Sudan dam disaster – 50,000 people effected by flood

Humanitarian partners and authorities are working on deploying more teams to assess the damage and address the urgent needs of an estimated 50,000 people affected by the catastrophic collapse of the Arbaat Dam, 38 kilometres northwest of Port Sudan, on Saturday. 30 fatalities have been confirmed by the local authorities thus far, however, the number of casualties could be much higher, with some figures suggesting 130.

In a ‘flash update’ situation report issued on Monday night, the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA), sats that the Sudanese authorities have deployed a team to conduct search and rescue. “A helicopter is urgently required to assist with aerial assessment as some areas are impassable by road due to flooding,” the OCHA report says. “The same helicopter will be used to boost search and rescue efforts as some residents are reportedly trapped in the mountains where they fled for safety, while others are still marooned by floodwater.”

OCHA says it is liaising with partners, including UNICEF and WASH Cluster and authorities to deploy teams to support assessments and coordinate response today.

As reported by Radio Dabanga yesterday, the Arbaat dam, which is a primary source of drinking water for Port Sudan, suffered heavy damage as a result of the unusually heavy rains. This cause the entire dam reservoir to empty, causing a swath of death and destruction to at least 20 villages that washed away downstream. The dam’s failure is also expected to impact on the water supply of Port Sudan.

The OCHA reports highlights that damage to the telecommunications network has made it difficult to gather more accurate information on the situation. Representatives from the Red Sea state government, the Federal Ministry of Health (FMoH) Emergency Department, and the government’s Humanitarian Aid Commission (HAC) visited areas to the west of the dam yesterday, as areas to the east are inaccessible due to roads being cut off, OCHA says.

Rescue teams on the ground are attempting to open these roads, according to authorities. The government delegation reported that about 70 villages around the dam have reportedly been affected by the flash flooding of which 20 villages have been destroyed. Of the 13,000 families (65,000 people) living to the west of the dam, the homes of about 10,000 families (50,000 people) have either been destroyed or damaged. The affected people are in urgent need of water, food, and shelter assistance. The delegation also reported that 30 people were killed by the floods, but actual numbers are likely much higher; 84 boreholes have collapsed; 10,000 heads of livestock/animals are missing; and 70 schools have been either damaged or destroyed, OCHA says.

Additionally, reports indicate that scores of people are reportedly missing or displaced. The floodwaters, carrying significant amounts of silt, have led to the destruction of large areas of agricultural land and substantial damage to civilian infrastructure across the affected areas. Some residents of the villages downstream of the dam were reportedly forced to flee to the mountains for safety, while others were evacuated after floodwaters destroyed their homes and inundated the affected areas.