WHO: Disease could double Asian Tsunamis Death Toll. by BBC News / AFP / The Australian.. 6:48am 29th Dec, 2004   December 29, 2004    Indonesia, Sri Lanka hardest hit by tsunamis. (AFP)    The confirmed death toll from the massive earthquake and tidal waves that devastated much of Asia's coastline passed 55,000 Tuesday, with officials warning the figure was likely to rise steeply.    In Indonesia, the Government's disaster relief centre said at least 27,174 were killed after the country took the full force of the huge earthquake and tidal waves that swallowed entire coastal villages. Indonesia's health ministry said at least 27,174 had been killed in the quake as the true scale of the catastrophe becomes clear.    In Sri Lanka more than 17,600 people, including at least 70 foreigners, were killed in Sunday's disaster.    More than 8,500 people were reported killed in India with many more victims expected, officials said. Among them were about 4,000 in the Andaman and Nicobar Islands, close to the epicentre of the quake, where thousands were missing after five villages were swept away, an official said.    More than 1,400 people were killed, among them more than 700 foreign tourists, in southern Thailand, officials said, putting the toll at 1,439.    In Malaysia 65 people, including many elderly and children, were killed, officials said, while at least 90 people were killed in Myanmar.    At least 52 people including two British holidaymakers were killed while another 68 were missing in the tourist paradise of Maldives, officials said. In Bangladesh a father and child were killed after a tourist boat capsized from large waves, local officials said. Fatalities also occurred on the east coast of Africa where 100 fishermen were declared dead in Somalia and 10 in Tanzania.    The US Geological Survey said the earthquake west of the Indonesian island of Sumatra measured 9.0 on the Richter scale -- making it the largest quake worldwide in four decades.    December 28, 2004 (BBC News)    The number of people dying from disease following the Indian Ocean tsunami could exceed those killed in the disaster itself, a health expert warns.    Dr David Nabarro of the World Health Organisation said it was vital to get relief supplies to stricken areas to prevent a health catastrophe.    "There is certainly a chance we could have as many dying from communicable diseases as from the tsunami," he said. Aid workers say providing clean water is their first priority. It is feared diseases like malaria, dengue fever and cholera could easily spread in unsanitary conditions.    In India, scores of camps have been set up in affected areas. The aid agency Unicef said some cases of disease had already emerged. "Getting clean water to people in the camps is critical at this point to head off the spread of disease," it said in a statement. "We are closely monitoring the hygiene conditions... Some diarrhoeal cases have already been reported, so providing oral rehydration solution is critical," it said.    Hospitals in the region are urging people to boil water before drinking it. But people are still using water from local wells, despite the contamination fears. "Nobody told us not to drink this water. Nobody has told us to boil the water," said Siddiqa, a mother of four, in the Nagapattinam region.    Municipal authorities across the stricken region have been burying dead bodies even before they have been identified, fearing they will spread disease.    In Indonesia, the BBC's Rachel Harvey says human remains are being piled up under plastic sheeting prior to mass burial. But Dr Alessandro Loretti of the World Health Organization said this could end up being a waste of resources, and that far greater priority should be given to the provision of clean water and the management of human waste. "It will be living people who pollute the water," he told the BBC.    He said the WHO was sending enough water purification supplies and drugs for tens of thousands of people in Indonesia, the Maldives and Sri Lanka. But he said even more urgent was the need to find out what was happening in parts of Indonesia and the Maldives yet to be reached.    Agencies say getting emergency supplies to the stricken areas in time to prevent disease will be very hard. "It is going to be a huge problem getting relief even out of the airport" in Aceh, Indonesia, said Michael Enquist, the head of the United Nations Organisation for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs. "There is no petrol, no food, no water and no vehicles available," he told the AFP news agency.    HOW YOU CAN HELP    Click below to visit the websites of agencies carrying out relief work .    Care International: http://www.careinternational.org    International Federation of the Red Cross: http://www.ifrc.org    Medecins Sans Frontieres: http://www.doctorswithoutborders.com    Oxfam: http://www.oxfam.org    Save The Children: http://www.savethechildren.org    Unicef: http://www.unicef.org    World Vision: http://www.wvi.org/wvi/home.htm    December 29, 2004    "Relief on the way", by Sian Powell, Aceh and Kimina Lyall, Phuket. (The Australian)    The biggest and most costly relief operation ever mounted was under way in seven countries along Asia's devastated shores yesterday as the full horror of Sunday's massive earthquake and tsunami became apparent. With more than 27,000 dead and tens of thousands missing, officials fear the toll could rise to more than 57,000.    Days after the disaster, emergency teams were met by horrific scenes of destruction. Bodies piled up by the hour from Sri Lanka to India, Indonesia to Thailand, while international aid agencies rushed food and clothing to hundreds of thousands left homeless.    As survivors were evacuated from stricken areas across Asia, horrific accounts of the carnage wrought by the tsunami emerged; babies torn from their parents' arms, children and the elderly hurled out to sea, entire villages swept away.    "This may be the worst natural disaster in recent history because it is affecting so many heavily populated coastal areas," chief UN relief co-ordinator Jan Egeland said.    Rotting corpses littered the streets in Indonesia's Aceh province close to the quake's epicentre, where officials predicted their country's toll could climb to 25,000 dead.    In Sri Lanka, officials revealed an estimated 1500 passengers perished when their train was hit by the tsunami. Relief workers called in heavy earthmoving equipment to dig mass graves beside the track.    In India, rescue workers pulled corpses from canals and waterlogged fields as the Government warned that the death toll of almost 9500 from a tsunami that lashed the country's south would certainly rise. The Indian death toll included about 3000 in the Andaman and Nicobar islands, where tens of thousands of people were still unaccounted for last night.    No word has been heard since Sunday from several other islands that were home to thousands, including Great Nicobar, closest to the quake epicentre off Indonesia's Sumatra island.    In Thailand, the focus of rescue operations shifted to the holiday playground of Khao Lak, 50km from Phuket, where about 800 bodies had been recovered, many from the ruins of the exclusive Sofitel resort, swept from its foundations by the tsunami. Utilities drove through the shattered town, several with up to 20 bodies stacked in the back. The UN rushed disaster teams to south and southeast Asia, saying hundreds of thousands of people in coastal areas were at risk, with livelihoods from fishing and farming wiped out and disease threatening to wreak more havoc.    Governments from France to Australia and Russia to the US pledged aid and assistance, dispatching aircraft, doctors and disaster relief specialists to the worst-hit areas..    Thousands of kilometres of coastline from Indonesia to Somalia were battered by deadly waves. Rows of bodies covered in plastic sheets, mats or blankets were laid out on the ground throughout the region.    "This was the worst day in our history," said Sri Lankan businessman YP Wickramsinghe as he picked through the rubble of his dive shop in the devastated southwestern town of Galle. "I wish I had died. There is no point in living."    The UN said the disaster was unique in encompassing such a large area and so many countries. "The cost of the devastation will be in the billions of dollars," said Mr Egeland. "However, we cannot fathom the cost of these poor societies and the nameless fishermen and fishing villages ... that have just been wiped out. "Hundreds of thousands of livelihoods have gone."    Indonesian vice-president Jusuf Kalla said the toll there could reach 25,000. Sri Lankan officials said 20,000 people might be dead, and Thai officials expected their death toll to go to 2000.    In Sri Lanka, about 1.5 million people -- 7.5 per cent of the population -- are homeless, many sheltering in Buddhist temples and schools.    Weather officials in India warned of more high waves over the next day or two and urged people to stay away from the shore. Those not searching for survivors hastened to bury the dead, often in mass graves.    Survivors face their greatest danger in coming days. "The biggest threat ... is from the spread of infection through contamination of drinking water and putrefying bodies left by receding waters," Jamie McGoldrick of the OCHA said in Geneva.    December 29, 2004    "Rich countries poor at lending a hand", by Liz Minchin and Misha Schubert. (The Age)    Rich nations have been tight-fisted and too slow in offering help to devastated communities in southern Asia, Australian aid agencies said yesterday.    The United Nations says it will take "many billions of dollars" and many years for countries to recover from Sunday's earthquake and tsunamis. Australia has already donated $10 million to the relief effort, with more help to come.    But many of the world's wealthiest countries have pledged less than $40 million between them so far. Britain has chipped in only $A1.7 million, barely topping the $1.5 million that Victoria pledged yesterday. Canada has promised $A2.5 million, Germany and Spain $A1.77 million each and France $A177,000, while Japan has offered an emergency medical team to Sri Lanka and a damage assessment group to Indonesia. The United States has given $A19.6 million.    "Clearly the international community has not responded to the challenge yet," Oxfam Community Aid Abroad executive director Andrew Hewett said. "Rich countries need to recognise the scale of this disaster and respond accordingly and respond quickly, and that means more money and more supplies are required."    Oxfam and aid groups have praised the Australian Government's lead in the relief effort. "The US have given twice as much as Australia in dollar terms, but given their population is about 13 times our size, Australia has probably been the most generous, most responsive donor so far," Mr Hewett said.    The Australian Council for International Development said it was disappointed by how little foreign governments had given. "The levels of international aid at the moment are . . . probably the minutiae of an adequate response," said Jack de Groot, who heads the Catholic aid agency Caritas Australia. Australian appeal hotlines have been swamped with calls, raising nearly $3 million by last night. "It's been really hectic. You put down the phone and it rings again . . . people are being very generous," Red Cross volunteer Jenny Patterson said.    Australian Foreign Minister Alexander Downer said he was developing a second and "considerably larger" aid package, to be announced today. "It may be that we can help a little in Sri Lanka and India as well, but the real focus of our effort will be on Indonesia and Thailand," he said. Labor foreign affairs spokesman Kevin Rudd said a larger donation was warranted. "We are now looking at a war zone spread across two continents and 10 countries," he said.    Dec. 28, 2004    "U.N.: Nations need more money for disaster aid", by Farah Stockman.(Boston Globe Staff)    A U.N. emergency relief coordinator said that the long-term cost of the destruction in Asia is expected to exceed $5 billion and that the assistance pledged so far falls short of this estimate.    Countries large and small mobilized Monday in the aftermath of the earthquake and tsunamis that spread devastation across South and Southeast Asia, but international officials said the millions of dollars in short-term assistance pledged so far fall far short of the billions needed to address one of the worst humanitarian disasters in a decade.    Tents from Italy, drinking water from the Czech Republic, doctors from Israel and tracking dogs from Spain arrived in regions struck by the walls of water that crashed on nearly a dozen countries Sunday.    But Jan Egeland, U.N. emergency relief coordinator, said at a press conference in New York Monday that much more is needed. Estimating the long-term cost of the destruction to exceed $5 billion, Egeland appealed to ``rich countries, rich individuals, even those of us who are reasonably affluent, to respond generously.''    Monday, Secretary of State Colin Powell pledged $4 million to the International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies of the $6.5 million the organization said it needed for an immediate response. Powell said U.S. disaster aid would reach $15 million in the initial phase.    'Some 20-plus thousand lives have been lost in a few moments, but the lingering effects will be there for years,'' Powell said. ``The damage that was caused, the rebuilding of schools and other facilities will take time. So you need a quick infusion to stabilize the situation, take care of those who have been injured, get immediate relief supplies in, and then you begin planning for the longer haul.''    The European Union said its aid could reach $40.5 million, after releasing an initial $4 million Monday. Australia pledged $7.8 million.    Ed Fox, assistant administrator of the U.S. Agency for International Development, said the United States also planned to dispatch a disaster assistance response team to help with sanitation and other kinds of relief.
	Next (more recent) news item
	Next (older) news item