Tanzania: Red Cross responds to new year floods

The Red Cross Red Crescent is bringing shelter and relief goods to thousands of people following severe flooding in Tanzania.

Around ten people have died and more than a thousand have been displaced by the new year floods, which were caused by several days of incessant rain over the holiday period. As many as 25,000 people have been affected, mainly in Morogoro and Dodoma.
In Kilosa, one of the worst-hit areas, 71-year-old Vumilia Ali and her two grandchildren watched as their house and possessions were swept away by the raging waters.
“My grandchildren and I were having dinner on the evening just after Christmas day,” she said. “All of a sudden the house was surrounded by waist-high waters.”
Vumilia, 13-year-old Anna and 16-year-old Abdalla ran out of their home clutching a few belongings, and sought safety in an open field on higher ground.
Some 23 camps each housing up to 100 families have been established across the region to secure safe ground for the displaced families. Many schools have been converted to serve as evacuation centres for the homeless but, with the new term approaching, it is not yet clear where these people will go next.
The damage to infrastructure has been immense. Roads and connecting bridges have been swept away, and parts of the country’s railway line left impassable hampering the country’s transportation system. Around 2,000 homes in Kilosa were engulfed by the rising waters and more than half of these were completely destroyed.

Quelle: Anne Wanjiru, IFRC, in Nairobi (6 January 2010)