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September 25, 2009
Ouagadougou Flood Update Burkina Faso
Another letter from Alan Dixon in Ouagadougou. If you would like to make a donation which will benefit homeless families and/or reconstruction, you can make a secure online donation here. In the box titled 'Missionary or Project Name', please type BF General 93918 Ouagadougou Flood Relief. Thank you so much.
It is now three weeks since the flood. Things have stabilized somewhat and basic needs are being increasingly met for those who have taken refuge in government and unofficial shelters. Efforts are being made to improve sanitary conditions and bring medical treatment. In one centre we visited last week, nurses were making regular visits to treat malaria and diarrhea. In another center portable latrines were being built that would later be moved to other locations. Local governments now have 88 official sites with about 115,000 people currently receiving food, lodging, basic necessities and some medial care.
The majority of those who have lost their homes were located in two types of areas. Many of the homes flooded were in older, well established areas, located near Ouagadougou’s main waterway which includes an interlinked system of three dams. These dams greatly overflowed their boundaries inundating homes, businesses and other structures on both the north and south sides of the dams over a wide area, collapsing most mud-brick structures and damaging others. As a flood of this magnitude is a very rare occurrence most of these people will likely rebuild in the same place, advisedly with cement block on concrete foundations.
The other areas greatly affected have been non-developed areas on the outskirts of the city where most construction is in mud brick, without significant foundations and where water-control structures are minimal. Normal watercourses greatly overflowed their normal boundaries on September 1, inundating wide areas for several hours causing widespread collapse of water-logged mud brick structures. We visited two of these areas last week, one in Somgandé where one EE-SIM church was almost completely destroyed and another in Goudrin where another EE-SIM church is located. Widespread destruction of mud brick homes occurred in areas near swollen waterways and where water collected. In many areas devastation is total. One of the organizers at one of the government centres where we have been distributing basic necessities pointed out what used to be his home, now nothing but a pile of mud. He said that some personal effects remained under the pile but that he had not had the courage or the time to continue to dig for them. He and his family are housed at the school nearby. The government is urging people in these non-developed areas not to rebuild but is seeking a more permanent and adequate solution to their housing needs.
The new school year starts on October 1st and the government is anxious to relocate those who are currently staying in schools, the large majority of the 115,000 people being sheltered. People were expected to have begun moving to the first of the tented sites by Tuesday September 22, priority being given to moving people out of the secondary schools first. New temporary schools are to be erected as part of the tent cities.
In cooperation with 5 local churches and another local Christian organization, we have been able to purchase and distribute $20,000 worth of basic necessities, food, and medicine in 10 shelters. In two of the neighborhoods heavily affected, we (SIM and EE-SIM churches) have been able to intervene directly in the neighborhoods affected, distributing another $5,000 worth of food and other basic necessities. We are continuing to evaluate needs and responding as we are able. We will be monitoring the movement of those being sheltered, from the schools to the tent-cities being/to be erected, to see what needs we can effectively respond to. As the rains normally continue into October, it will likely be another month before reconstruction of homes will begin on a large scale.
Please continue to pray for wisdom for us and the churches as we identify needs and seek to respond to them Pray for wisdom in decisions regarding rebuilding and as we seek to identify and help those most vulnerable and needy.
Alan
Posted by sahelsteve at 09:10 AM
September 10, 2009
Derren Brown, Derren Brown
Feels a bit strange posting something laugh-out-loud funny straight after all that flood stuff, but as the Fulani say, life is sparks and droplets, suffering and joy - the sparks of the fire that jump out of the fire and burn you (suffering) and the droplets of milk that jump out of the calabash and wet your skin (joy). So here's a droplet of milk - a funny song for those of you who (like me) watched Derren Brown predict the National Lottery results last night.
Posted by sahelsteve at 02:59 PM
September 07, 2009
Burkina Faso flood news
News report from Ouagadougou (this video is in French):
Posted by sahelsteve at 09:51 AM
September 04, 2009
Ouagadougou flooding latest news
The following newsletter comes from our colleagues Alan and Alison Dixon in Ouagadougou and it describes the recent flooding there. If you would like to make a donation which will benefit homeless families and/or reconstruction, you can make a secure online donation here. In the box titled 'Missionary or Project Name', please type BF General 93918 Ouagadougou Flood Relief. Thank you so much.
Dear friends,
It seems that the city of Ouagadougou just happened to be at the wrong place at the wrong time. On September 1, a strong tropical storm system stalled over Ouagadougou. It started to rain about 4:30 in the morning, a nice gentle rain for over an hour. About 6:00, the time we usually get out of bed, the downpour started and continued off and on till about 4:00 in the afternoon. The metrological service registered 97 mm (about 4 inches) of rain between 7:00 and 8:00 AM, an incredible downpour. The rainfall recorded by 4:00 PM was 263 mm (over 10 inches) for the day. This is the highest one day rainfall in recorded history in Burkina Faso. On August 31,1914, 246 mm were recorded in Bobo Dioulasso, Burkina Faso’s second largest city. The previous highest one-day recorded rainfall for Ouagadougou was 120 mm in 1953. There was likely some variation throughout the city which may account for varied reports. Ouaga has several low areas and water courses with damage particularly significant in those areas.
Just after noon Alison and I went to Paspanga, an area of town about 4 km from our house, to help out the family of a church member there, carrying two of his children and some of their personal effects back to the SIM compound. Water was rising in his yard but had not yet entered his house. Water had backed up about 6 city blocks at that point. We were able to wade through water to a nearby office building under construction where we went up to the fifth floor to survey the damage. A widespread area was flooded and the EE-SIM church, several blocks away, was under about 8 feet of water. It is located just one block from the floodway, downstream from one of Ouagadougou’s dams, which itself was under two feet of water. This is one of the areas where many houses fell. We heard one fall quite close by while we were loading up the car for this family. This is one of the rare times that we have seen hundreds of people in the streets in the pouring rain.
Electricity was cut by mid-morning as the main diesel generating station located in Paspanga flooded. Our power came back on at 8 PM, for many it was the next day, but some are still without power. The water treatment plant at Paspanga was also flooded and shut down. This has resulted in no water in some areas of the city and very low pressure in others. The official word from ONEA (the government water service) is that they are having difficulties but do have adequate reserves.
The main hospital, Yalgado, is not far from the same dam. Its back wall came down and several of the buildings of the hospital compound were flooded. Many patients were evacuated to other hospitals in town. Clean-up is underway but damage, particularly to equipment, is extensive. One of the local newspapers was flooded and only produced a limited edition yesterday with mostly photos of destruction throughout the city.
The city is much calmer this morning and the flood waters have mostly receded. The government estimates that there are about 150,000 people whose homes are no longer habitable- either completely or partially destroyed. About 110,000 of these people have taken shelter in schools and are receiving some emergency aid through government channels. They report only five deaths but many still unaccounted for. If this flood had happened during nighttime hours it would certainly have resulted in a much greater catastrophe in terms of loss of life.
The SIM Ouaga team has set up a fund to begin helping people in need. For now it is initial emergency aid but within a few days I expect we will be looking at helping with housing and other needs, particularly for those in SIM-related churches and their neighbors. Any help that can be directed our way will be appreciated. Gifts can be made through any SIM office to project BF General 81250, designated for Ouagadougou Flood Relief. It's going to take a long time for this to go away.
There was no serious damage for SIMBF missionaries, although Robin had a couple of inches of water throughout his house- water running in from the street. A wall fell down at Ruten's house, resulting in minor damage to two vehicles. Several of our Burkinabe staff had some damage to their homes and one’s car was engulfed in water after getting caught in the flood-waters while attempting to get to work. We are thankful for God’s protection and pray that those much less fortunate will get the help they need.
Alan and Alison
Posted by sahelsteve at 03:36 PM
September 03, 2009
Ouaga under water
6 emails yesterday from friends in Ouagadougou (capital of Burkina Faso), telling me about the flooding there. It's very serious - you may have seen it on BBC news. 12 inches of water in under 10 hours - the heaviest rain there in 90 years - no wonder the city is flooded.
Thousands of houses have fallen down. Schools and churches at 193 sites across Ouagadougou are sheltering 110,000 flood victims.
Please pray for the many needs, and for our colleagues there - missionaries and aid workers - that they would respond well to this crisis.
Posted by sahelsteve at 09:21 AM
September 02, 2009
Lavant News
Dear friends,
Thanks for your continuing support and prayers. Here's some of our recent news.
I returned from Burkina Faso at the end of July, and Charlie and I went on a church holiday by the seaside which was very refreshing. There was some excellent teaching there, but for me the highlights were the following three talks, which can be downloaded free from the Holy Trinity Brompton website:
Shane Claiborne: http://www.htb.org.uk/focus-09/sunday-evening-celebration
J. John: http://www.htb.org.uk/focus-09/monday-evening-celebration
Bishop of London: http://www.htb.org.uk/focus-09/thursday-morning-celebration
In August we celebrated a milestone birthday for Mum with a big family get-together down in Padstow, Cornwall. Happy birthday, Mum!
We are now living in a small cottage in a village called Lavant, where Charlie is busy making apple chutney and flapjacks and I am busy banging my head on doorways. For the first time in our married life we have a television, which I'm very happy about! We have a spare room too, so do come and stay if you're in the area.
When we don't have visitors, the spare room is where I write. It's an attic conversion looking out over the Goodwood estate and many miles of green fields. I have started on another book for Andersen Press - rattling along at a thousand words a day and enjoying it very much.
My previous book HACKING TIMBUKTU is to be published in the UK tomorrow. It's a treasure-hunt adventure – think King Solomon's Mines but with a good helping of parkour and computer wizardry. Andersen have sold US rights to a publishing house called Clarion. This is pleasing news since it will be the first of my books to travel across the pond. For a synopsis and some early reviews, see http://www.voiceinthedesert.org.uk/teen_fiction/hacking_timbuktu/
As of today, I take on my Horizons Sahel leadership responsabilities. First thing on the agenda is to write funding applications for the building of six new classrooms at the Horizons primary school in Niamey. It's a great little school and I'm hoping that some of these applications will be successful.
Meanwhile, Charlie is almost seven months pregnant. Her due date is 8 November. She is currently doing the fashion pages for a Christian girls' magazine here in the UK. It's called Caris Magazine: http://www.carismag.co.uk/
That's all for now. Love as always to you and your families. Alla beydu jam.
Steve