FLOOD Emergency - Santa Fe, Argentina 

In light of the emergency that lived the province of Santa Fe, product of the floods presented in the months of April and May, generating missing of human lives, wounded, and large damages to the infrastructure of the region, a numerous mobilization of humanitarian supplies was produced from different points of the country. This flow of donations represents a set of various tasks within the logistical management addressed by the Red Cross Argentina who, by its basically humanitarian character, develops assistance operations in the region through its local offices throughout the country. 

The SUMA computer tool, developed by PAHO for emergencies/disasters in the Latin American countries, has great special features for its application in the current operations; it favors the institutional transparency in the management of the humanitarian assistance, a program easy to install and manage, and broad usefulness in the preparation of reports for its precision of information from the points of entry to the country, the storage in principal and secondary storerooms up to the points of distribution. The Argentinean Red Cross (ARC) has wanted to capitalize the capacities of SUMA and has initiated the implementation process of the software at the storage sites in order to strengthen its institutional capacity in this operation.

At the request of PAHO to the Ecuadorian Red Cross (ERC), the mobilization of an expert of the ERC to Buenos Aires and Santa Fe has been authorized to collaborate in SUMA activities. 

From Friday May 16, the Warehouse Module is been installed in the Argentinean Red Cross (Gymnastics club and Esgrima) Warehouse. The same day, the Red Cross Headquarters of Santa Fe installs SUMA CENTRAL and is proceeded with the consolidation of data of the institution. 

At a meeting of the crisis committee, headed by the Minister Carlos Carranza, it is stipulated that from Monday May 19 on SUMA (Warehouse modules) is utilized in the different collection centers of the Ministry of Health, Civil Defense, Community Promotion, etc. It is decided that SUMA Central Level is to be installed at the Civil Defense office. 

The data entry starts gradually in the storerooms, except for the Warehouse located in the GADA, which begins to operate on May 22, since some drawbacks were presented as a lack of light and a lack of administrative decision on how to handle the purchases and donations. To the different System operators logistical support materials and SUMA T-shirts were handed out. 

For the execution of these tasks the participation of the following people was assured: 

• Elvis Argüello, Consultant who initiates the SUMA Emergency operations

• Mario Sibila, Staff member of Civil Defense (Jujuy) SUMA team

• Dr. Luis Honorio, Technical Consultant PAHO who collaborates in SUMA activities

• Kernel Gavela, Technical Consultant permanent with SUMA activities

For more information: Ing. Rosario Castro, PAHO Argentina, rcastro@arg.ops-oms.org.

Pan American Health Organization (PAHO)

World Health Organization (WHO)

Organización Panamericana de la Salud (OPS)

Organización Mundial de la Salud (OMS)

Humanitarian Supply Management System

Sistema de Manejo Suministros Humanitarios