Food aid goes bad sitting at ports
Food aid goes bad sitting at ports
The Jakarta Post, Banda Aceh/Lhokseumawe
Some food aid packages are starting to spoil at ports as they
await ships destined for tsunami-hit areas in Aceh and North
Sumatra.
Meanwhile, thousands of survivors were still without food as
of Monday, a week after the catastrophe devastated the two
provinces and seven Indian Ocean states.
The lack of standing infrastructure in Aceh has hampered the
efforts of relief workers to distribute aid timely to survivors,
while airlifts via helicopter have only been able to reach
limited numbers.
The utter destruction of coastal roads along western Sumatra
has prompted aid agencies to use ferries to Padang, West Sumatra,
before traveling by road to Aceh via Medan.
"There are still a lot of people there. Some are seriously
injured. Some are already dead," a western Aceh villager, Fajari,
told Agence France-Presse at a Banda Aceh hospital after he was
rescued on Sunday by a U.S. Navy helicopter.
He was referring to his hometown of Patek.
Fajari, 29, lost his wife and two children when tidal waves
rushed through their home in the fishing village. He had not
eaten for several days until the helicopter found him.
Security forces of the U.S., Japan, Australia and France have
sent aircraft or naval vessels to the region, while Britain is
exploring additional ways in which its armed forces might provide
assistance.
Thousands of navy personnel and medics, as well as heavy
equipment operators, are in northern Sumatra from at least 40
countries and working together in the relief and clearing effort,
reported AFP.
For example, with transport in short supply, Malaysian teams
were offering rides to Chinese and Mexican teams.
The official death toll in Indonesia now reaches 94,000, but
is expected to continue to rise.
Jan Egeland, head of the United Nations emergency relief, said
compared to other countries affected by the tsunami, Indonesia
lagged behind in aid distribution.
"Ninety percent of our problems are now in areas (in
Indonesia) because they are more remote, because the damage was
much bigger, because the roads are more damaged, because the
airstrips are fewer and they are more damaged," said Egeland.
The UN has repeatedly expressed concerns that isolated
survivors may not receive aid for weeks, until roads and bridges
that were destroyed were rebuilt.
Lack of coordination has also been blamed for the aid and
supplies accumulating at hangars, warehouses and ports, while a
source in Banda Aceh said dozens of European medical staff seemed
uncertain of what to do without any immediate tasks.
Coordination is one of the main issues expected to be raised
at Thursday's international emergency summit in Jakarta.
At the capital's Tanjung Priok port, food aid packages,
including rice and instant noodles, started to spoil without any
sea transportation heading to Aceh.
The continuous influx of aid without adequate means for
distribution has raised concerns of further complications,
including the deaths of survivors from starvation, dehydration
and exposure.
Rampant piracy in the busy Malacca Strait is another stumbling
block for the delivery of aid to tsunami-hit regions.
"Pirates are a real concern off the west coast," the UN Joint
Logistics Centre said in a report on Indonesian relief
operations.
In North Aceh, thousands started on Monday to leave refugee
camps for home, and Regent Teuku Alamsyah Banta told The Jakarta
Post that the some 4,000 people who had voluntarily left were
those with homes that were partially intact. They cited a
shortage of clean water and poor sanitation as reasons to brave
the devastation at home.
"We're scared to go home ... but here it's difficult to go to
the bathroom," said Suryati, who is leaving camp.
In Banda Aceh clean water was also a much waited gift as some
1,000 people queued for filtered water from Australia, who
repeatedly asked whether it had to be boiled first, reports said.