O 041042Z AUG 08
FM AMEMBASSY LOME
TO SECSTATE WASHDC IMMEDIATE 8693
INFO AMEMBASSY ACCRA 
AMEMBASSY COTONOU 
AMEMBASSY DAKAR 
AMEMBASSY PARIS 
HQ USAFRICOM STUTTGART GE

UNCLAS LOME 000399 
 
 
DEPT FOR AF 
AIR/W FOR OFDA 
DAKAR FOR OFDA 
ACCRA FOR USAID AND DATT 
 
E.O. 12958: N/A 
TAGS: EAID PREL SENV TO
SUBJECT: TOGO FLOODING: SITUATION IN THE SOUTH 
 
REF: LOME 397 
 
¶1. Summary.  During travels around the southernmost portion 
of Togo over the week-end, it was clear that water levels are 
declining (except as water rushes toward the mouth of the Zio 
River at the ocean).  The land is beginning to dry out, with 
deep mud the rule.  Rains in the south have become spottier 
or absent.  Agencies have been trying to assist those 
displaced by the flooding, bringing in food to people 
sheltering in schools and handing out supplies, though more 
of the latter are badly needed, particularly mosquito nets. 
End Summary. 
 
¶2. Almost all of the eastern side of the city of Lome has 
been affected by the flooding since it began July 30.  Even 
though the northeasternmost quarter, Kegue, is some 6-7 kms. 
from the Zio River, water levels remained too high to travel 
very far, and the same was true in other neighborhoods in 
this very flat area as one moved toward the Atlantic.  Close 
to the ocean along the edge of the suburbs and neighboring 
villages from Lome toward the Beninese border, water has 
invariably flooded those areas closest to the Zio. 
 
¶3. Many residents in the affected areas have moved into local 
schools, others staying with neighbors living on higher 
ground.  A consistent complaint has been the amount of theft 
occurring in unoccupied homes at night, even to the point 
where the metal roofing and window frames are being removed. 
We encountered one woman in the neighborhood of Adakpame who 
had just waded through the water to her home to discover that 
all her corn -- the staple food of southern Togo -- had been 
stolen, and she wailed as she held up her empty basin. 
 
¶4. The good news is that, at least in the greater Lome area, 
services are being provided to the internally displaced 
people (IDPs).  We generally found government health and 
social welfare personnel, as well as Togolese Red Cross 
representatives and police and/or gendarmes at IDP locations, 
though services were slower in getting organized as one moved 
away from Lome and closer to the Beninese border, a situation 
we were told would be remedied August 4.  Health cadres were 
concerned over the number of people turning up with malaria, 
diarrhea, and parasites, as well as the poor to no drinking 
water available and the poor to nonexistent latrines.  Social 
welfare cadre were trucking food in for people to eat and 
distributing a few very basic necessities.  The Red Cross was 
responsible for counting the IDPs and for assisting the most 
vulnerable.  Particularly impressive was a large IDP center 
of 2,500 people (and growing) from six villages east of Lome 
in Baguida, where services were humming, the gendarmes having 
brought in both a large tank of drinking water and a mobile 
dispensary in addition to the local health service 
facilities, and social welfare providing meals. 
 
¶5. With stagnant water lying around close to all the IDP 
centers, a common complaint was of the mosquito population 
and the need for mosquito nets.  More supplies of sleeping 
mats and other basics are needed urgently. 
 
¶6. We also traveled virtually across Togo from near the 
border with Benin westward through the medium-sized town of 
Tsevie, some 35 kms. north of Lome on the north-south highway 
and widely said in Lome to be completely cut off from the 
world, to the town of Keve close to Ghana.  This entailed 
crossing both the swollen rivers responsible for the 
flooding, the Haho on the eastern side and the Zio on the 
western.  Bridges over both were intact, and water was 
clearly going down on the rivers.  Roads, though badly 
rutted, were beginning to dry out, and traffic was moving on 
them. 
 
¶7. There has clearly been crop damage in the areas we 
visited, both around Lome and up country.  How much it will 
affect the food supply is uncertain, though prices have 
definitely been rising.  One group of farmers 20 kms. west of 
Tsevie whose farms are close to the Zio said their fields had 
been covered by water higher than a nearby tree in mid-week. 
As of August 2, they were still in a meter of water.  The 
farmers saw no hope for their crops of corn and manioc, 
though they thought they could replant corn during the small 
rains that should arrive in another 45 days or so.  We were 
sceptical of the claim of water having been so high until 
traveling past the Zio and seeing fields well up on high 
banks completely swept by the current and still standing in 
water. 
 
¶8. Comment.  Services to IDPs in the Lome area are being 
provided surprisingly well, and improving.  Many more basic 
supplies are needed, and the Embassy is submitting a disaster 
declaration (septel) to help pay for them.  Authorities are 
announcing that people in other, more remote areas farther 
inland are now also receiving attention.  Humanitarian needs 
appear to be receiving just priority as the GOT wrestles with 
the more difficult problem of how to replace or repair Togo's 
affected bridges. 
 
 
TWINING