Tsunamis create 2 million new poor
Tsunamis create 2 million new poor
Cecil Morella, Agence France-Presse/Manila
Two million more Asians have joined the ranks of the poor
following the Indian Ocean tsunami disaster even though the
overall impact on the economies of the affected countries looks
small, the Asian Development Bank said on Wednesday.
The bank warned that it could take the affected populations
many years to recover from poverty. It urged governments to
ensure tsunami relief funds are not frittered away through
corruption.
A great earthquake measuring 9.3 on the Richter scale ripped
up the ocean floor near the Indonesian island of Sumatra on Dec.
26, triggering giant waves that swamped 11 countries.
The waves and the temblor wiped out coastal communities,
killing more than 273,000 people.
"Despite the huge scale of loss of human life, homelessness
and displaced populations, the macroeconomic impact of the
disaster appears limited," the Manila-based ADB said in its
annual Asian Development Outlook report.
"Nonetheless, the economic impact will be felt severely at the
local and community levels, dragging a significant number of
already poor people into deeper poverty."
Damage to the agriculture and fisheries sector in Indonesia's
Aceh and North Sumatra provinces had increased the number of poor
by more than a million, raising the national head count ratio for
the poor by half a percentage point to 18.7 percent.
The devastation of Sri Lanka's fishing communities and small-
scale traders led to significant job losses, boosting the ranks
of the poor by 287,000 people and the national poverty level by
1.4 percentage points to 26.6 percent.
While casualties in the Maldives were low, a third of the
population of 300,000 and the tourism and fisheries
infrastructure were particularly affected.
The bank says the poverty level has jumped by 12 percentage
points to 35 percent.
India's 261.26 million-strong poor received some 644,000 new
additions after the tsunamis, while damage in Thailand's tourism-
dependent south pushed 24,000 people into poverty.
The bank warned that many of those who were already poor
before the giant waves struck "have sunk deeper into poverty
because essential goods as well as basic services, such as
sanitation and health, are in shorter supply.
"It will now take an even greater effort to take these people
above the poverty line," it added.
The five worst-affected countries were fortunate that their
key economic and densely populated urban centers and industrial
hubs were spared, it said.
However, the loss of housing, jobs and other assets of the
poor "paralyzes their daily activities".
While international aid flows would help rebuild houses and
other facilities, "the restoration of eroded and salinized fields
may take several years" and "worse, it can take years for
communities to replace the skills lost."
It cited a study by the U.S. financial service outfit Citibank
that expects Thailand to recover the fastest.
"India, Maldives, and Sri Lanka could take longer to recover,
and Indonesia even longer."
It said the Citibank scenario estimates that if the recovery
is speedy, "the additional poverty due to the tsunami would be
eliminated by 2007 in all of the countries except Indonesia,
where the additional number of the poor would still be around
345,000."
However, if the recovery process is delayed, the additional
number of poor in the five countries would still be 1.1 million
by 2007.
"Effective and quick responses are crucial to minimize the
poverty impact of a natural disaster of this magnitude," the ADB
said, adding that these programs would also provide jobs for the
displaced in the short term.
"Efforts to establish independent authorities to ensure
transparent use of recovery funds can speed recovery," it said,
citing Indonesia's Specific Authority Board for Aceh
Reconstruction.
Governments must work fast because "the longer the recovery
process, the worse will be the effect on the poor."