Heavy floods in Benin put food supplies in jeopardy

Children and their families wade through a flooded road

17 September 2007: Plan is providing emergency food and medical supplies to communities hit by devastating floods in southern Benin.

Hundreds of homes, crops, granaries, livestock and poultry have been destroyed by flooding - jeopardising food supply and increasing the risk of malaria and disease from contaminated water.

Around 50 villages in the Plan-supported Couffo area, with an estimated 43,000 inhabitants, have been affected.

Plan staff have visited a number of villages in Lalo, Klouekanme and Toviklin communes, but access is difficult. Many villages are completely cut off as roads have flooded and telephone lines have been damaged.

Houses destroyed

In Hangbannou in Lalo commune, 200 houses have been destroyed while the remaining homes have been seriously damaged. With no alternative shelter available, villagers are having to inhabit partially-collapsed houses.

Two children, aged 8 and 9, have drowned in rising waters in Sebiohoue village. In Adoukandji village the father of a Plan-sponsored child drowned on his way back home from the fields.

More than 90% of houses have been destroyed in Tchankoué village in the Toviklin commune. Most people have left to seek shelter in neighbouring villages.

Plan action

Plan is supporting children and their families affected by the floods by:

• helping people to leave homes that are in danger of total collapse
• raising awareness of the risk of using water from contaminated sources
• encouraging people to use treated bed nets
• supplying local health centres with essential drugs and treated bed nets
• providing food
• repairing schools so children can return to school.

The government has offered food, drugs and shelter. Plan is working with the local authorities to assess and meet immediate needs.

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