NEW YORK – The United Nations today appealed for nearly a third of a billion dollars to provide humanitarian assistance to typhoon hit regions of the Philippines where aid workers are labouring around the clock to get in urgently needed survival supplies, such as food, clean water, shelter and basic medicines.
UN Emergency Relief Coordinator Valerie Amos launched the $301 million flash appeal from Manila, the capital, where she is surveying the damage by Typhoon Haiyan which ripped through nine regions in south-east Asia over the weekend.
“The appeal of $301 million covers an initial period of six months,” said the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) spokesperson, Jens Laerke, in Geneva. “The humanitarian community continues to scale up its operations to provide lifesaving aid. Many areas do remain inaccessible, we are reaching into them little by little.”
More than 11 million people have been affected by what the UN World Meteorological Organization (WMO) has called the strongest tropical cyclone so far this year and one of the most intense on record.
At least 670,000 people have been displaced, the majority of them in evacuation centres, the rest in host communities or makeshift shelters, according to OCHA.
“Water supply and power are cut. Much of the food stocks and other goods are destroyed. Many health facilities are not functioning and medical supplies [are] quickly being exhausted,” the UN humanitarian relief arm said in its latest action plan update.
The UN World Health Organization (WHO) is working with the Government to set up field hospitals, as personnel and medical supplies are arriving in the country.
The health needs during the disaster are “significant”, the agency said, made worse by crowded living conditions and contaminated drinking water which can lead to the spread of infectious diseases.
“With another tropical storm expected to his the Philippines later this week, the need for safe water and sanitation facilities is critical,” WHO said.
@anonymous-this is the last time I answer you on anything until you put your name on your post and quit being a coward hiding behind the anonymous name. When you become accountable for your smart comments I might answer your questions. Not that it is any of your business what I do or have done.
lvs-Thank you for answering my question.
Screw the U.N. Where were they when we had our disasters? Everyone of those country’s looks to us when they need help and then after they get it they stab us in the back.
lvs-I just want to ask you two questions. I know they don’t pertain to the article here, but I would like to know. 1)Were you ever in the military, and 2)If you were in the military, did you ever see combat? And I don’t mean combat as in sitting behind a desk, or driving a truck in some convoy, or sitting in some mess hall. I mean combat as in carrying a weapon every day, and using it every day. Dealing with the combat dead and wounded. Dealing with the war as a soldier, and not a REMF. Again, this is just for my curiosity. Thank you.