Aid is trickling through

Aid reaches victims, but it's just a trickle

Aid workers trickling into Asia's isolated tsunami-hit areas faced
devastation yesterday, with towns and villages destroyed, countless
people hunting water and food _ and some growing ill or angry.

Relief organisations, already bracing for a major operation, said needs
were even greater than at first thought.

This is already one of the biggest humanitarian exercises in history,
with 60 nations having pledged over US$220 million (about 8.8 billion
baht) in cash and hundreds of millions of dollars worth of emergency
supplies.

Hundreds of tonnes of medical supplies have been flown to the wider
region but the United Nations admits only a fraction of the aid has
found its way to where it is needed, in the coastal areas where
Sunday's sea swell killed more than 80,000 people.

``We are doing very little at the moment,'' UN emergency relief
coordinator Jan Egeland acknowledged in New York, as aid workers
reached many stricken areas, but were still thin on the ground in a
region with up to 5 million people in need.

``It will take maybe 48 to 72 hours more to be able to respond to the
tens of thousands of people who would like to have assistance today _
or yesterday, rather,'' he said. ``I believe the frustration will be
growing in the days and the weeks ahead.''

Some have not eaten since Sunday when the tidal waves hit and now face
a fight for their lives against infections and diseases, such as
elephantiasis, cholera, typhoid, hepatitis, bronchitis, pneumonia,
malaria, and meningitis.

From Indonesia to Sri Lanka the story was the same, as people, many
injured, wandered debris- and corpse-strewn streets in a hunt for clean
water and food.

In Indonesia's hard-hit Aceh province crowds shouted ``rice, rice'' as
one of the first aid trucks arrived in Banda Aceh, the ravaged
provincial capital, but some turned angry as they missed out on the
food which was too little to go around.

``How can this be? They ran out of the rice in such a short time,''
said Sidiq Yunus. ``There are five families living in my house. We
haven't eaten for three days.''

US, Japanese and Australian naval ships are steaming towards the area
with onboard hospitals and water desalination plants.REUTERS