New funding from the United States Agency for International
Development (USAID) has allowed IOM to deliver industrial ovens,
kitchen equipment, mattresses and water storage tanks to vulnerable
flood-affected Afro-Colombian communities living in the
southwestern department of Nariño.

The six tonnes of emergency assistance were delivered by road to
the Local Disaster Management and Prevention Team (CLOPAD, by its
Spanish acronym), in the municipality of Tumaco, whose residents
have been severely affected by the overflow of the Mira River due
to incessant heavy rains.

The floods have swept away houses, crops and livestock. 
According to CLOPAD, some 32,000 persons have been affected with 22
people still reported missing.  More than 1,100 houses have
been destroyed, a further 1,400 were damaged and some 20,000
hectares of crops have been washed away.

IOM and its partners are carrying out an assessment of the
impact of the floods on schools in Nariño in order to
rebuild or repair damaged infrastructures, with funding from the
Colombian Ministry of Education.

The heavy rains and floods have also affected the Department of
Chocó, located in Colombia's Pacific coastal region. 
IOM is building shelters for more than 1,100 families left homeless
with USD 460,000 from the UN's Central Emergency Response Fund
(CERF) and distributed non-food items, including kitchen sets,
stoves, hammocks, mattresses, and blankets to 5,500 persons in that
department.

For more information, please contact:

Juliana Quintero

IOM Bogota

Tel. + 5715946410 Ext. 142

E-mail: "mailto:juquintero@iom.int">juquintero@iom.int