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."