Tsunami
death toll crosses 1,23,000
Colombo/Djarkarta/Chennai:
The toll in the tsunami disaster across South and South
East Asia has crossed 1,23,000 and is expected to mount
further. Indonesia, the hardest hit of the 11 nations, with
nearly 80,000 dead, is expecting the toll to rise further
even as the relief operation continues in its western Aceh
province. "We expect the death toll to rise to 100,000 because
we're finding more and more bodies from the hard-hit remote
northwest coast of Sumatra island," said the country's Health
Minister, Siti Fadillah Supadi. In Sri Lanka over 27,000
people have been killed, and Colombo says that it will need
over a billion dollars to rebuild the lives of those affected.
The
toll in India stands at over 7,000 dead, but unofficial
estimates say it could be as high as 12,000. Over 8200 people
have lost their lives in Thailand and as many as 6,000 are
still missing. Among the other nations 120 have been reported
dead in Somalia, 90 in Myanmar, 67 in Maldives, 65 in Malaysia,
10 in Tanzania, two in Bangladesh and one each in Seychelles
and Kenya. Medicines and body bags for the dead have started
coming in C-130 cargo planes. Relief teams from Taiwan,
Australia, South Korea and other nations have also arrived.
According
to the UN, over 500 million dollars has been pledged for
relief operations in the affected countries. This includes
a World Bank offer of 250 million dollars. "We have had
a good response. As of today, a total of over half a billion
dollars in assistance has been pledged. Contributions in
kind have also been received," said United Nations Secretary
General Kofi Annan on Thursday. "More than 30 countries
have stepped forward to help, as have millions of individuals
from around the world," added Annan. Annan, however, highlighted
the fact that the job on hand was far from over. "We agree
that it is so huge that no one agency or country can deal
with it alone and that we need to co-ordinate our efforts
and pool our efforts to have maximum impact on the crisis.
It is going to require lots of money, lots of effort and
for a longer term," he said. The UN Secretary General was
particularly concerned about the threat of water-borne diseases,
diahhorea and malaria, which he claimed would flourish in
the days ahead and could claim more lives. A series of meetings
was scheduled to take place at the United Nations' New York
offices on Friday and over the weekend to focus on how to
quickly gear up the aid campaign for tsunami victims.
PM
sanctions Rs 250 crore relief for Tamil Nadu (Go
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New
Delhi: After his tour of the tsunami-hit areas, Prime
Minister Manmohan Singh today sanctioned Rs 250 crore to
Tamil Nadu for taking up relief work. Singh spoke to Tamil
Nadu Chief Minister J Jayalalithaa and sanctioned the relief,
PMO sources said. Winding up his two-day visit to the disaster-struck
areas of Tamil Nadu and Kerala, the Prime Minister said
earlier in the day that he would announce the relief for
Tamil Nadu and Pondicherry after speaking to the respective
chief ministers. Earlier in Vijayawada, Manmohan Singh announced
an immediate grant of Rs 100 crore to Andhra Pradesh for
relief and rehabilitation of the tsunami-hit populace. Singh,
who on Thursday announced grant of Rs 106 crore for Kerala,
said he will talk to the chief ministers of the worst hit
Tamil Nadu and Pondicherry to decide on the quantum of funds
to be allocated to them. With regard to Andaman and Nicobar
Islands, he said that the Centre will bear all costs of
relief and rehabilitation activities. He also said the Centre
has released Rs 500 crore from the National Calamity Relief
Fund for all the affected states and will provide compensation
of Rs 1 lakh to the next of kin of the victims from the
Prime Minister's National Relief Fund.
Rs100
crore relief grant for AP (Go
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Vijayawada:
Prime Minister Manmohan Singh on Friday sanctioned a
grant of Rs.10 crore to Andhra Pradesh as relief and rehabilitation
of its tsunami-hit populace. Singh, who yesterday announced
grant of Rs. 106 crore for Kerala, said he would be talking
to the Chief Minister of Tamil Nadu and the Lt.Governor
of Pondicherry to decide on the quantum of funds to be allocated
to them. With regard to Andaman and Nicobar Islands, he
told reporters here that the Centre would bear all costs
of relief and rehabilitation activities. The Centre, he
said, has released Rs.5 billion from the National Calamity
Relief Fund for all the affected states, and would provide
them compensation of Rs.100,000 to the next of kin of the
victims from the Prime Minister's National Relief Fund.
PM
shares sorrow, suffering with tsunami victims (Go
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Mudukulam
(Kerala): A emotional but stoic Prime Minister Manmohan
Singh today attempted to provide solace here to survivors
and family members of the dead victims of tsunami, saying
that he shared their sorrow and suffering, and added that
his government would do everything to restore normalcy in
their tagic lives. Visiting a relief camp in Mudukulam in
Kerala's Alapzuha district this morning, Singh gave a patient
hearing to the victims and distributed aid in cash and kind.
"We share your sorrow and suffering. The central government
will do whatever it can to help you. We won't be able to
bring them (the dead) back. But we will help you to build
your homes and get new boats," the Prime Minister said.
Singh also visited another relief centre at NRPM High school
at Kayamkulam. During his visit, Singh handed over ex gratia
compensation of Rs one lakh each to the next of kin of five
people killed in Kollam district. He visited the Alappad
Government Hospital, where he met nearly 400 people who
had been injured in the tidal tragedy. He handed over passbooks
of the State Bank of Travancore (SBT), where the ex gratia
amount was deposited, to the relatives of the five deceased.
One hundred and thirty people were killed in Kollam district
on Sunday.
Earlier,
the Prime Minister arrived by a helicopter at the NTPC helipad
and drove down to Mudukulam, about three km away. Apart
from Chandy, the others who accompanied the Prime Minister
were Union Agriculture Minister Sharad Pawar, Minister of
State for External Affairs E Ahamed and CWC member Ramesh
Chennithala.
The
Prime Minister, who was scheduled to visit the Andaman and
Nicobar Islands today for an on-the-spot survey, has postponed
the visit. Informed sources said that he would visit the
areas in a day or two.
The
Leader of the Opposition in the Rajya Sabha Jaswant Singh,
who handed over about 25 tonnes of relief materials to the
army and to Andaman and Nicobar Lt Governor Ram Kapse, will
be visiting the Campbell Bay today. Singh is scheduled to
stay on in the islands for one or two days.
The Prime Minister returned to New
Delhi later in the evening.
No
immediate signs of epidemic: Expert (Go
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Chennai:
Indian health authorities said on Friday that there
was no immediate epidemic threat in the country but was
on alert after the Tsunamis hit the country killing about
13,000 people. The tsunami, which travelled at up to 310
mph, not only washed away tens of thousands of people and
hundreds villages and towns but also polluted vital water
wells -- some for years to come. WHO in its report said
without immediate safe drinking water, millions more people
face disease and death. AK Aggarwal, Indian Health Director
General said they were taking precautionary measures. "Basically
the issue of epidemic there is no indication of any disease,
epidemic at present. However the epidemiologists are on
the outlook for any other warning sign. The basic issue
in such situations is waterborne diseases, upper respiratory
infections. Tablets are being distributed," Aggarwal told
reporters here. Although people traditionally fear that
unburied bodies carry disease, Aggarwal said there was little
danger. Health experts say low-tech solutions such as using
clothing to filter water could help prevent some epidemics,
but most people are probably too traumatized to take such
measures.
The
earthquake off the coast of Indonesia and tsunami that swept
shores from Thailand to Sri Lanka have killed at least 1,25,000
people, according to estimates. Preventing diarrhoeal disease
is easy with clean water, but the widespread, heavy and
sudden flooding destroyed power stations, idling water pumps.
Floods also probably filled wells and swept away plumbing
and even water buckets. Recent studies have shown that cholera
bacteria, and presumably others, can be safely filtered
from water using a folded sari or sarong. Folding the fabric
four times cut the infection rate in half, University of
Maryland experts found. Another study has shown that water
left to stand in the sunlight for a day in a plastic bottle
becomes safer to drink. Officials estimate Sunday's tsunami
killed at least 13,230 people in India, although only 7,000
deaths have been confirmed. Many villages are now little
more than mud-covered rubble, blanketed with the stench
of rotting corpses after a 9.0 magnitude underwater quake
off the Indonesian island of Sumatra triggered the tsunami
The tsunami is the world's biggest disaster since a cyclone
killed 130,000 people in Bangladesh in 1991.
