LONDON (AlertNet) - Congolese resilience, swift action by humanitarian agencies and a prompt response by donors have helped residents of Goma achieve some semblance of normality just three months after a third of their town was engulfed by volcanic lava and ash.

"The resilience of the Congolese has been amazing," said Michelle Brown project coordinator in Goma for British-based AlertNet member Merlin. "After just a month a few traders had opened their kiosks but now they're all back open and so are the roads and schools -- you can definitely say that Goma is heading back to normal."

Aid agency staff even report that there are traffic jams at the extremes of the working day as cars negotiate the town’s roads, some of which have been compacted to allow four-wheel-drive vehicles to tackle the rough surface created by the lava deposited by Mount Nyiragongo on January 16.

In late March, the last of the local schools, temporary quarters for some of the homeless, reopened for classes. At the same time, a replacement Internet café started up -- news reports of the Congolese peace talks in the South African resort of Sun City were said to be a prime attraction.

While the knock-on effects of Rwandan genocide in the mid-1990s continued to cause chaos in much of the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) and fuelled a seemingly intractable civil war, they created a pool of humanitarian staff, international and local, able to deal quickly with yet another Congolese disaster.

"If there's a lesson from Goma it's that the response is much better -- better coordinated, speedier and more appropriate -- when you already have a presence on the ground," said Merlin's Brown.

"Agencies were here, they knew the systems, they had the contacts and it was easy to involve the community."

HEALTH A BIG SUCCESS

Humanitarian professionals were most proud of their performance on health. Despite concern that cholera would spread quickly in the wake of the devastation, the reverse was true. There were no reports of cholera and incidences of typhoid were actually down on previous years.

"No one wanted to make the same mistakes as in 1994," said Paul Sitnam, programme officer with World Vision’s African relief programme, who has been working in Congo for much of the past 15 years. "Then two thousand were lost to cholera after 800,000 people fled from Rwanda, this time health has been the big success story."

A major programme involving the U.N. Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs, the World Health Organisation and local and international NGOs explained the success on health. CARE International estimated that free check-ups had prompted a seven-fold rise in consultations.

"Agencies were here, they knew the systems, they had the contacts and it was easy to involve the community."

Despite these successes, agencies recognised that there was an enormous amount left to do to wind the clock back to before the January eruption temporarily uprooted 350,000 people, wiped out seven of Goma's 22 hospitals and flattened its business district.

While much of the infrastructure needed to be rebuilt, concern was growing over just how this would be financed now that the attention of the media and donors had shifted to other trouble spots.

Current projects would entail the rebuilding of just a third of the 15,000 homes destroyed and none of the hospitals, according to CARE International.

However, it saw rebuilding the economy as an even greater challenge.

'LOSS OF LIVELIHOOD BIGGEST PROBLEM'

"The destruction of the main street took with it much of the civil infrastructure including the banks and the petrol stations," said CARE’s Anne Morris. "The biggest problem now is the loss of livelihood and income," agreed Merlin’s Brown.

"The price of goods has actually fallen because people’s ability to earn has been affected," she added, citing a Save the Children study.

Food prices, helped by a three-month food distribution programme by the World Food Programme (WFP), held steady, despite the loss of some agricultural land. However, WFP food distribution was coming to an end and there was concern that prices would rise.

The economic damage caused by Nyiragongo was the biggest challenge, aid workers said. The lava had not only buried the commercial district but also thousands of jobs with it, creating a new level of poverty for many in Goma.

Underlining the lack of buying power, Merlin suspended plans to end free health checks in mid-April saying people simply would not be able to afford them.

World Vision’s Sitnam said he feared things could worsen in May when thousands of workers, many of them artisans unemployable after the loss of their tools under the lava, would lose access to WFP food distributiions.

"This could cause real problems – it may force them to find work or it could mean that they are forced to find other ways of making money – theft and prostitution," he said.

With Goma low on the Kinshasa government’s priority list and international attention now focused elsewhere, a fatalistic populace was steeling itself for the long journey back to recovery mindful that Nyiragongo could erupt again, burying its efforts at a moment’s notice.