Namibia: Commission grants EUR 100,000 to victims of flooding in the Caprivi Strip region

Brussels, 7 July 2003

The European Commission has adopted a decision to provide humanitarian support to vulnerable populations affected by flooding in the Caprivi Strip region of North-eastern Namibia. €100,000 will be channelled by the European Commission's Humanitarian Aid Office (ECHO), which comes under the responsibility of Commissioner Poul Nielson, through the International Federation of the Red Cross. The overall goal of the relief operation to be funded under this decision is to alleviate the impact of flooding on the Caprivi Strip region, as a contribution to the Government of Namibia's own efforts. The situation in the flood-affected region is likely to remain critical for the next three months.

The decision is intended to respond to needs identified during a recent assessment mission led by the Namibian Government. It will support humanitarian interventions providing essential medicines, water/sanitation and emergency relief items to 12,000 people in 20 villages affected by flooding in the Caprivi Strip, near Namibia's borders with Angola, Botswana and Zambia.

On 12 May 2003, floods caused by the Zambezi River bursting its banks, submerged twenty villages in the Kabbe constituency of the Caprivi region of Namibia, some 1,400 km north-east of Windhoek. The region is prone to disasters, notably floods and drought. Flood waters from the Zambezi and Kwando rivers have formed the Caprivi floodplains, which consist of a network of channels, oxbow lakes and large areas of surrounding grassland. Flooding normally only occurs after good rainfall in the catchment areas of Zambia and Angola. As the soils in the floodplain are relatively fertile, many people live and grow crops there. Caprivi is, furthermore, one of the less-developed regions of the country, with high poverty rates and the highest HIV/AIDS prevalence (43%) in the country. The communities in the affected areas are semi-nomadic, their livelihoods depending on cattle herding and fishing. The villages in Kabbe constituency have thus far adapted to the annual floods, but the water levels this year overwhelmed the inhabitants.