Tsunami relief effort hits difficult time: United Nations

Tsunami relief effort hits difficult time: United Nations

Richard Waddington, Reuters/Geneva

The international drive to help victims of the Asian tsunami
faces difficult times, with frustration amongst survivors at the
pace of reconstruction, the UN's top aid official warned on
Wednesday.

Reporting on the United Nations' efforts some three months
after the disaster that killed up to 300,000 people, Jan Egeland
said the world's initial response had been hugely successful, but
the problem now was to maintain the momentum of assistance.

"There is in some communities a growing frustration. They have
heard of the large sums of money pledged but they have not yet
got their house rebuilt nor their livelihood and it will take
more time," the UN's disaster relief coordinator said.

Egeland said the United Nations was raising its initial appeal
for help for countries around the Indian Ocean basin,
particularly Indonesia and Sri Lanka which took the brunt of the
Dec. 26 earthquake and giant waves, to US$1.08 billion from $970
million.

Some 80 percent of the appeal had already been raised or
firmly pledged -- a record response to a UN call for help. Total
international promises of assistance stood at nearly $6 billion,
although much of it could take years to materialize, he added.

The initial emergency response had provided food for some two
million people, with a similar number receiving medical
assistance, which helped prevent any major disease outbreaks.

"It has been a truly remarkable effort. In the United Nations
we have never ever recorded such generosity," he told a news
conference.

But providing shelter for the homeless in the Aceh province of
Indonesia and Sri Lanka was a pressing problem, with disputes
over land ownership complicating the task.

The fact that Aceh and Sri Lanka faced internal political
conflicts was an additional difficulty, while progress could also
be slowed by the need to ensure that development projects met
environmental standards.

"I think it will be a difficult period that we are now
entering. After a successful emergency relief phase and before we
really get a development phase going, these will be several
months of transition," Egeland said.

"What we have to avoid is a loss of momentum ... We have to
re-double our efforts," he said, adding that former U.S.
President Bill Clinton would help keep up the pressure on donors
in his role as special UN envoy.

But aid for the tsunami victims must not come at the expense
of assistance to other parts of the world, notably West and
Central Africa, where people often lived in even worse
conditions, Egeland said.

Although there were no signs that donors were deliberately
switching funds, the flow of financing for other well known
problem areas had slowed.

Egeland said that the United Nations had received less than 10
percent of the some $1.8 billion it sought in 2005 for these so-
called "forgotten disasters," such as Ivory Coast, Chad and
Somalia.