Five Million People in 11 Countries Lack the Basic Requirements for Life by SBS World News / The lndependent / AFP / Guardian 9:43am 31st Dec, 2004   January 1, 2005    "Aid still failing to reach neediest", by Steven Morris. (The Guardian)    The global effort to ease the suffering of the millions of people stricken by the tsunami disaster was stepped up again yesterday as it became clear that aid was still not getting to those most in need. Naval vessels,were heading for the region last night to lend assistance as thousands of tonnes of aid continued to be flown in and the US raised its aid tenfold to $350m (£184m).    But UN officials admitted that they were deeply concerned about aid not reaching devastated areas such as the Aceh province of Sumatra and the coast of Sri Lanka. Lack of coordination and transport bottlenecks were exacerbated in some areas by bad weather. The official death toll remains at about 124,000, but last night the UN warned it was approaching 150,000, and, after visiting the region, Sweden's foreign minister, Laila Freivalds, said it would rise to nearer 200,000.    The UN's humanitarian chief, Jan Egeland, said: "What we see is that the figures may be approaching 150,000 dead. The vast majority of those are in Indonesia and Aceh, which is the least assessed area because of logistical constraints ... "We will never ever have the absolute definite figure because there are many fishermen and villages which have just gone..    31.12.2004.    "Tsunami Disaster death toll rises to 125,000". (SBS World News).    The death toll from the Indian Ocean disaster rose dramatically to 125,000 after Indonesia said almost 80,000 had died in that country alone.    The numbers are expected to rise over the next few days as infections and disease such as cholera, typhoid, hepatitis, bronchitis, pneumonia, malaria, meningitis and haemorrhagic fever threaten survivors.    Despite raising its number of victims by more than 30,000, the Indonesian government is warning the body count is still far from complete. Aceh province, situated on the island of Sumatra, bore the brunt of both Sumday's 9.0 magnitude earthquake and the subsequent tsunamis.    "Much of Aceh, which was closest to the epicentre of the earthquake, has been leveled and the local population urgently needs shelter and basic living supplies," said the UN High Commissioner for Refugees Ruud Lubbers. "The numbers and the needs are absolutely staggering."    Aid workers have encountered total devastation, with entire towns and villages destroyed and countless people, some with cuts and broken bones, searching desperately for clean water and food on streets covered in debris and dead bodies. 60 percent of the provincial capital Banda Aceh has been destroyed, with countless bodies, many of them young children, strewn on the streets and floating in the rivers.    International aid is beginning to slowly arrive in Aceh, but efforts have been hampered by transport problems. Government institutions have stopped functioning and basic supplies have almost run out, forcing even ambulances to ration fuel. Banda Aceh's airport is busy with aid flights but residents say little was reaching them. With food scarce, fights have broken out in the streets over packets of noodles dropped from military vehicles.    The United Nations agency Unicef said close to a million Indonesian children were in need.The governments of India, Sri Lanka and Thailand also reported thousands more deaths. And the plight of survivors in India and Sri Lanka was worsened by panic generated by warnings of possible new tsunamis.    Thousands fled from the coastline after a government prediction aftershocks rattling Indonesia could again send giant killer waves. In Sri Lanka, people climbed onto the roofs of their houses while others hauled their most valuable possessions stuffed into plastic bags. An earthquake expert later said the aftershocks were probably not strong enough to produce tsunamis.    Three smaller earthquakes, measuring between 5.1 and 5.2 on the Richter scale, hit northwest of Indonesia's Sumatra island city of Medan on Thursday. India later denied having issued a fresh warning but said it had urged people to take precautions after receiving information about the aftershocks.    Amid the panic, government officials in Colombo said the country's death toll had risen 3,000 to 27,268. It's a figure President Chandrika Kumaratunga warned is likely to rise again with most of the 4,500 missing people likely to be declared dead "in the next few days".    In Indian, over 13,000 people are dead or feared dead across the country. The government said 7,330 were confirmed dead and another 5,900 were missing and presumed dead. All the presumed dead are in the remote Andaman and Nicobar islands, where rescuers have yet to reach isolated areas. In Thailand, the numbers also continue to rise.    Among the 4,500 confirmed deaths are at least 2,230 foreigners with another 6,130 foreigners unaccounted for. Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra suggested Thailand's final death toll could approach 7,000, as European nations joined Thais in trying to trace thousands of missing people. "There are many people listed as missing and we think that 80 percent of them are feared dead. Twenty percent may have lost contact," he said.    Sweden and Germany have each said that more than 1,000 of their nationals are unaccounted for, while 430 Norwegians and scores of French are missing. Nationals of more than 40 countries were on holiday in six provinces of southern Thailand when disaster struck.    Millions of survivors across the region who survived Sunday's unprecedented disaster are now homeless. We estimate that up to five million people have been displaced and are at risk across the region," said Harsaran Pandey, spokeswoman for the World Health Organisation (WHO) in South Asia.    The global health body said between one and three million of those affected were in Indonesia, with another one million in Sri Lanka. The rest were spread between India, the Maldives and other nations.    As aid agencies struggled to cope with the scale of the disaster, the WHO warned the next few days would be critical in controlling any potential outbreak of waterborne diseases. The incidence of diarrhoea is increasing, but the WJP says it's no more than expected at this stage of a natural disaster. With at least 5 million people in need, the relief effort is already one of the biggest humanitarian exercises in history.    31.12.2004.    $500 Million Pledged, But more long term AID Needed.    The United Nations said half a billion (US) dollars has been pledged for tsunami victims around the Indian Ocean. However relief workers are encountering severe difficulties in delivering aid supplies to those in need, due to the inaccessibility of worst-hit areas.    UN Secretary General Kofi Annan said more than 30 countries have come forward to offer contributions. "This is an unprecedented global catastrophe, and it required an unprecedented global response," said Mr Annan. "Over the past few days, it has registered deeply in the consciousness and conscience of the world as we seek to grasp the speed, the force and magnitude with which it happened, he said. “But we must also remain committed for the longer term. We know that the impact will be felt for a long time to come.    He called on nations to make a long-term commitment to rebuilding lives and communities shattered by the disaster, adding the UN will take the lead in co-ordinating the international response. However he cautioned that relief efforts may fall short of what is needed because of the sheer scope of the tragedy.    "It is conceivable that one may not be able to fulfil every possible need of each of the countries," said Mr Annan, at a press conference after he cut short his year-end holiday to oversee the global relief campaign. "It is so huge that no one agency or one country can deal with it alone," he said. "We cannot forgive ourselves for not even trying ... our common humanity demands it."    Mr Annan earlier spoke with US Secretary of State Colin Powell and representatives from the three other nations, Australia, India and Japan, who have joined forced to form a core group to coordinate relief efforts. The UN is planning a meeting with donors and other countries to discuss the relief effort for tsunami victims, possibly to be held next week in New York.    The World Bank announced it is contributing $US250 million, while at least 60 countries around the world have upped their pledges. This includes $96m from the UK, $44m from the EU, $35m from the US, $27m from Australia and $10m from Saudi Arabia.    The delivery of aid remains a massive issue for workers on the ground in affected areas, with much of the region's infrastructure shattered in the earthquake and resulting tsunamis. Hundreds of tonnes of emergency supplies of tarpaulins, water purification systems, food and medicines have poured into Asia, but little is reaching injured, sick and hungry survivors. Fuel shortages, notably in Indonesia, mean aid is stuck in airports, where stockpiles of boxes are beginning to mount. Shortages of helicopters have also held up airlifts of aid, according to the BBC.    In Indonesia, where large numbers of bodies have been washed in by the tides on Sumatra island's remote north-west coast, government institutions have collapsed and fuel supplies have almost run out, according to officials in affected areas. Indonesia has told the UN that cargo helicopters are a priority to fly aid to isolated areas, and Australia has offered the use of a giant Antonov cargo aircraft carrying three helicopters.    "It will take maybe 48 to 72 hours more to be able to respond to the tens of thousands of people who would like to have assistance today, or yesterday, rather," said UN emergency relief coordinator Jan Egeland. "I believe the frustration will be growing in the days and weeks ahead," he said.    Many aid groups said they will focus on supplying clean water, flying in tonnes of water purification systems and tablets, which can supply drinkable water for at least a month.    US, Japanese and Australian naval ships are steaming towards the disaster area with onboard hospitals and water desalination plants. Seven of the US ships can produce 90,000 gallons of fresh water a day and one ship can deploy a field hospital ashore when it arrives in Thailand in about a week.    December 30, 2004    Five Million People in 11 Countries Lack the Basic Requirements for Life", by Cahal Milmo and Stephen Khan in Colombo. (The lndependent/UK)    The death toll from the south Asian tsunami is likely to surpass 100,000, aid agencies warned yesterday as the first consignments from the biggest relief operation in history began to arrive to help survivors in the devastated region.    The United Nations said at least £1bn in emergency aid was needed after it calculated that the Boxing Day disaster left up to five million people across 11 countries without access to the basic requirements for life - water, food and sanitation.    Other aid agencies said that four days after the earthquake deep under the Indian Ocean, it was clear that the international community must now cope with death on a vast scale.    Simon Missiri, head of the International Federation of the Red Cross (ICRC) in the Asia Pacific region, said: "We're facing a disaster of unprecedented proportion in nature. We're talking about a staggering death toll." Scenes in the remote areas such as the west coast of Indonesia's Aceh province, closest to the quake's epicenter, were apocalyptic. Authorities there said it was now apparent that the entire population of some towns had been lost.    A UN official warned that up to 80,000 people in the province could have been killed amid reports of convoys of trucks dumping 1,000 bloated bodies at a time into open graves. Major General Endang Suwarya said: "The damage is truly devastating; 75 per cent of the west coast is destroyed and in some places it's 100 per cent."    Officials at the United Nations in New York said an appeal would be launched this weekend after relief assessments had been completed across the disaster zone. In London, the British Government pledged £15m in immediate aid while the US President, George Bush, announced an international coalition with India, Japan and Australia to co-ordinate relief..    The World Health Organization said the number of unburied bodies in the affected countries, from the five-star resorts of Thailand to impoverished villages of Somalia, along with the destruction of basic infrastructure, had left millions vulnerable to disease, which was likely to break out within three days.    David Nabarro, the head of the WHO's health crisis team, said: "Perhaps as many as five million people are not able to access what they need for living. Either they cannot get water, or their sanitation is inadequate or they cannot get food."    UN officials warned the eventual total required in relief funding was likely to outstrip the $1.64bn (£911m) raised for Iraq last year. But as pledges flooded in, there were signs of a large gap between the requirement and reality. The total pledged by governments around the world last night stood at £126m. Across the world, the public were also being implored to dip into their pockets..    Across Asia, local volunteers were doing their best to provide help for the estimated five million left homeless while they waited for the much-needed international assistance. As the aid operation began to swing into top gear with four plane loads of aid arriving in Sri Lanka from Britain, Germany and Japan, the need for the relief in this truly global disaster became ever more clear.    The official death count across Asia and Africa stood at 76,682 but aid officials made it clear that number would rise significantly as remote areas were reached, including India's Andaman and Nicobar islands, where one official said 10,000 were dead on one island alone. Peter Rees, the ICRC's operations support officer, said: "The figure's going to be absolutely enormous. I would not be surprised that we are over 100,000 dead."    According to ICRC estimates, there are 500,000 injured people across the region, 200,000 with serious injuries. In Sri Lanka alone there are a million people without shelter. One aid worker for Cafod described the scene in Banda Aceh, the capital of Aceh province, as: "Corpses, corpses and more corpses. Walking on foot in the streets, it is all corpses. There is a rotten smell everywhere. Because people drowned, their stomachs are full and today they started to tear open.    "Right now there are many traumatized people. People scream 'water, water' while running. But there is no water. We can see people eating quietly next to dead bodies that are rotten and smelly. Many people cry hysterically."    Copyright 2004 lndependent/UK    December 28, 2004 (AFP)    More than one million people have been displaced in three of the south Asian countries hit by towering waves following an undersea earthquake of Indonesia, an International Red Cross (IRC) spokeswoman has said as a huge multi-country relief operation swung into action.    The agency says about 23,700 have died and that the death toll is likely to rise. "There are one million displaced in Sri Lanka, plus 29,000 in Thailand and 1,000 in India roughly," Marie-Francoise Borel, a spokeswoman for the International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies, told AFP. About 200,000 people in Sri Lanka were homeless and without shelter, according to the Red Cross.    At least 7,500 people were known to have been injured after waves triggered by the largest earthquake in 40 years swept into coastal areas of the Indian Ocean, she added. Many of them suffered broken limbs.    The IRC counted about 5,000 people missing in south Asia, not including casualties in India's Andaman and Nicobar islands which were receiving relief supplies flown in by the Indian Red Cross, Ms Borel said.    A local Indian official said that about 30,000 people were missing in the archipelago. "I think this is probably one of the largest and most complex operations on the ground for the federation in many, many years, because it's spread over a number of countries and the numbers are very, very high, whether it's the number of dead, homeless, or the missing," Ms Borel said.    The preliminary appeal launched on Sunday was meant to unlock additional support for an estimated 500,000 victims and to back up the activities of local Red Cross and Crescent workers in Sri Lanka, India, Indonesia, Malaysia, Thailand and other countries hit by the earthquake.    A first Red Cross flight carrying medical supplies for 100,000 people arrived in Sri Lanka on Monday, along with emergency response units to deal with logistics, clean water and sanitation, and basic health care. "In a situation such as this, you have polluted water and sewage has run over, or the infrastructure is destroyed," Ms Borel said.    Hakan Sandbladh, a senior health officer at the federation, said: "The biggest health challenges we are facing are the spread of waterborne diseases, particularly malaria and diarrhoea, as well as respiratory tract infections."    "We are particularly concerned about initial reports of destruction of hospitals and other health infrastructures in Sri Lanka," he added.    An IRC assessment team was also deployed in Indonesia. Red Cross teams in Sri Lanka and India had helped evacuate survivors, and provide first aid as well as tents, blankets and food, the federation said in a statement.    "Basic needs for victims of the disaster are shelter, tents, blankets, clean water, food and family utensils and mosquito nets," said Simon Missiri, head of the federation's Asia-Pacific department. "An important part of the operation will also be tracing lost relatives," he added in a statement.    27 Dec 2004    "Tsunami will require biggest UN relief drive", by Irwin Arieff. (Reuters)    The tsunami that crashed into coastlines across southern Asia is likely to present the United Nations with its biggest and costliest relief effort, the U.N. emergency relief coordinator said on Monday.    It will take "many billions of dollars" and a number of years to bury the dead, battle disease and recover from the wall of water that has killed more than 23,000 people, said Jan Egeland, who heads the U.N. Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs.    While the deadly wave on Sunday may not have been the largest ever recorded, it probably will have the biggest impact of any natural disaster in the five decades that the United Nations has been coordinating the global response to such disasters because it struck so many heavily populated areas, Egeland told reporters.. The tsunami has touched millions more people and will require far more money to recover from, Egeland said.    Cleaning up after Hurricane Mitch, a deadly storm that struck Central America in 1998, killing 10,000 people, required about $5 billion. But reconstruction after the tsunami will require much more, Egeland said.    Hundreds of relief planes packed with emergency goods will be heading for the region from some two dozen countries within the next 48 hours, he said.    But the aid effort will require a generous response from individuals as well as governments around the world, he said.    And because the disaster fell so close to the start of 2005, Egeland fears it could sap the response to other calamities that strike later in the year. "The pie is finite. You take out a slice and there is less for the rest," he said. "I am afraid for the coming year."    While it may take weeks to gauge the disaster's full impact, millions of people have been affected and hundreds of thousands of livelihoods have been destroyed, he said.    A huge challenge will be to bury the dead quickly and ensure adequate supplies of clean drinking water to prevent diseases such as typhoid, diarrhea and hepatitis, which threaten millions if rotting corpses and flooding pollute water supplies.    "The biggest threat to survivors is from the spread of infection through contamination of drinking water and putrefying bodies left by the receding waters," OCHA official Jamie McGoldrick said in Geneva. There could be epidemics of intestinal and lung infections within days unless health systems in the stricken countries get the help they need to cope, Egeland said.    The tsunami's impact has been worse than other natural disasters because it struck so many heavily populated areas and so many countries, taking lives as far away as Somalia, he said..    The United Nations planned a broad appeal to individuals and governments to help out in any way they could and was working on coordinating the emergency response plan.. Egeland encouraged gifts to private relief groups, the Red Cross or Red Crescent systems and U.N. agencies such as the World Food Program and the U.N. children's agency UNICEF. (Additional reporting by Robert Evans in Geneva).
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