 |
Liberian IDPs face deplorable living conditions |
Liberia , which is situated in W estern Africa , lying between Sierra Leone and Cote d'Ivoire , has been suffering since the 1990 civil war erupted in the country. This , together with the UN sanctions on the diamond trade and the high unemployment and poverty rate s , has left the country in a very poor state in both the environmental and in the humanitarian sectors.
The recent heavy fighting between the government and the rebel group , ‘Liberians United for Reconciliation and Democracy' (LURD), which moved into some parts of the capital, Monrovia , and has lead to the death of over one hundred people, mostly innocent civilians, has put the country in a position of potential humanitarian disaster, as one World Health Organization (WHO) official put it.
Each new attack increases the misery of the thousands of internally displaced Liberians who had previously fled the war to the capital, and had been taking shelter in its camps. The living conditions are now deplorable for these displaced people who have been forced to escape yet again to other collective shelters and public buildings, as well as a stadium, in and around Monrovia , all of which suffer from the lack of safe drinking water, as well as basic health care services.
The Plight of Liberia's Internally Displaced Persons (IDPs)
The 1990 civil war left 150,000 people dead and half of the Liberian population displaced. It is estimated that the recent fighting has led to an additional displacement of 300,000 persons and to the separation of hundreds of families.
According to the WHO, approximately 58,000 IDPs are now taking shelter in the SKD stadium where there is a shortage of everything from food to blankets to soap. They are also lacking in water storage containers and have no cooking utensils with which to prepare food. The shortage of water has forced the people living in the stadium to use drainage water for domestic purposes.
Another school that is now sheltering over 1000 people has no bathrooms and has only one hand pump for its entire population. They have no health services and are lacking in everything. The situation is comparable in all other shelters.
The high cost of petroleum has made it particularly difficult for IDPs to move around the city since many of them simply cannot afford the cost of transportation.
Children , who together with women make up 80% of displaced persons in Liberia , are especially vulnerable as is always the case in armed conflicts and wars. Dr. Cyrille Niameogo, the head of the UN Children's Fund (UNICEF) in Liberia explains the plight of children in areas of armed conflict saying, "children have deliberately been targets of violence - leading to millions being killed, disabled, orphaned, sexually exploited and abused, abducted and recruited as soldiers, uprooted from their homes, separated from their families and exposed to the risk of disease and malnutrition "(Inter Press Service).
Deplorable Health Conditions
|
| IDPs queue for food in a school camp |
Liberia is now facing a humanitarian crisis and has been ranked 174 out of 175 countries by the UN World Human Development Index, which measures the health and living conditions of different countries.
Since the start of the civil war, hospitals and other health facilities in the country have suffered destruction or looting. The damage to health care centers has continued during the past 4 years of fighting. It is now estimated by the International Rescue Committee that 75% of the country does not have access to humanitarian aid (Relief web).
In Monrovia , only the JFK Hospital still functions. The high level of insecurity that the capital now faces , as well as the harassments faced by relief and health workers, has kept health workers away from work. This together with the heavy workload that the hospital staff faces each day has exacerbated the poor health situation in the capital. Many aid workers have been evacuated from the country for security reasons, which has delayed relief efforts.
Water and sanitation are among the greatest, most immediate problems in the country. There is an acute shortage of safe drinking water and many people are inevitability drawing water from stagnant swaps or drainage water. This puts them at a high risk of widespread water-borne diseases such as cholera, dysentery and infectious hepatitis. Children are at an increased risk of such diseases.
The recent fighting has also caused damage to the main pumping stations in the capital, which has been suffering even before the recent events from absent electricity, no running water or proper sewage disposal.
The shortage of food, water, sanitation and health care is hardest on the children, which are vulnerable to malnutrition and infectious diseases especially diarrhea. Immunization coverage, which was already lacking and only reached around 27 percent of children, is now even worse and several cases of measles are starting to be reported among the IDP population.
Environmental Issues
|
| Liberia’s rainforest could disappear in as little as 10 years |
|
Aside from the dire humanitarian situation the country now faces, there are several environmental issues that the country faces that could in the long term have a devastating impact if not immediately addressed.
The dumping of iron ore tailings, oil residue and raw sewage has caused the pollution and contamination of the coastal waters and rivers of Liberia . Massive logging of the country's once vast tropical rainforest, which is the last large remaining mass of forest in West African, is taking place and could lead to its disappearance in as little as 10 years at the current rate of deforestation. This would be a great loss of biodiversity.
The rainforest , which covered 43 percent of the country just a decade ago, is the habitat of several rare species of animals such as the pygmy hippopotamus, a smaller sized hippo than the one we all know. I t is also the habitat of rare forest elephants, the chimpanzee ‘Pan troglodytes veru', and four kinds of antelope : the royal antelope, Jentink's duiker, Ogilby's duiker and the zebra duiker. Other unique species that are found in the Liberian rainforest are the Diana, lesser spot-nosed and the olive colobus monkeys. The rainforest has not even been fully studied to identify all the plant and animal species to which it is home to.
Soil erosion is another huge problem that could lead to the country being totally submerged into the Atlantic Ocean if something is not done soon.
The situation in Liberia , both the immediate and the anticipated long term problems, will require the involvement of the international community to bring both peace and stability to the country so it can finally begin its reconstruction process and begin to correct its impending environmental catastrophe.
Sources:
|
