Several areas of southern and south eastern Asia continue to be severely impacted by torrential monsoon rains, particularly affecting rural communities and their livelihoods – often their livestock. After conducting Disaster Assessment Needs Analyses (DANAs) both in India’s Orissa state and in central Thailand, we are launching disaster response teams in both countries.
Our DANA in Orissa identified a need for both short-term emergency relief as well as longer-term risk reduction to prepare local communities for similar disasters in the future. A team from our local partner PFA Bhubaneswar is already on the ground and will deliver fodder provided by WSPA to 3,000 livestock in the six most affected villages in the coming days. The NGO has also already provided care to 399 animals through its emergency mobile clinic.
Following the delivery of relief, from November, WSPA India will participate in risk reduction work with these communities over several months, together with PFA Bhubaneswar. This will consist of preparing a village Disaster Management plan, setting up a storage bank for feed and providing training to help our local partners build capacity in the affected communities.
WSPA was also quick to respond to the floods in Phichit Province, Thailand, by quickly sending out an assessment team to determine the impact on animals and put an emergency plan into action. The DANA identified an urgent need for emergency feed for livestock, which the local communities depend on for agricultural production. A team from WSPA Asia Pacific will be travelling to the affected area at the beginning of next week to deliver high-energy pineapple silage to more than 2,000 animals in need.
