THE EUROPEAN COMMISSION,
Having regard to the Treaty on the Functioning of the European Union, Having regard to Council Regulation (EC) No.1257/96 of 20 June 1996 concerning humanitarian aid1, and in particular Article 2 (a) and Article 13 thereof;
(1) A flash flood struck the six north-eastern districts of Bangladesh (Haor area) in mid- April 2010, just a few weeks before the annual rice harvest. These communities subsist with only one rice crop per year. Some 200,000 hectares of standing rice crop, ground nut, sweet potato and summer vegetables were quickly submerged. Rice crop losses caused by the floods were initially estimated at some 1,500,000 metric tonnes.
A first assessment found that 300,000 farmers were directly affected in their basic subsistence. The European Commission adopted an emergency Decision of EUR 3,800,000 in support of the victims;
(2) In light of the evolving situation, four months after the disaster, the European Commission launched a re-assessment of the needs. The new assessment report reveals new emergency needs. According to latest figures on affected population communicated by Bangladeshi local authorities on 2 September 2010, the number of people directly affected by the disaster in need of emergency humanitarian aid has significantly increased and reaches now 1.7 million2. The majority (90%) of this population group did not receive any assistance directly after the disaster as their situation was not considered to be life threatening. In the meantime, as a result of insufficient coping capacities and no alternative subsistence means, their situation has worsened to the point of requiring life saving assistance. The newly identified caseload is facing an acute food security crisis which has serious detrimental impact on their nutritional3 status and requires life-saving assistance.
(3) Despite the scale of the disaster, which has now turned into a forgotten crisis, and its significant humanitarian impact, neither special government allocations, nor assistance from other donors than the European Union (EU) have been granted to date to this affected population. However, the EU assistance does not address the recently identified caseload whose state of emergency did not arise immediately but is the result of the build-up of cumulative stress linked to the deteriorating situation.
(4) The very limited coping capacities of the newly identified caseload will be further eroded by the incoming lean season, which in itself represents a critical period when alternative livelihood opportunities are reduced to a minimum. The lean season will deteriorate even further the already critical humanitarian situation of the affected population, exposing them to even greater immediate life-threat.
(5) Considering that only some months after the floods the existence of a much larger caseload of victims than initially identified has become apparent, taking into account that only 10% of them have been assisted so far, and given the urgency of the needs in a rapidly deteriorating situation, it is necessary to provide emergency humanitarian aid to the most vulnerable populations which have not received any assistance to date;
(6) To reach the populations in need, humanitarian aid should be channelled through nongovernmental Organisations (NGOs) and international organisations including United Nations (UN) agencies. Therefore the European Commission should implement the budget by direct centralised management or by joint management;
(7) Humanitarian aid actions financed by this Decision should be of a maximum duration of 6 months;
(8) It is estimated that an amount of EUR 7,000,000 from budget article 23 02 01 of the general budget of the European Union is necessary to provide humanitarian assistance to over 400,000 victims, taking into account the available budget, other donors' contributions and other factors. The activities covered by this Decision may be financed in full in accordance with Article 253 of the Implementing Rules of the Financial Regulation;
(9) The present Decision constitutes a financing Decision within the meaning of Article 75 of the Financial Regulation (EC, Euratom) No 1605/20024, Article 90 of the detailed rules for the implementation of the Financial Regulation determined by Regulation (EC, Euratom) No 2342/20025, and Article 15 of the internal rules on the implementation of the general budget of the European Union6;