The Nepal Red Cross Society activates its Simplified Early Action Protocol for Floods

In recent days, Nepal has been hit by the heaviest monsoon rains in two decades, which have caused major floods in many parts of the country. The Nepal Red Cross Society activated its Simplified Early Action Protocol (EAP) for Floods on 27 September 2024 and has now implemented a series of anticipatory actions in the Terai region to support people at risk from the floods. 

Activating the Simplified EAP released 28,736 Swiss francs (approx. 34,000 US dollars / 30,600 euros) from the Anticipatory Pillar of the Disaster Response Emergency Fund. The Nepal Red Cross Society used these funds to conduct a series of actions, including: 

• construction and management of evacuation sites 
• testing and treatment of the water in the evacuation sites  
• distribution of waterproof bags for people to store their important documents 
• distribution of hygiene kits
• dissemination of early warning messages  
• dissemination of awareness messages on sexual and gender-based violence, and on child protection
• orientation of volunteers so that they can implement the actions effectively.

The Simplified EAP targets three river basins in Nepal, but the trigger thresholds were only reached in those for the Babai and West Rapti rivers; forecasts from Nepal’s Department of Hydrology and Meteorology indicated that the river levels were about to surpass the thresholds at the Chepang and Kusum stations, respectively. The anticipatory actions helped an estimated 5,400 people at risk to cope with the worst impacts of the floods.