KUALA LUMPUR: MERCY Malaysia will deploy its team to Sri Lanka tomorrow, following the devastating floods which have struck the South Asian nation in recent days.
The humanitarian relief organisation in a statement today also appealed for support for its Sri Lanka Flood Relief Fund to help further its aid to reach civilians affected by the floods.
Sri Lanka’s worst flooding in years has resulted a death toll of 169 people and 521,384 people affected in 15 different districts located mostly in the Southern and Western parts of the country. It also left almost 10 million displaced in 376 safe locations.
With the continual rainfall still occurring and some areas still inadmissible due to flooding, death tolls and the number of civilians affected is expected to rise, along with fear of more landslides occurring.
According to the Sri Lankan meteorological department, heavy monsoon rainfall is still expected over the next two days till the beginning of June, resulting severe water level rise and water contamination.
This in turn has caused water-borne diseases such as Dengue cases to spike up to 20,000- 30,000 cases in the last 6 months, with 200 deaths, as well as diarrhea among others, it said.
“With the increasing number of displaced people and lack of space in safe locations, temporary shelter and ensuring access to health services is needed.
“Disease surveillance and vector control is also a priority with the risk of communicable diseases.
“Over the past few months, health partners have recorded a significant increase in dengue cases (53,200 cases with over 125 deaths) compared to annual data from 2016.,” said MERCY Malaysia’s Director of Strategic Programme Development, Norazam Ab Samah.
MERCY Malaysia’s initial deployment to Sri Lanka this year will comprise of five medical volunteers and two MERCY Malaysia staff.
Norazam said they will initiate support services that allow our current health providers to manage their services effectively.
This includes providing mobile clinics that provide Primary Health Care (PHC) for victims affected by flood, he said.
He adds that apart from the PHC services, the deployment also aims to assess the needs on the ground and prepare for further Intervention according to our capacities and mandate for a week commencing on 2 June to 9 June 2017.
The team will engage with the Sri Lankan Disaster Management Ministry, UN agencies, INGOs and relevant government agencies.
MERCY Malaysia is also calling for the public to support its humanitarian efforts. This is by contributing to its Sri Lanka Flood Relief Fund via its website at www.mercy.org.my or to MERCY’s bank account at, CIMB: SRI LANKA FLOOD RELIEF FUND ACC NO: 8000-7929-08.