Earthquake in El Salvador
Situation Report on Shelters
17 January 2001
General Situation Report
PAHO/WHO has appointed a special emergency Health and Environment Team. On 17 January, with the assistance of Ministry of Health staff, the Team visited the largest refugee shelter in the country, El Cafetalón, and another shelter in the Las Colinas neighborhood, the site of a landslide that has produced the largest number of victims.
The following are the Team's conclusions.
El Cafetalón
- In spite of the outstanding efforts being made, the main problem that affects the shelter is the chaos that prevails, beginning with the distribution of the refugees and their provisional tents. A great many individuals and organizations are working there, apparently without any coordination.
- The number of refugees is uncertain, and each organization manages a different figure-perhaps for political reasons. El Cafetalón may shelter some 5,000 people, although we were told that the population is variable depending on the supply of food, clothes, and services. We could not consult a single reliable census or record of the refugees and their families.
- The food and water supply seems to be functioning well at present. There is enough food, and water, which is also sufficiently abundant, is being disinfected under the supervision of the Ministry of Health. It is even possible that the supply of water will increase if a hydrant nearby can be tapped to feed the shelter distribution network.
- There is a lack of adequate latrines and showers. We recommend the building of a "latrine camp", as is customarily done when large crowds need to be temporarily resettled. When the site is reorganized, the distribution of the latrines and showers should also be reconsidered.
- There are no facilities for the final disposal of gray water.
- No adequate facilities exist for the safe storage of food. The waste management problem is also severe, since there is no established, safe procedure for waste handling and disposal.
- The site is very dusty, which adds another inconvenience or even hazard to the refugees, particularly children. This could be easily resolved by watering the grounds once or twice a day.
Las Colinas and Pinares de Suiza Shelter
- The site appears to be better organized than El Cafetalón. Living conditions are much better, and the number of refugees is considerably smaller.
- The landslide at Las Colinas was astonishing. It is transparently clear that this property development was carried out in complete disregard of the existing hazards, given the angle of the slope, the level of deforestation and the type of soil of the Bálsamo Mountain Range on which the houses were built. On the day of our visit, the search for buried victims and the clearing of the mud and debris continued: 10 more bodies were recovered. The situation is reminiscent of the Casitas Volcano mudslide in Nicaragua, although the causes and magnitude were different.