UN says rebuilding plans under way in Asia
UN says rebuilding plans under way in Asia
Agence France-Presse, United Nations
The tsunami relief effort is starting to move beyond emergency
work and plan rebuilding in many areas but remains slow in
devastated Indonesian regions like Meulaboh, a United Nations
official said on Monday (Tuesday in Jakarta).
Jan Egeland, the UN's emergency relief coordinator, also said
that the first signs of growing deaths among children after the
catastrophe were now being seen.
"In many communities we have already come to the stage where
we are discussing rebuilding their livelihoods," Egeland told a
news briefing on the relief effort.
"In Indonesia, in Somalia, even in Sri Lanka -- certainly in
Myanmar, in Thailand, in Malaysia -- that is now actually more
and more the case," he said.
"But nowhere do we have the kind of problems that we're seeing
in (the Indonesian regions of) Sumatra and Aceh," Egeland said.
Although pictures from Banda Aceh have shown the scope of the
tragedy, he said the city of Meulaboh may "have perhaps been the
most devastated of any town anywhere."
He said half or more of the town's 50,000 residents were dead,
adding: "At this stage, it is beyond our comprehension."
Meanwhile on the west coast of the island of Sumatra, the
death toll will continue to "grow exponentially," with perhaps
tens of thousands more deaths, Egeland said.
"As we are getting in substantial relief finally to Aceh, we
are concentrating now our main attention as an operation to the
western coast of northern Sumatra," he said.
"We have not yet, I think, fully grasped that this was the
epicenter of the catastrophe," he said. "Many of these villages
are gone. There is no trace left of them."
He added: "My heart goes out to those along the Sumatra coast
because we're not even there, and those were the hardest hit."
He also said he would not speculate beyond his earlier claim
that the final death toll would rise above 150,000, but praised
an international outpouring of support that has seen some US$2
billion in aid pledges.
"We saw 2004 ending with nature at its very worst. We saw 2005
starting with humanity at its very best. We hope that this will
(become) the standard for international response," he said.
He also cautioned that signs were emerging of child mortality
in affected areas.
"We have gotten the first indications of growing mortality
among children but we have no exact figures for that. This is the
race against the clock, really, to give enough water and
sanitation to at least a couple of million people," he said.