Thousands of Indonesian Quake Victims Receive Aid
New York, Oct 27 2009 4:10PM
United Nations agencies continue to aid scores of thousands of Indonesians after last month’s 7.9-magnitude earthquake ravaged parts of western Sumatra island, leaving nearly 200,000 households in need of emergency shelter and other assistance.
The UN
World Food Programme (http://www.wfp.org/), targeting children under five
as well as pregnant or lactating mothers and primary school
children, has so aided more than 68,000 people, distributing
distributed 25 metric tons of biscuits between 21 and 25
October, for a total of 178 metric tons of biscuits and
noodles since the disaster struck.
The UN Population
Fund (http://www.unfpa.org/public/) is currently assisting
some 30,000 women and girls of reproductive age in the worst
affected areas, including over 1,650 pregnant
women.
Early food and nutrition assessments reveal
approximately 38,000 households, or 190,000 people, in the
most affected areas are experiencing temporary shortages of
staple foods such as rice, the UN Office for the
Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (http://ochaonline.un.org)
reported.
The Government estimates that
rehabilitation and reconstruction will cost $745 million
after the quake and aftershocks on 30 September triggered
landslides, wiping out entire villages, killing an estimated
1,117 people, injuring 1,214 others and affecting is 1.2
million.
Funding for emergency water trucking is
urgently needed for the next two months. Only 20 percent
Padang City's population is connected to the water network,
and an estimated 650,000 people rely on trucking or bottled
water for daily supplies.
The West Sumatra
Humanitarian Response Plan, launched on 9 October in
partnership with the Government, is seeking $38.1 million
for emergency needs to be addressed within 90 days. The UN
Central Emergency Response Fund (http://cerf.un.org/) has
already allocated nearly $7. Additional donor contributions
for several non-governmental organizations (NGOs) have been
reported, raising the funding total to nearly $12
million.
ENDS