Heavy rainfall over parts of Timor-Leste in the last three days causing severe floods, leaving at least eleven dead, according to initial reports. The capital city of Dili has been most severely impacted. Inhabitants left their homes due to the high levels of water in different parts of the city, many parts of it are under water.
Reports from Civil Protection indicate that the water in some places reached two meters, with houses on the banks of the Comoro stream being swept away. Major damage to private houses, commercial establishments, roads and other infrastructure has been reported.
Several essential infrastructures in the fight against COVID-19 have also been affected, including the National Laboratory on the grounds of the Hospital Nacional Guido Valadares and the Autonomous Service for Medicines and Health Equipment (SAMES), the Timorese central pharmacy. Timor-Leste is due to receive its first COVAX vaccines tomorrow, but the medical supplies depot where they were to be sto
Introduction
Timor-Leste acted rapidly on the coronavirus disease (COVID-19) pandemic with a two-pronged approach. First, it put in place a system of health controls to keep the disease at bay, and second, it made good use of the fiscal space provided by its sovereign petroleum fund to mitigate the socioeconomic impacts of the crisis. The government then took the opportunity to look beyond short-term emergency measures and charted out an ambitious economic recovery plan with the aim of carrying out in-depth, structural reforms.
Timor-Leste’s effective management of the crisis has paved the way to move forward to implement longer-term measures.