Donors, poor nations get wakeup call from tsunami

Donors, poor nations get wakeup call from tsunami

Agencies, Tokyo/Jakarta

The tsunami that devastated Indian Ocean shores has provided a
grim reminder to poor nations and the donors that help them, that
spending money on disaster planning, now can save lives and cut
relief and rebuilding costs later.

The world has already offered more than US$7 billion in
emergency relief for victims of the Dec. 26 tsunami that killed
more than 157,000 people and left millions homeless in Indonesia,
Sri Lanka, Thailand, India and the Maldives.

The Russian Federation pledged on Wednesday US$30 million
humanitarian aid for the tsunami affected countries, the Russian
Embassy in Jakarta said.

"The bulk of Russian humanitarian aid was meant for Indonesia,
a country most badly affected by the tsunami. As of today
(Wednesday) Moscow dispatched to Aceh six air planes with food,
medicine and tents along with 150 doctors and medical personnel,"
the Embassy said in a press release sent to The Jakarta Post.

The Iranian Embassy in Jakarta said on Wednesday that a Boeing
747 plane carrying 60 tons of humanitarian aid arrived in Jakarta
on Tuesday. A second cargo plane will arrive in Medan soon.
Earlier, Tehran sent 40 tonnes of humanitarian assistance to
Indonesia on two cargo planes.

Experts say investing smaller sums now to tackle problems such
as substandard housing could do much to save lives, and because
money for long-term projects is scarce in developing nations,
wealthy donors play a crucial role.

Reducing the toll disasters take in lives and money is the
topic of a Jan. 18-22 conference in Japan's western city of Kobe,
which was hit by a 7.3 quake a decade ago that killed 6,433.

"Disaster prevention means using money for something that
hasn't happened yet," Tetsushi Kurita, a senior researcher at the
Asian Disaster Reduction Center in Kobe, told the Reuters.
"Developing nations need to use their money to eat and for things
that are taking place right before their eyes.

"When something actually happens, you need to put money into
recovery and prevention, such as building houses that won't
collapse," Kurita added. "We need to think what we can learn to
keep it from happening again."

Worsening matters, people in poor countries often do things
that lead to ecological damage, contributing further to natural
disasters, experts say.

Deforestation in the Philippines has been blamed for the high
death toll in floods there last year, for example.

The destruction in south Asia of natural barriers such as
coral reefs and coastal mangrove forests to build hotels and
shrimp farms may have left some areas more vulnerable to the
tsunami.

"Often, attempts by the poorest to improve their situation
backfire," wrote John Mutter, deputy director of Columbia
University's Earth Institute, in an article due out soon.

"Unwittingly, a perilous feedback loop is formed in which
attempts to cope with poverty amplify the conditions that produce
further poverty and put the poor at greater risk."

More than 100 people died in the United States last year when
four hurricanes tore through Florida and the Gulf Coast. But the
toll from the same storms in Haiti, one of the world's poorest
nations which is largely deforested, was in the thousands.

Simple, inexpensive solutions such as reinforcing buildings
and disaster planning in local communities are often effective.

"If you strengthen a hospital it might cost $1 million, but if
you have to replace it afterwards it might cost $50 million,"
said Brian Tucker, director of GeoHazards International, a
California-based NGO. "More important, though, you save lives."

Breakwaters built around the island of Male in the Maldives
cost Japan $500 million in foreign aid over several years and are
credited with staving off widespread destruction by the tsunami.

Now Tokyo alone will be spending the same amount for immediate
disaster relief for victims of the Dec. 26 tsunami and has
pledged to come up with more for rebuilding.

Emergency relief efforts after disaster strikes are
increasingly efficient, experts say. But a lack of political will
and donor fatigue dampens enthusiasm for the long-term aid that
could help keep disasters from taking so many lives.

Good intentions, such as when the United Nations declared the
1990s the "International Decade for Natural Disaster Reduction,"
often come to nought, done in by a lack of firm goals.

Preventive, long-term efforts grab fewer headlines than
dramatic disasters, making it hard to persuade governments to
provide needed funds.

"When these issues become important for various leaders, they
pull the money out from various places," said Max Lawson, policy
adviser at aid agency Oxfam. "They always find it somehow.

"We're really keen to see the emergency measures built upon,
into not just an emotive reaction but a long-term thing."