(Antananarivo) Relief services reached almost all the areas affected by the cyclone on Thursday Batsirai in Madagascar, fatal to 94 people according to a latest report from the authorities who are still looking for the missing and are worried about access to drinking water.
Posted yesterday at 4:23 p.m.
“A lot of effort has been made to effectively reach all the areas affected by the cyclone. It is now a question of ensuring the presence of emergency relief to help the population in distress,” Faly Aritiana Fabien, of the National Office for Risk and Disaster Management (BNGRC), told AFP. “At this time we are at 94 dead”, against 92 on Wednesday, he continued.
The tropical cyclone made landfall on Saturday with wind gusts of up to 165 km / h on the east coast of the large island in the Indian Ocean, hit a few weeks earlier by the tropical storm Anna which killed 55 people. Batsirai left Madagascar on Monday.
In the coastal town of Mananjary, epicenter of the cyclone, residents have started clearing roads littered with debris and tree branches. A few leaning buildings, pushed by the wind, remained upright as if by a miracle. Most of the houses were blown up.
The cyclone then entered a hundred kilometers inland, in the agricultural hills. In Ifanadiana, Henriette, 66, lives from growing rice, pineapple and cassava. Her stone house was “already a bit fragile,” she says.
“I had decided that I would not sleep here and that I would stay with my sister. But I didn’t have time to take my things or any furniture,” says this Madagascan. The cyclone left only a section of wall and a pile of rubble.
According to UNICEF on the spot, 62,000 people have been left homeless, 112,000 people in total have been affected, half of whom are children.
“The results should remain in this order of magnitude”, the few areas still inaccessible being sparsely inhabited, according to Jean Benoit Manhes, deputy representative of the NGO in Madagascar.
One of the main concerns of humanitarian organizations is access to drinking water. “Children are particularly susceptible to diseases linked to the consumption of polluted water causing acute diarrheal diseases and a risk of resurgence of malaria”, warned Mr. Manhes, recalling that 42% of Malagasy children suffer from chronic malnutrition.
“It’s a race against time. If we can reach all these populations within a week, we will avoid significant morbidity,” he said.