SECRETARIAT - 150 route de Ferney, P.O. Box 2100, 1211 Geneva 2, Switzerland - TEL: +41 22 791 6033 - FAX: +41 22 791 6506 www.actalliance.org Rapid Response Fund Payment Request No. 09/2014 Funds Sent To: National Christian Council of Sri Lanka Amount Sent US$ 58,061 Date: 10 June 2014 Details of Response Emergency: Relief Assistance to Flood Affected in Sri Lanka Date of Emergency: 10 June 2014 ACT Requesting Members: National Christian Council of Sri Lanka I. NARRATIVE SUMMARY DETAILS OF THE EMERGENCY Incessant torrential rains continued heavy downpour from 1 June until evening of 4 June, and caused severe damages mainly to Southern part of Sri Lanka. According to the Disaster management Centre, the rains have had serious impact in the Western, Sabaragamuwa, North Western and Central provinces, causing displacement of 27,243 people (7952 families) due to rains, floods, landslides/mudslides and high winds lightning. The preliminary estimates have reported 22 deaths, full damage to 72 houses and partial damage to 349, and nine people are reportedly missing. The Director Meteorological department has predicted further heavy rainfall has been predicted which would worsen with the onset of the Southeast Monsoons. The coastal areas from Galle to Potuvil will face rough weather with the likely wind speed up to 60 kmph at times1. The Kalutara district, in the Western province, is the worst affected. A total of 14 out of 22 deaths have occurred here. The low lying areas in the districts of Agalawatte, Palinda Nuwara, Bulathsunhala, Mathugama, Welipanna, Molkawaw, Palawatte, and Omantha are still submerged. The newly constructed Southern High Way is also reported to be flooded. The Aswatte Junction on the Colombo – Avisssawella road is flooded with water to a height 8 feet, due to the overflow of Aswatte Canal forcing the closure of shops and disrupting the lives of the people in the area. Due to the risk of landslide, in house patients and staff of the District Hospital, Meehahatanne have been evacuated, causing the stoppage of work at the hospital. It also reported that 137 schools have also been closed in the western province. It has been recorded that many main and sub roads have been washed away as a result of flood, earth slips and landslides. The calculated cost of the damage is estimated at LKR 100 Million (USD7.67 million). 1 Colombo page News Desk –4 June 2014 RRF09/2014: Sri Lanka Floods 2 ACTIONS TO DATE, AND EMERGENCY NEEDS A joint search and rescue mission, jointly organized by the army, air force and navy is underway, with local communities also trying to help each other in the neighbourhood. The displaced people have been moved to makeshift camps organized at schools and places of worship. The Sri Lankan government has allocated funds to meet immediate relief and funeral expenses. The Sri Lanka Society of Red Cross has sent immediate relief and first aid teams to assist and aid the affected people. Also the International Federation of Red Cross and the Red Crescent Societies (IFRC) and other Red Cross societies are gearing up their response. Though the SL government and SL Red Cross have started providing assistance to flood affected population, the assistance has not been reaching to all affected people especially in remote areas. Furthermore, the relief items are also not in adequate quantities to cater to the needs of entire affected population. The emergency relief unit arm of the Church of Ceylon, has sent alert messages to designated people in vulnerable areas do that they could further disseminate the information. They had activated their network in the respective areas to take suitable precautionary measures. Most of the affected people are from low country estates of tea and rubber, who have been directly or indirectly affected by the floods. Most of them are daily wage earners and now unable to attend to their work due to inundation and disruption in transport facilities. NCC SL has decided to provide dry ration to such families on priority basis. The local churches have been providing cooked food and have requested more cooked meals and dry ration packs as immediate relief. PROPOSED EMERGENCY RESPONSE OVERALL GOAL: The overarching goal of the programme is to reduce human suffering of the most severely flood affected people by addressing identified immediate needs and pave way for faster and improved recovery process. OBJECTIVE(S) OF THE EMERGENCY RESPONSE: 1. To provide 2000 packets of cooked food, 2. To assist and provide 1400 families severely affected by flood with dry ration packs, 3. To empower and assist 100 families affected floods to recover a modicum of self-sufficiency in their day to day lives by providing 100 packs of essential household items 4. To provide necessary facilities for 250 children/ students continue their education in schools by providing them with educational pack containing the most essential items. 5. To minimize their vulnerability and by providing assistance for small scale repairs to damaged houses, toilets and wells. 6. To build up community level capacity and awareness by conducting awareness programmes on climate change. RRF09/2014: Sri Lanka Floods 3 PROPOSED ASSISTANCE Objective Type of assistance No of Location No of assistance (Village/ beneficiaries Town/ District) To empower and assist Cooked food 2000 Agalawatte, 2000 families in the most Bulathsinhala severely affected flood Molkawa areas, to recover a Dry Ration packs 1400 Agalawatte, 750 modicum of self- Bulathsinhala 200 sufficiency in their day to Molkawa 450 day lives Household items 100 Bulathsinhala 50 Molkawa 50 To provide necessary Educational pack 250 Bulathsinhala 100 facilities for children/ Molkawa 150 students continue their education in schools To minimize vulnerability Small scale repairs 40 Suitable 40 of flood victims (houses and toilets persons/fami lies with the within the western/Sout hern and Sabaragamu wa provinces To build up community Awareness 5 Housholders 1000 persons level capacity and programmes on in the (estimated at 200 awareness climate change. Kalutara, per programme) Galle, Matara , Gampaha and Deniyaya areas TARGET POPULATIONS: Location (Village/ Town/ No of families No of children District)- By Village/Town Kitulgoda 200 Palinda Nuwara 250 50 Mahagama 300 Baduraliya 100 Polegoda 50 Molkawa 200 100 Bulathsingala – Eastate 200 100 Agalawatte 100 Others 50 IMPLEMENTATION ARRANGEMENTS All the activities will be implemented through the existing local church mechanism along with the assistance of their volunteers and congregations. Most particularly the NCCSL will implement the proposed interventions through three key constituent members namely the Methodist Church of Sri RRF09/2014: Sri Lanka Floods 4 Lanka, Church of Ceylon and Sri Lanka Baptist Church. NCCSL will coordinate as well as implement selected interventions through the existing churches. The clergy and the church leaders will be the focal points and sole responsible agents in the local areas under the guidance of the NCCSL. The General Secretary and the relevant staff of the NCCSL will coordinate and facilitate the initiatives. The district level coordination is conducted by the respective clergy. The NCCSL and the church ministers will develop linkage with relevant authorities throughout the process while continuing the constant dialogue with the respective Government Agents. Further the local church ministers, church headquarters and NCCSL staff will continue to monitor the implementation and will report to the NCCSL accordingly. The finance will be administrated and will be accounted by the NSSL finance unit, while the respective partner churches will produce all necessary information and accounts with adequate documentation to the NCCSL. COORDINATION The NCCSL will coordinate and facilitate with its constituent members to strengthen the implementation. NCCSL will have regular conventions with its constituencies to share information with regard to the situation and implementation. NCCSL will update the ACT Secretariat with regard to the implementation and situation. All activities will be conducted by NCCSL and by its partners in coordination with the government authorities and other organizations involved in managing the project interventions and providing assistance to the affected families. While making all pertinent preparations and planning, it remains the responsibility of the NCCSL to coordinate the proposed activities with the government authorities and to have an agreement in receiving their assistance /facilitation. Also NCCSL and partner churches will coordinate with other organizations and other relevant players with the aim of avoiding duplication and to foster transparency and accountability. COMMUNICATIONS The NCCSL and the all the partner churches implementing this emergency response are well informed and possess suitable internal capacity to address the communication needs related to the proposed intervention. For the time being, the NCCSL will be responsible for launching situation reports and relevant pictures as the output of their regular monitoring visits. At the outset beneficiaries will be informed about the selection criteria and the preliminary list of beneficiaries will be displayed in a public area where all the affected have access. This will enable the affected population to express their disagreements, if any, with regard to the selection criteria and/or the selection process. Complaints boxes will be put up at the distribution sites, so that the people could use them confidentially. NCCSL will set-up an elaborate process with regard to the complaints mechanism and spend time to explain it to the communities, so that they feel empowered to use the system. NCCSL will also inform the communities about their entitlements under this support, so that they could hold the organization accountable in case of any discrepancies. For this purpose, in addition complaint boxes, NCCSL will also provide phone number of the complaints focal person within the organization. PRINCIPLES AND STANDARDS The implementation will follow a rights based approach and ensure that ACT policies and codes of conduct (including Sphere and the Red Cross Code of Conduct) will be adhered.