WHO Outlines Emergency Public Health Strategy to Sustain Tsunami Aid Efforts
Contributed by Gina Borgsdof | 07 January, 2005 13:37 GMT
WHO Outlines Emergency Public Health Strategy to Sustain Tsunami Aid Efforts An estimated three to five million people are currently displaced, and may be without access to adequate supplies of safe drinking water, sanitation, shelter, food and basic medical supplies.
The concern of local authorities in Aceh, Indonesia, is that while the current aid effort is enormous and tremendous progress has already been made in the first days following the tsunamis, unless this is sustained, the system could collapse.
The Director-General of the World Health Organization (WHO), Dr Lee Jong-wook, has praised the efforts of people in Aceh, together with national and international relief efforts, to recover from the overwhelming damage inflicted by the tsunami last week. Speaking Thursday from the Indonesian island of Sumatra, following a visit to some of the worst affected areas of Aceh, Dr. Lee described the devastation caused as "stunning," but added that he was most struck by the fact that people are now actively rebuilding their lives.
Read more...Daily News Central