baise Area. They say that priority should be given to the supply of mosquito nets since most of those homeless have lost them and have no cash to buy them even though they only sell at 28 yuan apiece.

Houses should be built before the winter. Some people suggest that Amity provide each household a grant of 2,000 yuan. Others suggest that Amity help build a few homes for the aged so as to take care of the most vulnerable of those who are currently homeless.

During each day’s visits to Baise, I was alternately soaked by the rain and scorched by the sun, the sweat leaving a thin layer of salt on my T-shirt. In the evenings, I was totally exhausted after much wading and mountain climbing. However, I always returned to a county guesthouse. When there was power, my room had an air conditioner and a hot shower, and I did not have to be bothered by mosquitoes. These simple comforts made me feel even more strongly that we at Amity should do more for the Zhuang people in Baise.