Up to three months to draw up tsunami reconstruction plan: WB
Up to three months to draw up tsunami reconstruction plan: WB
P. Parameswaran
Agence France-Presse/Washington
World Bank President James Wolfensohn said Wednesday it would
take up to three months to draw up a detailed reconstruction plan
for tsunami-hit nations, cautioning against rushing through with
the massive effort.
He said communities ravaged by the Dec. 26 earthquake and
giant tidal waves along the Indian Ocean coast needed time to
"heal" from the disaster before working together with the
authorities to devise rehabilitation programs.
"To hurry the process without getting the people involved is
probably not going to work," Wolfensohn said on his return to
Washington after touring devastated areas in Indonesia, Sri Lanka
and the Maldives.
They were among a dozen countries -- including Thailand,
India, Malaysia and Myanmar -- hit by the disaster, caused by an
undersea earthquake off Sumatra that unleashed towering waves,
killing more than 156,000 people.
As many as five million people were thought to be homeless or
without food and clean water.
"I think (it will take about) a month or two or even three to
fill in the details (of a comprehensive reconstruction plan).
This is not a trivial disaster. This is something where they're
starting from ground zero," said Wolfensohn, whose bank would
spearhead the reconstruction programs.
He said one-half or one-third of the civil servants in areas
hit by the disaster had perished, making it more difficult to
rapidly draw up such a plan.
Each country, he added, would take about two weeks to complete
a preliminary assessment of the destruction that could give a
"broad" view of requirements.
Wolfensohn also said the World Bank would introduce a cash
grant program for many of the families reeling from the disaster.
"We have done this in certain other areas, and I have no doubt
that we will be doing it in Sri Lanka and Indonesia as well, to
try and get people something so they can buy clothes or food or
whatever it is they need," he said.
The United Nations said it would require the biggest
humanitarian aid operation in its nearly 60-year history to cope
with the disaster and had appealed for US$977 million in
immediate aid.
In Geneva on Tuesday, donors pledged $717 million, including
$250 million from Japan, for emergency relief efforts, a total UN
officials hailed as an unprecedented response to a natural
disaster.
The World Bank itself had announced it would commit an initial
$250 million for emergency reconstruction and Wolfensohn said
Wednesday that the amount could spiral up to $1 billion to $1.5
billion.
He said he was personally "apprehensive or somewhat doubtful"
about the accuracy of funding figures that had been mentioned
until the reconstruction demands in the affected areas were
clarified.
According to an AFP tally, public aid made by governments
totals slightly more than $8 billion and private donations
amounted to over $2 billion. Along with cash donations, the
figure includes promised debt relief and low-interest loans.
Wolfensohn said the World Bank was already meeting the needs
of immediate reconstruction in some of the affected economies,
such as restoration of power and water supplies and building of
bridges and roads.