Press Centre 2004/12/31: Emergencies and Disasters

One million children’s lives are at risk

UNICEF is rushing relief assistance to the countries hardest hit by massive ocean flooding

One of the largest relief efforts in the history of the United Nations is underway to reach survivors of the floods that followed the Indian Ocean Earthquake in more than a dozen countries. UNICEF warns that more than a million of children’s lives in Indonesia, Sri Lanka, India, Thailand and the Maldives are at risk of water-borne diseases in polluted water supplies, lack of shelter, medical facilities and increasing shortages of food.

It is estimated that children account for as much as one third of the dead in Indonesia -- the hardest-hit region. UNICEF teams have entered Aceh province as part of the larger United Nations relief effort on the island of Sumatra -- the closest territory to the epicentre of the earthquake on the last weekend of 2004, which registered nine points on the Richter Scale (RS).

UNICEF reports that as much as 60% of the provincial capital Banda Aceh has been destroyed and the Northwest coast of the island has sustained severe damage. Only one hospital is functional and all but two of the city’s ambulances were destroyed.

The lives afterwards of the children are not getting any better, said John Budd, UNICEF Indonesia’s Communication Officer. Apart from being separated from their parents, there is no water, no electricity and virtually no telecommunication contact.

A total of 4.5 million people in Indonesia have been affected and more than 100,000 homes have been destroyed.

UNICEF has already shipped enough medical supplies to last 200,000 people for a fortnight but there are at least another 300,000 people who remain in need. More items such as tents, blankets, kitchenware, food, medicines, clothes, women’s hygiene products, clean water and generators are urgently needed.

Because floods contaminated water systems everywhere the tsunamis struck, people have been forced to use unclean surface water, which leaves them open to infections such as cholera, typhoid, hepatitis, bronchitis, pneumonia, malaria and meningitis.

Hundreds of children who survived the massive waves that destroyed their communities now risk getting seriously ill from something as simple as taking a drink of water said UNICEF Executive Director, Carol Bellamy.

Securing safe water supplies and educating people about water and sanitation hygiene is a major component of all UNICEF’s tsunami relief efforts, now underway in the hardest-hit countries.

Supplies of water purification tablets, oral rehydration salts to combat diarrhœa, emergency health kits and school and recreational supplies have already been shipped to many of the hardest-hit areas. Many children will have experienced traumatic loss, separation, injury and disorientation during and after the disaster so educational and recreational activities are important to help them regain a sense of normalcy as soon as possible.

UNICEF has also delivered 50 water tanks to government relief sites in India along with an extra 1,550 community water tanks (holding 500 litres apiece) enough medical supplies for 30 health centres and 30,000 blankets.

In Sri Lanka, which is under a state of emergency, enough medical supplies to serve 150,000 people for three months have been delivered along with oral rehydration salts for sick children and tents and blankets for shelter. The tsunami has, however, produced another deadly risk to children and families in the region as Ted Chaiban from the UNICEF Office in Colombo explained:

Mines were floated by the floods and washed out of known minefields so now we don’t know here they are … The greatest danger to civilians will come when they begin to return to their homes, not knowing where the mines are.

Numbers of injured and dead throughout the region are being revised by the hour as many areas, isolated by communications failure since Sunday, slowly resume contact. Thailand’s official death toll of 2,404 was revised on Thursday when more than 3,500 bodies were found in the southern province of Phang Nga and Prime Minister Thaksin Shinwatra warned that the number of fatalities could rise to 7,000.

On Thursday, the Indonesian Government revised their earlier estimate of 50,000 fatalities to 80,000 bringing the total number of fatalities in the Region to more than 120,000. The Government of Sri Lanka has reported 24,000 fatalities and India has said that 7,330 are dead while another 5,900 are either unaccounted for or feared dead in the remote Andaman and Nicobar islands where communication has not yet been reliably established.

Reporting from nearby the coastal city of Chennai, UNICEF India’s Chief of Water, Sanitation and Environment, Lissette Burgers, said there is no doubt that we will need to focus on water and hygiene and I have seen many children who are traumatised.

In the Maldives, where some of the uninhabited islands were completely washed away, 300,000 people have been affected. UNICEF Maldives reports that 14,000 children, women and men have been displaced and that as many as 100,000 could end up homeless. Roughly 60 people are known to have died but that number is expected to rise as communication between the 200 inhabited islands rises.

Thirty-nine of the islands, accounting for 20% of the population, have no access to drinking water and there concern is growing as the first cases of diarrhœal diseases have appeared. Pollution of water supplies by salt water, refuse and animal carcasses could trigger epidemics such as cholera.

Subsequent aftershocks have reached as high as 5.7RS, adding panic to the already profound misery of survivors. In India and Sri Lanka, relief efforts were hampered as many fled the beaches, fearing more tsunami waves following unfounded warnings of another impending earthquake.

For nearly 60 years UNICEF has been the world’s leader for children, working on the ground in 158 countries to help children survive and thrive, from early childhood through adolescence. The world’s largest provider of vaccines for poor countries, UNICEF supports child health and nutrition, quality basic education for all boys and girls, access to clean water and sanitation, and the protection of children from violence, exploitation, and AIDS. UNICEF is funded entirely by the voluntary contributions of governments, businesses, foundations and individuals, and through our National Committees for UNICEF we sell greeting cards and other products that help advance humanity.

If you would like to make a donation to the children and their families affected by the Asian tsunamis, please send your contribution to the Turkish National Committee for UNICEF (payments can be made directly to the National Committee via İş Bankası, Çankaya, Ankara Branch No 4238, Account No 642066) or directly to the UNICEF Disaster in Asia Appeal.

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