$60M released for El Nino relief
THE Government has released $60M for the national El Nino emergency relief programme, Major Ivan Alert of the Civil Defence Commission (CDC) yesterday announced. Part of the funding provided through the Finance Ministry will be used to procure food items for Region Eight (Potaro/Siparuni) residents, where some villagers "are now eating yams alone...that's all they have", Alert said at a press conference. "The Commission views very seriously the circumstances now prevailing in Region Eight and will this week move rapidly to implement a region-wide operation to stabilise and protect communities...from the adverse impacts" of the weather anomaly, Alert stated. The Region Eight terrain is difficult to traverse and many villages can only be reached by air, but the CDC response to the crisis there has been planned and will be executed this week, he assured. He said water and water storage containers will be taken to the region. When the CDC secretariat meets tomorrow, members of the body are expected to make allocations for the affected areas. CDC head, Colonel Harry Hinds, also attended yesterday's press briefing. President Janet Jagan and other government officials have visited other affected areas in Regions Two (Pomeroon/Supenaan) and Three (Essequibo Islands/West Demerara) over the last two weeks. Major relief efforts have targeted Region Nine (Upper Takutu/Upper Essequibo), the foremost affected area. At the CDC's first press briefing since it started coordinating the national programme influenced by the El Nino weather conditions, the CDC official said the money made available by the Finance Ministry will be used to "revitalise and sustain" agricultural activities and provide relief supplies for affected regions. The collective national effort to the problems thrown up by El Nino has averted a worsening of the crisis in "our most critical region, that is Region Nine", Alert told reporters. He said stability has been achieved there. "Our combined efforts must now be to maintain that stability and implement a system within each region that can adequately deal with the impact of the El Nino phenomenon", Alert advised. He indicated that the distribution of food items and water inputs will be maintained and challenged health sector officials to be "proactive, especially in primary health care" and touch all communities to sensitise residents. Agriculture specialists were also advised to share their expertise with farmers and regional authorities to ensure appropriate farming information is given. "They (the agriculture specialists nationally) must exercise responsibility over the reintroduction of subsistence economies in the...communities", Alert said. Berbice farmers can restart planting their crops because "some measure of consistency" of rainfall is expected now, the Hydrometeorological department told CDC officials recently. The continuous showers have doused brush fires in several regions, but the CDC secretariat will continue to keep an eye on the sector. Monitoring of forest fires by the CDC is boosted by support from the U.S.-based National Oceanographic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) which has started providing satellite images of `hot spots' in Guyana. (TERRENCE ESSEBOOM)
More help for El Nino relief scheme
INTERNATIONAL agencies and local private enterprises yesterday again came forward with financial and material help for the ongoing emergency relief programme sparked by the El Nino weather phenomenon. The World Food Programme (WFP), an agency of the United Nations (UN), and two private business firms handed over water tanks, hand pumps, pharmaceuticals and a $50,000 cheque to the Civil Defence Commission (CDC) to support the national initiative. The WFP, operating out of the Social Impact Amelioration Programme (SIMAP), donated a dozen 400-gallon water storage tanks and two hand pumps for the scheme. WFP Project Analyst, Mr Mike James told reporters an additional 38 water tanks will be handed over later this month and 10 more hand pumps "later this week" to continue the assistance scheme to affected communities. The two private sector enterprises, the Medicare Pharmacy, of Hinck Street, Georgetown and Titan Foods Incorporated, a Miami-based rice-exporting firm, also provided financial and material help for the efforts. Mr Sadit Narine, Manager of Medicare, presented $50,000 worth of pharmaceuticals to Major Ivan Alert, currently executing the functions of the Commissioner of the Civil Defence Commission (CDC). Narine told the Chronicle the company also pledged cash donations for the CDC's telethon venture. Titan Foods Incorporated also handed over a $50,000 cheque to the CDC official. Managing Director of Titan, Mr Rocky Mohammed and his Office Manager, Ms Ann Mendonca were on hand for the simple ceremony. Mendonca said "further donations" from the firm can be expected. Mohamed told the Chronicle that most of his staff are Guyanese and his firm is therefore "happy" to support the venture here. "Once there is a need...we will support", he assured. So far, a number of international donor countries and agencies, Caribbean groups and local enterprises have been standing firmly behind Guyana's efforts to help residents whose livelihood has been threatened by the weather anomaly. Locally, the charitable organisation Food for the Poor, the Guyana Red Cross, the Guyana Relief Council, Beacon Foundation, the consortium of business firms called `Fast Response' and the CDC have been contributing to the emergency relief programme. Canada, Norway, the Geneva office of the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP), the WFP, the United Nations Children's Fund (UNICEF), Japan and Germany have already committed themselves to back the undertaking. Canada has made concrete pledges to provide mobile and submersible pumps to boost the water sector in Georgetown and the interior communities. Norway has promised US$20,000, the UN Office of Humanitarian Assistance US$20,000, and the Geneva office of the UNDP US$65,000 to support the CDC. Germany has pledged some G$2M for "food baskets" for affected communities. UNDP Resident Representative, Mr Carlos Felipe Martinez, last week said the local offices of the European Union (EU) and the British High Commission are also likely to brace the crisis initiative here. Martinez said help from the Pan-American Health Organisation (PAHO) will also continue. Late last month, the UNDP dispatched a situation report to Geneva requesting urgent assistance for the El Nino fight. The document appealed for relief food relief packages, agricultural inputs for "sustained economic activity", portable water pumps, inflatable water bladders, water purification means and transport to deliver relief packages for some 37,000 affected Guyanese. Martinez said the UNDP will continue to liaise with donor countries and agencies in Guyana and abroad for continued emergency support for the relief venture. So far, support from non-governmental organisations has been "remarkable", Alert said yesterday.
They survived El Nino
By Linda Rutherford
THE vegetation was lush and verdant; the babies, with few exceptions, cherubic and contented. Older faces had an eager, almost expectant look about them; even the proliferation of an indeterminate breed of dogs condescended to be even tempered. It was the opposite of what was expected - the El Nino drought crisis seemed but a figment of the imagination. It was the exact same way Surama resident, Mr Sydney Allicock projected that the media, having arrived when the crisis had passed the worst, might interpret the situation. This was the way things looked when the Guyana Relief Council (GRC) convoy arrived on its humanitarian mission in the North Rupununi, shortly after noon Thursday. From Fairview, at the edge of the Kurupukari River, to the Aranaputa Valley, the story was the same - they had all felt the wrath of El Nino, but were none the worse for wear. Somehow, they had managed to survive. Reliving some of his village's experiences for the Chronicle, Headmaster of the Surama All-Age School, Mr Comacho Scipio, said for a while it had been touch and go, particularly with the forest fires just a stone's throw from the community, half way across the Surama mountains, to which the fires had spread all the way from Annai. For nearly a month, he said, they had had a tough time breathing, so thick was the smoke billowing down upon the village from the fires. Had it not been for the rains, he said, only God alone knew what might have happened. As for food, he said, even the cassava which had shown some measure of standing up to the weather, above all the other crops, were beginning to succumb, going all corky in the centre and being of almost no use. With the wind-driven communal well out of commission due to the weather, access to potable water had reached such near crisis proportions, that many had to resort to old water holes, extending these down by as much as 10 feet or more to reach the water table. At the relatively new village of Fairwiew, Touchau (leader), Mr Roy Marslowe complained of losing all their crops to El Nino. These comprised cassava, yams, eddoes, dasheen, pigeon peas, ochroes, water melon, pumpkin and squash, among other staples. The situation, he said, had become more acute in the last three months. However, fish was still plentiful in supply, especially upriver on the Kurupukari, in such varieties as the notorious pakoo, lukanani, sweet-water basha and carto back. While they eat what they can, a good portion is sold to purchase such basics as sugar and rice, prices of which fluctuate between $60-$70 per pound. Fairview villager, Mr Clinton Jeffry, 54, feels they are still lucky to have so much at their disposal, unlike back in 1935 when there was a similar occurence and all they all had to survive on was cocorites. Quatamang village councillor, Mr Howel Haynes, 29, said the village had not suffered any real serious setbacks in spite of farmers losing their entire cassava crop. Optimistic about their replacement, he said their main concern now was completing their school house which is annexed to that of Annai. At Aranaputa Valley, the daily diet for the longest while had been wild yams found at the foot of the hills, but now that the rains seem to have come, the biggest distress is that they will grow so out of proportion they will no longer be edible. At Annai, it was business as usual on Saturday, despite the late start, with the annual rodeo, with sides of beef going for as little as $100 per pound. The GRC team, headed by Chairman Mrs Yvonne Hinds, distributed four truckloads of foodstuff, valued at more than $3M, to about 500 households in the north Rupununi during the trip. The convoy worked its way south from Fairview to the extreme north, taking in such communities as Surama, Wowetta, Kwatamang, Rupertee, Annai and Aranaputa Valley. The exercise which began shortly after lunch on Thursday, concluded mid-Saturday morning. 
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