Emergency Response in the Wake of Peru’s Devastating Earthquake

Following the Peruvian government’s call for emergency assistance, Action Against Hunger-Spain is sending a team of three representatives—an emergency coordinator, a logistician, and a water and sanitation technician—to areas most affected by the August 15th earthquake. Their objective is to execute a rapid assessment of needs related to water and sanitation in the areas most affected by the 7.9 magnitude earthquake that shook the coast of Peru on Wednesday, causing at least 450 deaths.

The three principal areas addressed by the Action Against Hunger team will be the level of damage to water infrastructure, the basic sanitary conditions of people who have lost their homes, and the potential for an outbreak of diseases related to water. The purpose of the survey is to make certain that when an emergency intervention is launched, it will meet the population’s needs as effectively as possible.

Action Against Hunger has received funding from the Spanish Agency for International Cooperation and from the Emergency Fund for Social Work of the bank Caja Madrid for these initial stages of mobilization. In short order, the team will identify the type of intervention that is necessary to assure that our assistance meets the basic needs of the most vulnerable people.