Race against time ,aid effort biggest ever

Race against time for largest aid effort ever
The world has pledged about $500 million to help tsunami survivors,
relying on lessons from past disasters to expedite relief.

By Faye Bowers and Liz Marlantes | Staff writers of The Christian
Science Monitor
WASHINGTON - Aid workers in airplanes dropped thousands of packets of
noodles to Indonesians stranded in cliff-top villages. Others began to
deliver 3,500 lightweight tents that will shelter some 100,000 people
in Indonesia's worst-hit province of Aceh, along with 20,000 kitchen
sets and 100,000 blankets. Health kits designed to cover the needs of
150,000 people for three months are arriving in Thailand. And 15-liter
water containers have been delivered throughout the region.

This massive effort, those in charge admit, is only making a dent in
the needs of the 5 million survivors in 12 countries after Sunday's
earthquake and subsequent tsunamis. But they are heartened by the
outpouring of aid pledged - some $500 million as of Thursday, including
a new $250 million pledge by the World Bank.



The challenge now, experts say, is coordinating what is becoming the
largest disaster-relief effort ever mounted, reaching from Indonesia to
the coast of Africa. The UN and other relief agencies have learned key
lessons from cases such as Rwanda where efforts have fallen short.
Plans are in place to assess the damage and needs as well as deliver
the necessary support faster than would have occurred in the past.

"Given the geographic scale, and that it happened at a time when loads
of people were on vacation, I think it's coming together extremely
well," says Peter Walker, director of the Feinstein International
Famine Center at Tufts University in Medford, Mass. "That's because
we've developed international standards on what people should expect -
how much water, food, shelter."

That's not to say it will be easy. Officials at the United Nations, the
relief effort's central coordinator, said Thursday that while the
effort is gathering momentum, help hasn't yet arrived to many in
ravaged areas.

The UN put the death toll above 100,000 Thursday - a number that is
still expected to rise. More than 5 million people are homeless; that
number is also expected to rise as aid workers make their way to some
of the most isolated areas that were struck. In addition to the
remoteness, several - such as Indonesia's restive Aceh province, Sri
Lanka, and southern Thailand - have been fighting internal rebellions
that make it more difficult for aid workers to gain access.

Still, although it may not be fast enough for those waiting for help on
the ground, aid experts say the effort is progressing better than most
past efforts that neared this size.

"The destruction of infrastructure, [with] massive numbers of people
who are homeless and in need of water, goes way beyond what one
organization can do," says Michael Delaney, director of humanitarian
response for Oxfam, which on Wednesday sent a shipment of water from
its warehouses in Britain to Sri Lanka and Indonesia. "That's why it
really makes a lot of sense for everybody that the coordination is done
well, so that it's not just focused on the easy-to-get-to areas, but
it's including those hard-to-get-to areas."

Following the 1994 Rwandan genocide, when the huge amounts of aid
pledged were judged not to have accomplished as much as expected, aid
agencies and governments came together to devise better ways to respond
to future disasters.

The initiatives resulting from their study included plans for many
countries, such as India, Sri Lanka, and Bangladesh, to have plans in
place to move swiftly into action when a major catastrophe occurs.
Those countries have disaster coordinating committees that convene
immediately and collaborate with the UN Office for Coordination of
Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA).

Jan Egeland, the emergency relief coordinator who heads up OCHA, is
responsible for organizing all UN agencies in responding to the crisis
and establishing one consolidated appeal for funds. That appeal is
expected to go out on Jan. 6.

His office also collects all reports from the field assessment teams
and shares that information with aid agencies and governments that are
cooperating in the relief effort so they can direct their support
effectively.

Some countries also coordinate their agencies' efforts. Britain, for
example, has a Disaster Emergency Committee that groups together its
international relief agencies and coordinates the support they
administer. The US announced Wednesday it was partnering with
Australia, Japan, and India to coordinate relief efforts.

The InterAction.org website consolidates aid agency information and
provides guidance for those interested in helping.

"There has been good communication immediately on what is needed in
different areas," says Sean Callahan, vice president for overseas
operations for Catholic Relief Services, which has teams in India, Sri
Lanka, Thailand, and Indonesia. "We were concerned initially, given the
Christmas holidays, about getting an international engagement on these
issues. But it seems that people have responded rapidly."

The effort will continue for some time. Aid workers say they are in the
first of three phases of providing support to those in need. The
initial phase includes the emergency response - saving and protecting
lives, as well as surveys of damage and needs.

A second phase involves stabilizing the populations - making sure the
survivors have potable water, food, and shelter.

Third comes relocating people to secure housing, as well as
rehabilitating their livelihoods - helping them become self-sufficient.

"[The relief groups] will get the logistics right, the big numbers
right," says Mr. Walker. "But they will need to continually check with
people on the ground to be sure that they are providing what the local
people need to rebuild their lives, their countries."