Tsunami relief effort hits difficult time: United Nations<\/p>\n
Richard Waddington, Reuters\/Geneva<\/p>\n
The international drive to help victims of the Asian tsunami
\nfaces difficult times, with frustration amongst survivors at the
\npace of reconstruction, the UN's top aid official warned on
\nWednesday.<\/p>\n
Reporting on the United Nations' efforts some three months
\nafter the disaster that killed up to 300,000 people, Jan Egeland
\nsaid the world's initial response had been hugely successful, but
\nthe problem now was to maintain the momentum of assistance.<\/p>\n
\"There is in some communities a growing frustration. They have
\nheard of the large sums of money pledged but they have not yet
\ngot their house rebuilt nor their livelihood and it will take
\nmore time,\" the UN's disaster relief coordinator said.<\/p>\n
Egeland said the United Nations was raising its initial appeal
\nfor help for countries around the Indian Ocean basin,
\nparticularly Indonesia and Sri Lanka which took the brunt of the
\nDec. 26 earthquake and giant waves, to US$1.08 billion from $970
\nmillion.<\/p>\n
Some 80 percent of the appeal had already been raised or
\nfirmly pledged -- a record response to a UN call for help. Total
\ninternational promises of assistance stood at nearly $6 billion,
\nalthough much of it could take years to materialize, he added.<\/p>\n
The initial emergency response had provided food for some two
\nmillion people, with a similar number receiving medical
\nassistance, which helped prevent any major disease outbreaks.<\/p>\n
\"It has been a truly remarkable effort. In the United Nations
\nwe have never ever recorded such generosity,\" he told a news
\nconference.<\/p>\n
But providing shelter for the homeless in the Aceh province of
\nIndonesia and Sri Lanka was a pressing problem, with disputes
\nover land ownership complicating the task.<\/p>\n
The fact that Aceh and Sri Lanka faced internal political
\nconflicts was an additional difficulty, while progress could also
\nbe slowed by the need to ensure that development projects met
\nenvironmental standards.<\/p>\n
\"I think it will be a difficult period that we are now
\nentering. After a successful emergency relief phase and before we
\nreally get a development phase going, these will be several
\nmonths of transition,\" Egeland said.<\/p>\n
\"What we have to avoid is a loss of momentum ... We have to
\nre-double our efforts,\" he said, adding that former U.S.
\nPresident Bill Clinton would help keep up the pressure on donors
\nin his role as special UN envoy.<\/p>\n
But aid for the tsunami victims must not come at the expense
\nof assistance to other parts of the world, notably West and
\nCentral Africa, where people often lived in even worse
\nconditions, Egeland said.<\/p>\n
Although there were no signs that donors were deliberately
\nswitching funds, the flow of financing for other well known
\nproblem areas had slowed.<\/p>\n
Egeland said that the United Nations had received less than 10
\npercent of the some $1.8 billion it sought in 2005 for these so-
\ncalled \"forgotten disasters,\" such as Ivory Coast, Chad and
\nSomalia.<\/p>",
"url": "https:\/\/jawawa.id\/newsitem\/tsunami-relief-effort-hits-difficult-time-united-nations-1447893297",
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