New coordinator heads up relief efforts
This morning cameraman Chris Mangar and I travelled to areas devastated by Hurricane Dean and found that relief is beginning to take root.
Jacqueline Godwin, Reporting
Recovery efforts are well underway in the Corozal and Orange Walk Districts as those people most affected by hurricane Dean continue to receive assistance from the National Emergency Management Organization and other concerned groups.
Official assessments are still being carried out to determined exactly how many homes need to be replaced or repair. Today we witnessed soldiers from the Belize Defence Force rebuild roofs destroyed during the storm. Similar work is also being carried out by the police and the British Army Training Support Unit.
Jim Janmohamed, NEMO Coordinator, CZL/OW
“It’s not as bad as Iris or Keith, even though it was a really powerful hurricane. And it hit Mexico, but because of it’s power, northern Belize was affected quite dramatically.”
Jim Janmohamed, the coordinator for the District Emergency Management Committee for San Pedro and Caye Caulker, has been given the responsibility to head the recovery effort in the northern district. According to Janmohamed substantial efforts to return things to normalcy are underway, especially where the essential services are concerned.
Jim Janmohamed
“We will start off with water. In Orange Walk District, we have twenty-four villages, nineteen of which are on rudimentary water systems and three are on B.W.S. cell water system, of which the three are on B.W.S. cell and the two we have no systems whatsoever. However, the nineteen rudimentary water systems are performing, they are working and they are supplying water; so are the three B.W.S. cell. The two areas where we do not have any, we use to have hand pumps to bring up water from wells. Those are Fireburn and San Roman. We are supplying water to Fireburn to alleviate this problem until they can chlorinate their wells and get them sorted. It will take a while after a disaster of this nature.”
“In Corozal, we have twenty-nine villages of which fourteen are on the rudimentary water systems and ten on B.W.S. cell, three with no systems. Those three are Chan Chen, Pachakan and Cocobank. Again, we installed ten generators, nine by NEMO and one by Santa Clara water board. Now in Chan Chen, Pachakan and Cocobank, we are still supplying water because those again, we well water systems and we are not able to utilize those at the moment. As we all know that Mexico got hit by this hurricane as well as we did, so the power from Mexico is not coming at times. So the hydro is generally providing major amount of power to the country. Primary supply, eighty percent is up and going, Secondary supply, sixty percent of which is going. Service lines, well, that’s the third phase of work. So they wanted to get primary and secondary going first and then work on the service lines to individual businesses.”
As of today, most businesses and emergency services like the banks, the hospital, the police have had their power restored. Ninety-five percent of Corozal Town now has electricity, including most of the twenty-nine surrounding villages.
Jim Janmohamed
“People might find that they don’t have electricity and there neighbour does, that situation there is that the supply line to their home is damaged and that is the third phase for B.E.L. to come in and work on. So, you just have to be patient and it will be sorted. One of the things also is that when you’ve got electricity, they might find that the power goes out again because B.E.L. has to come into their area to fix the transformer or something. Then of course it will be sorted, noh.”
As our news team travelled throughout Corozal Town we also came across this long line of residents getting assistance like food parcels from the Belize Red Cross. The society has been receiving donations, such as ten thousand dollars from the Anglican Diocese, to help in the effort. NEMO as well has also been distributing food to those families in need.
Jim Janmohamed
“You know they have no jobs because the farms are devastated. The papaya workers will not have a job for nine months almost, because it takes papaya nine months to get back online. And in some cases where they have a cash crop, it takes three months cycles to get those up, so everything is destroyed. So we’ll have to do a long term situation here. And of course, the government is now looking at external help from World Food and Red Cross, to assist us in this cause it’s gonna be a long term feeding programme. But continuously, right now, we are feeding everybody. And we have programme dates when we have to go, we go there and feed them for so many days and go back.”
Families have been receiving supplies of rice, beans, powdered milk, sugar and flour and canned foods. To date over eight thousand people have been fed. A medical team has also been conducting clinics in the affected areas.
Jim Janmohamed
“The health people have been to sixteen villages already and they’ve got teams of ‘A’ doctors and certain nurses in all of these villages. And we’ve also had help from the Cubans with doctors. They’re a lot of people coming up on the air, getting very political and all this. My thing is that you’re either becoming a problem or you’re part of the solution, and I would like you to become part of the solution rather than the problem. It’s no point in you getting up there and accusing me of politics. I’m not interested in that, I do not take straight orders from any politicians to who to take my food to or water to. They have certainly not bothered me with it and they are not going to either. And I’m not going to listen to anybody else who tells me that my team is becoming political. My team consists of civil servants, B.D.F. and police, and coast guards; and none of them I know which political affiliations are with. And Corozal of course is so huge I don’t know who’s blue or who’s red anyways. So I don’t care, I’m going to feed the people that need feeding, and I’m gonna shelter the people that need sheltering. And we’re gonna get on with it.”
Today Janmohamed sent out an appeal to anyone who can assist in their efforts in donating certain supplies that have been limited.
Jim Janmohamed
“My needs are zinc, ridging, nails, tools, Pedialite and chlorine. Those are my immediate needs and if people want to donate this. Please, we will take this on because as we are getting the water going, we need more and more chlorination, and also the wells that are being used will need a lot of chlorine for those wells.”
If you can assist in the effort you can call telephone number 402 – 0288.
Part of the regional assistance the PM referred to in his statement arrived in Belize on Friday as the Cuban government has dispatched ten sanitary technicians to assist local officials. The sanitary brigade brought thirty portable foggers and chemicals in the form of insecticide and larvicide. Since Saturday the team has been working in the northern villages spraying houses to exterminate mosquitoes carrying dengue and malaria. According to Director of Health Services, Jorge Polanco, so far eight hundred houses have been sprayed. The Cuban technicians will be in the country for two weeks. The team will donate their equipment to the Ministry of Health before their departure.
As far as local assistance, today Scotia Bank announced that it will donate seventy-five thousand dollars towards rebuilding efforts. According to Country Manager Pat Andrews, the money will be handed over to NEMO to be used to help persons who lost their homes or suffered structural damage. In addition to the money, this weekend forty of the bank’s Belize City employees travelled north, where along with their co-workers in Corozal and Orange Walk, handed out food and clothing in affected villages. The Belize Hospital Auxiliary has also contributed money for hurricane relief as this morning, the organization handed over five thousand dollars to the Red Cross for food items.
