BANDA ACEH, Indonesia (AP):
THE MASSIVE relief effort for millions driven from their homes by Asia's tsunami disaster, bogged down in distribution bottlenecks, as the threat of rampant disease in refugee camps emerged yesterday as a leading fear among aid workers. The death toll surpassed 125,000.
The US$500 million aid campaign accelerated, as the first of many C-130 cargo planes and warships reached their destinations in ravaged nations with tons of blankets, bottled water, plastic sheeting and medicines. Convoys distributed sugar, rice and lentils in Sri Lanka; India dispatched a ship converted into a 50-bed hospital.
But with infrastructure troubles bureaucratic delays, tsunami-disrupted delivery systems and other factors blocking much of the aid from reaching the needy, the threat of disease always hanging over major disaster zones moved to the fore as a top concern. Some five million survivors were homeless or injured.
In the Andaman islands, a remote southern Indian archipelago, relief operations have been limited to Indian officials and local volunteers who have struggled to deliver tons of rations, clothing, bedsheets, oil, and other items, hampered by lack of transportation. Many villagers alleged that relief was reaching the islands but was being hoarded by local officials.
STARVATION
"There is starvation. People haven't had food or water for at least five days. There are carcasses. There will be an epidemic," said Manoranjan Bhakta, the lawmaker for Andaman in the federal Parliament.
Western health officials, including a 30-person team comprising of U.S. army, marine corps, air force and navy personnel, headed to devastated areas across Sri Lanka yesterday after officials warned about possible disease outbreaks among the one million people seeking shelter in crowded refugee centres.
