As part of its collaboration with the Joint Initiative (Coordination of Assessments for Environment in Humanitarian Action) project, the UN Environment/OCHA Joint Unit activated its pilot Working Group on Remote Environmental Analysis for Humanitarian Action in Somalia, where severe flooding has impacted the country and the neighbouring regions.

As of May 8th, nearly 718,000 people have been affected by flash or river flooding, among which over 219,000 have been displaced, according to OCHA’s latest Humanitarian Dashboard. Due to increased rainfall in the Juba and Shabelle basins in Somalia and neighbouring Ethiopia, river water levels, which were extremely low between January and February 2018, have been steadily increasing since March, and have now reached high flood risk/full bank levels and overflowing. The Juba and Shabelle basins in Somalia and in the Ethiopian highlands continued to receive moderate to heavy rains during the first week of May, leading to more flooding. OCHA is providing remote support in gathering data on affected areas. In this context, the Joint Initiative’s Working Group on Remote Environmental Analysis for Humanitarian Action was also activated for the first time. The group aims to facilitate environmental data collection and analysis and to strengthen the involvement of environmental actors in remote analysis. All group members to date have been called for participation but the initiative still welcomes new members.

If you are familiar with the two river basins of Juba and Shabelle or have access to relevant data, the Working Group on Remote Environmental Analysis still welcomes contributions that can feed into the wider humanitarian analysis. Contact: Margherita Fanchiotti, UN Environment/OCHA Joint Unit (fanchiotti@un.org)

Consult the Terms of Reference for the Working Group here.