Thursday, March 31, 2005

Quake Behind Asian Tsunami Was Longest on Record

The earthquake that triggered the devastating Boxing Day tsunami was the longest on record -- extending over 1,200 km (750 miles) -- but poses little further immediate danger, scientists said on Wednesday.

However, large earthquakes and possible giant tidal waves are a threat on the segments of the tectonic plate boundary to the south, they wrote in the science journal Nature in papers penned well before Monday's major quake in the danger zone.

The Dec. 26 subsea earthquake off northern Indonesia measuring 9.0 on the open ended Richter scale triggered a tidal wave that swept across the Indian Ocean spreading death and devastation from Sri Lanka to Thailand.

Three months after the disaster, nearly 300,000 people are still missing or known to be dead, and more than one million are homeless.

The two groups of scientists working independently at Northwestern University in the United States and the University of Science and Technology of China both reached the same conclusions on the size of the rupture.

They said the size of the quake was far bigger than previously estimated and had the odd characteristic of having had a long, slow slip in the northern end of the giant fault followed by a sharp rapid move in the southern section.

'We determine the rupture length to be 1,200 km -- the longest ever recorded,' wrote the team from Anhui in China, noting that the quake lasted more than eight minutes at its peak power.

The team from Illinois said the odd characteristics of the earthquake and its extent made a repeat unlikely in the near future.

'Strain accumulated on the northern part of the rupture has been released. There is therefore no immediate threat of an oceanwide tsunami being generated ... because such earthquakes should be at least 400 years apart,' they wrote.

"However, the danger of a large tsunami resulting from a great earthquake on segments to the south remains," they added.

The article appeared just two days after the major earthquake measuring 8.7 struck some 200 km south of the epicenter of the December quake.

Although there was no repeat of the giant tsunami, the March 28 earthquake killed an estimated 1,000 people and devastated coastal communities in northern Indonesia still struggling to rebuild three months after the Boxing Day wave.


Source: Reuters - USA

Quake hits Indonesia: 1000s feared dead as Tsunami panic Triggers

A huge earthquake killed at least 400 people, and possibly several thousand more, in northwest Indonesia and triggered Tsunami warnings which caused panic across the Indian Ocean.

The epicenter of the quake measuring 8.7 on the Richter scale was just 200 miles (320 kilometres) south of the December-26 temblor which sent giant waves crashing into 12 nations and killed almost 300,000 people.

The authorities said at least 400 people had been confirmed dead, but Vice President Yusuf Kalla said that reports from the island of Nias off Sumatra indicated 1,000 to 2,000 people had been killed.

The Undersea Jolt

The undersea quake struck about 200 kilometers (120 miles) off the west coast of Sumatra and prompted Indonesia, India, Malaysia, Sri Lanka and Thailand, among others, to issue warnings of imminent tsunamis.

Alerts rang out on television and radio, while police and local residents tried to shepherd people to safety away from the coast towards high ground.

But the giant Tsunamis never materialised and three hours after the quake Indonesia and Thailand gave the all clear. Sri Lanka and India followed several hours later.

'There have been Tsunamis recorded as a result of the quake, but apparently they were not destructive,' said Dr. Laura Kong, director of the Hawaii-based International Tsunami Information Center.

New horror of Tsunami

But while the region was largely spared a new Tsunami horror, the earthquake caused massive destruction on Nias, an island of 700,000 people which is popular with surfers.

Agus Mendrofa, a district official, said at least 80 percent of all multi-storey buildings in the main Nias city of Gunung Sitoli had been destroyed, leaving many people feared trapped under rubble.

He said many victims had not received medical treatment as the main hospital had been hit by a blackout and many doctors had fled to nearby hills.

"Power poles fell and roads were broken. Electricity and fixed telephone lines are dead. Thousands of people have fled to the hills," Herman Laia, an environment official in the south of Nias, told Elshinta radio.

A woman who identified herself as Ping Ping said no buildings were left intact in Teluk Dalam, the main town in southern Nias. "All buildings collapsed, there is nothing left," she said.

The First Aid

Mar'ie, chairman of the Indonesian Red Cross, said the first aid teams landed on Nias and the nearby island of Simeulue after travelling by light aircraft.

A military official said a three-metre (10-foot) wave had smashed into a port on Simeulue, causing extensive damage. There were unconfirmed reports of casualties.

Indonesian President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono delayed a planned trip to Australia and was making plans to visit Nias, his spokesman said.

Recap

The earthquake brought back memories of the December disaster in which a 9.0-magnitude quake triggered waves 15 metres (50-feet) high that sped across the Indian Ocean at speeds of up to 700 kilometres (430 miles) per hour.

Those waves killed more than 275,000 people including over 220,000 in Indonesia, 30,000 in Sri Lanka, 10,000 in India and 5,000 in Thailand. Over two million people were displaced, and 10 billion dollars of aid was pledged.

Governments also promised to create a high-tech tsunami early warning system for the Indian Ocean by mid-2006.

Although no formal warning system was yet in place, the Japan Meteorological Agency and the International Tsunami Information Center contacted countries around the Indian Ocean immediately after detecting the huge quake.

Makeshift Warning System

Thai Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra said the makeshift warning system had worked well.

"Although our warning system is not yet complete, we managed to alert people in enough time for them to seek safety," he said.

Kerry Sieh, a seismologist with the United States Geological Survey, said Monday's quake struck at 1609 GMT and was one of the top 10 most powerful earthquakes in the last century.

Tremors shook many parts of Sumatra for three minutes, witnesses said, and rocked the neighbouring countries of Malaysia and Singapore where people fled high-rise buildings.

"When the earthquake happened, I rode my motorcycle to the airport because I was very afraid the tsunami would hit again," said university student Heri in Banda Aceh, the capital of Indonesia's Aceh province.

Sri Lanka

In northwestern Sri Lanka witnesses said people ran to temples and churches where bells were rung to warn people to run to high ground. In the resorts of southwest Thailand holidaymakers fled hotels as television flashed warnings.

Hundreds of people, with children yanked from their beds and still wearing pyjamas, gathered at the town hall on the Thai island of Phuket.

Thai television showed people mounting motorcycles and climbing into pickup trucks as traffic clogged the streets leaving Phuket's Patong beach.

India

In India's Tamil Nadu state radio stations warned people to move away from the ocean.

"People are very tense as they fear that another tsunami is going to hit our coasts. Many of our fishermen have gone to the sea and we are praying for their safe return," Xavier Lawrence, a priest in the town of Kanyakumari, told AFP.

Jan Egeland, the UN's emergency relief coordinator, told reporters in New York the organisation would get helicopters in the air early Tuesday over Sumatra to survey the damage.

"We are afraid that many of the structures that were damaged in the first major earthquake ... may collapse," Egeland said.

The quake caused tsunami alerts as far away as the Indian Ocean islands of Mauritius and Madagascar, which is over 4,000 kilometres (2,500 miles) from the epicenter.

Danger of major Tsunami subsides

Meanwhile, a report from Los Angeles quoting US-based monitoring centers says that fears of a major destructive Tsunami hitting Asia following a massive earthquake off the northwest coast of Indonesia Monday have subsided.

The United States Geological Survey (USGS) said the quake was of magnitude 8.7 degrees, up from their initial report of magnitude 8.2. It makes it one of the top ten most powerful earthquakes in the last century.

The subsea epicenter was located some 205 kilometers (125 miles) west of Sibolga on the Indonesian island of Sumatra and 245 kilometers (150 miles) southwest of the Sumatra city of Medan. It struck at 1609 GMT on Monday.

The Hawaii-based US Pacific Tsunami Warning Center, a branch of the US National Weather Service, issued a bulletin more than two hours after the quake struck saying there has been “no major tsunami observed near the epicenter.”

The danger of a “major destructive tsunami should be over now,” said Dr. Laura Kong, director of the International Tsunami Information Center, also based in Hawaii.

“There have been tsunamis recorded as a result of the quake, but apparently they were not destructive.

“Generally, if nothing happens within two to three hours, then the worst of the danger has passed, which appears to be the case now,” she said.

A small tidal wave measuring 23 centimeters (9.2 inches) was recorded in the Cocos islands between Indonesia and Australia, while another measuring 25-30 centimeters (10-12 inches) was recorded off the Sri Lankan capital, Colombo, Kong said.

But Kong stressed that areas closer to the quake’s epicenter off Sumatra may have suffered as yet unreported damage.

USGS geophysicist Don Blakeman said warnings were quickly sent to the region. “When we had the size and the location we sent out emails, faxes and phone messages to people telling them exactly where and how large the earthquake is,” he said.

Officials with the National Weather Service and Pacific Tsunami Warning Center contacted authorities in Indonesia, Thailand, Myanmar, Bangladesh, India, Singapore, Sri Lanka, the Maldives and Mauritius to warn of a possible tsunami soon after the quake hit.

Meanwhile President George W. Bush was being kept updated on the situation, said deputy White House press secretary Dana Perino.

“The President was briefed on the earthquake. We are monitoring the situation,” Perino said.

Bush offers Aid

'Pakistan Times' Foreign Correspondent Khalida Mazhar reports from Washington; US President George W. Bush offered his condolences and US aid to Indonesia after an earthquake thought to have killed more than 1,000 people there.

"On behalf of the American people, Laura and I offer our condolences to the victims of yesterday's earthquake in Indonesia," the US President said in the White House Rose Garden before making remarks on Iraq.

"The people of Indonesia can know as well that they have our prayers, and that our government is ready to assist," said Bush, who drew criticism for not speaking out more quickly after the December disaster.

The President said that US officials had offered initial assistance and were determining what additional relief was necessary.


Source: Pakistan Times - Pakistan

Tuesday, March 29, 2005

UN on tsunami watch after quake

THE United Nations said today's powerful earthquake off the Indonesian coast happened in shallow waters, 'which is a dangerous development', amid fears of another Asian tsunami disaster.

The UN's Office for the Co-ordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) said officials were in talks with the Indonesian Government to determine what kind of action should be taken.

'What (we) know now is that the quake happened in shallow waters (30km deep), which is a dangerous development,' OCHA said.
Jan Egeland, the UN's emergency relief co-ordinator, was to brief the press at UN headquarters in New York at 6.30am (AEST).

Meanwhile, the US Department of State said it had alerted its diplomats in South and Southeast Asia to respond quickly to the quake.

The United States' Geological Survey (USGS) warned there was a risk of a tsunami and said an alert had been sent to the region, after the quake measuring up to 8.5 on the Richter scale hit off the coast of Sumatra.

It said the quake's epicentre was 201km west-north-west of Sibolga, Sumatra, or 1416km northwest of the Indonesian capital Jakarta, close to where a 9.0 quake struck on December 26 sparking a massive tsunami that left nearly 300,000 people dead of missing.

The US National Weather Service's Pacific Tsunami Warning centre, based in Hawaii, said today's quake had the potential to cause a 'widely destructive tsunami' and authorities should take 'immediate action', including evacuating coastlines within 1000km of the epicentre.

Tens of thousands of people ran out of their homes in many parts of Sumatra and in Singapore and Malaysia after the earthquake hit.
'It was very strong,' said a telephone operator in the Sumatran city of Medan, in western Indonesia.


"We all ran out of the building."

A non-government organisation official in Banda Aceh, the town worst hit by the December 26 tsunami, sent out a telephone message saying thousands of people fled their homes and headed for higher ground after feeling what he described as "a very damn big earthquake".

Panic spread in many areas along the west coast of Malaysia, the Bernama news agency said.

"It felt stronger than on December 26," said Arumugam Gopal, a resident of the town of Penang.


Source: Daily Telegraph - Sydney,New South Wales,Australia

New Zealand tsunami victim identified

The body of missing Aucklander Andrew Welch has been identified in Thailand.

His father-in-law, John Croft, said in Christchurch yesterday that Mr Welch had been identified through DNA and his family was notified on Saturday night.

Mr Welch and his wife, Belinda, went missing when their beach-front bungalow in Khao Lak, southern Thailand, was swamped by the Boxing Day tsunami.

Mrs Welch, 26 and Mr Welch, 42, were on the final leg of a world tour.

Mrs Welch's body was identified in late February and her family will travel to Thailand next month to retrieve it.

Last week, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Trade confirmed the body of former Christchurch man Stephen Bond had also been identified in Phuket. Mr Bond, 46, and his Thai wife, Janjira, were holidaying near Khao Lak with their three children. "


Source: New Zealand Herald - New Zealand

Sri Lanka, India Issue Tsunami Warning After Strong Quake off Indonesia

The governments of Sri Lanka and India have issued a tsunami warning following a powerful earthquake off the Indonesian coast, urging residents in coastal areas to evacuate immediately.

The Geological Survey Agency of Sri Lanka says that although it is not certain if the latest quake will trigger a tsunami, it is asking people to leave coastal areas as a precaution.

The New Delhi government issued a tsunami alert for the remote Andaman and Nicobar islands, as well as the southern Indian state of Tamil Nadu.
In December, an earthquake-created tsunami killed tens of thousands of people in countries around the Indian Ocean."

Source: Voice of America - USA

India issues tsunami alert, army and navy put on high alert

NEW DELHI: India issued a tsunami warning on Monday after a large earthquake off the coast of Indonesia and ordered people to be evacuated from coastal areas, but said it had no reports of any killer waves.

'We have issued a tsunami alert,' Sanjaya Baru, spokesman for the prime minister's office, told Reuters. 'The government is fully alert but we have no evidence or report that a tsunami will come or is coming.'

Authorities in the southern Indian states of Tamil Nadu, Andrha Pradesh and Kerala, which were struck by a tsunami triggered by a 9.0 magnitude quake on Dec. 26, said they had ordered people to be evacuated from some coastal areas as a precaution.

Fishermen were also told not to put to sea, and the army and navy were put on alert, officials said."

Source: Newindpress - Chennai,India

Sumatra quake sparks tsunami fears

Tsunami fears have led to evacuation orders being issued in Thailand and Sri Lanka and India's Andaman and Nicobar islands are on 'full alert' after a major earthquake struck off the coast of northern Sumatra just before midnight (Indonesian time).

The quake is now being measured at magnitude 8.7 on the Richter scale, higher than earlier estimates, according to a scientist with US Geological Survey (USGS).

Geological Survey officials said the quake is believed to be an aftershock of the December 26 killer quake which rocked the same region and triggered tsunamis in the Indian Ocean.

The Geological Survey says a tsunami wave probably 'will go into Sumatra' and could hit Sri Lanka and Africa.

'There is going to be a big wave from this,' USGS scientist Susan Hough told Reuters.

Almost 300,000 people were killed in the December quake and tsunami disaster.

The latest quake was felt in Medan and Padang and other areas on Sumatra Island, local residents said.

Indonesia's Metro TV reported that power failure hit Banda Aceh, the capital of Aceh Province after the quake.

Dozens dead

The earthquake reportedly killed dozens of people and destroyed hundreds of homes in the main town on Indonesia's Nias island on Monday evening.

Agus Mendrofa, the deputy mayor of Gunungsitoli town, estimated that 10,000 people had fled the town for higher ground in the wake of the quake.

'I can guarantee that dozens have died,' Mr Mendrofa said by telephone.

'Gunungsitoli is now like a dead town. The situation here is in extreme panic.'

Thailand

Coastal residents in southern Thailand were urged to evacuate as authorities issued a tsunami warning after the powerful quake.

'The earthquake is strong enough to issue the warning for people to evacuate as a prevention, particularly in the area affected by the tsunami last time," Chalermchai Akekantrong, deputy director general of the meteorological department, told Thai television.

People at the famous Patong beach on the tourist island of Phuket were already headed toward higher ground, TV reports said.

"The earthquake's epicentre was close to the epicenter of the last one. It is possible that the tsunami might happen, so the warning has been issued for six provinces in the south to be careful of the possibility of a tsunami," Kraisorn Pornsutee, permanent secretary for Thailand's ministry of information and communication technology (ICT), told Thai television.

The unprecedented warning was issued for the provinces of Krabi, Phuket, Phang Nga, Ranong, Satun and Trang, the officials said.

Sri Lanka

Sri Lanka issued a tsunami warning, urging residents in coastal areas to evacuate immediately.

The meteorological department said they were asking residents along the island's coastlines that were battered in the December 26 tsunami to leave immediately following the latest quake.

"We are not certain that this latest quake will trigger tsunamis that will hit Sri Lanka," department deputy director Lalith Chandrapala told AFP. "But, we are asking people living along the coast to leave as a precaution."

Local residents along the north-western coastal area of Negombo said people moved to temples and churches and rang bells to wake up coastal neighbourhoods and ask residents to leave.

India

The southern Indian state of Tamil Nadu also issued a tsunami warning following the quake.

"We have just received an alert from the centre (federal government) and have asked the fishermen down the coast to move towards the interior," CV Shanker, officer on special duty for tsunami relief, told reporters.

An Indian navy spokesman in Port Blair, capital of the remote Andaman and Nicobar islands in the Bay of Bengal, told AFP that a "full alert" had been issued but there "was no sign of a tsunami as yet".

"We don't see any abnormalities in the sea so far and we checked with Campbell Bay (southernmost point of India) which felt the tremor but there is no sign of [a]tsunami as of yet," the spokesman said.

Singapore

In Singapore the quake caused tremors in many parts of the country, a Singapore meteorological agency official said.

The Singapore agency said it is trying to determine whether it may cause a tsunami.

A police spokesman said they were flooded with calls from Singaporeans living in high-rise buildings who felt tremors and buildings swaying, but there were no immediate reports of casualties or damage.

Source: ABC Online - Australia

Monday, March 28, 2005

Chanting monks mourn Sri Lanka’s tsunami dead

PERALIYA: Hundreds of mourners prayed until dawn on Sunday beside an unmarked mass grave in southern Sri Lanka, chanting Buddhist mantras to honour the dead three months after they were swept away by a killer tsunami.

As night fell in the coastal village of Peraliya on Saturday, small clay lamps and red and yellow lanterns flickered as monks in saffron robes chanted the centuries-old prayers.

Not far from the mass grave, hundreds of lamps were placed on either side of a newly rebuilt railway line where the giant waves washed a train off the tracks, killing over 1,000 passengers and hundreds of others who lived nearby.

The glow lit up three crushed carriages, which now sit on a parallel track - now a shrine for grieving relatives and friends and a symbol of the tsunami for passing tourists. 'I wish that nothing like the tsunami will ever happen anywhere in the world again,' said Kumudu Manoja, a 25-year old nurse, as she lit one of the lamps.

A sea breeze made the seemingly simple task of lighting a small lamp difficult and frustrating for the mourners.

'My cousin's wife and her two children died in the tsunami, so I am lighting this oil lamp in their memory,' said 35-year old housewife Chandanee Welihena.

Some wept as they remembered loved ones among the around 40,000 Sri Lankans who were swept to their deaths by December's tsunami. Others held back tears, simply staring at the gentle roll of the surf in silent prayer. Across Asia, about 290,000 people are dead or missing after the tsunami.

'The third month remembrance is an important Buddhist custom as the religious service, even the lighting of a small oil lamp, can help ease the pain of those who suffered the loss of someone near and dear,' said Venerable Weliulle Damitha, one of 50 chanting monks.

The monks and mourners — many of whom had travelled from the capital Colombo — vastly outnumbered local tsunami survivors.

Rumours of another tsunami: Hundreds of panic-stricken locals abandoned their tents and makeshift shelters in the run-up to Saturday’s three month anniversary and fled inland amid rumours of another impending tsunami.

Thuran Manjula, a 33-year-old craftsman who makes traditional wooden devil masks, was one of a few survivors to stay put.

Living in a tent near the site of the train wreck with six members of his extended family, he is striving to get back on his feet.

“I lost everything I ever owned. My house, my workshop, 100,000 rupees ($1,000) worth of equipment,” he said.

“But everyone in my family survived and I thank god for that.” “I don’t believe these (tsunami) reports, and besides, what more can happen?”

Others remained disconsolate.

“Why should I leave now for a safer place after all what has happened?” asked H Kalupahana, a retired government clerk who lost his eldest son, a university student, in the disaster and decided to stay too.

“I did everything for my son and I don’t want to live anymore now that he’s gone. I can’t commit suicide, so I hope another tsunami will come and take my life as well - life is worthless without my son,” he said.


Source: Daily Times - Pakistan

Tsunami Soccer Aid - Liverpool Legends 6 Celebrities 2

Over 38,000 people turned up at a rain-soaked Anfield today to see an excellent piece of entertainment all taking place for the Tsunami Soccer Aid benefit match.

Jason McAteer, who's brainchild this event was, led out the Liverpool team that included heroes of his own from his days as a boyhood red. If the players who appeared over the next 90 minutes had been on sale today at today's transfer fees, no rich Russian could have afforded them.

Two number nines started for Liverpool - Rush and Fowler, a combination that did have a run together towards the end of Rush's Liverpool playing days, and as the game progressed the striking talents of Paul Walsh, David Johnson, John Aldridge and Kenny Dalglish combined to thrill the crowd.

Kenny Dalglish played for the last 20 minutes or so and he got the biggest cheer of the afternoon by far. A standing ovation was just what you'd expect from Liverpool's biggest hero. Ronnie Moran joined Kenny as managers of Liverpool for the day, with Jamie Redknapp's dad Harry managing the celebrities.

Bruce Grobbelaar starred in goal for Liverpool for the first half, and although he didn't have much to do his distribution of the ball from hand was still there. Bruce only played the first half, replaced for the second half by Sander Westerveld, another player to receive a big cheer when his name was announced.

Tranmere goalkeeping coach Eric Nixon was between the sticks for the first half for the celebrities, but in the second half Liverpool's current reserve keeper Paul Harrison stepped in, and made a number of great saves.

It was organiser McAteer who got the opening two goals for the Liverpool team, but he had to leave the pitch early as he has a first team game for play-off chasing League One Tranmere tomorrow.

Other highlights from the game included seeing Alan Hansen back on the pitch again. Hansen was of course forced to end his career earlier than he would have liked due to severe knee problems, and we're told this is the first time he's played a game since then. Lining up alongside him was Phil Thompson. He was later replaced by Gary Gillespie. Phil Neal and Alan Kennedy played as full backs for large parts of the game, with Gary Ablett and Neil Ruddock helping out to.

Liverpool's pass and move was there for all to see - the Liverpool players may not have the pace and fitness of old days, but they knew when and where to pass, and more importantly when and where to run.

Just like days of old, Jan Molby made the centre circle his own, still able to find those passes, and it was great to see Ronnie Whelan start alongside him.

All in all a great occasion, for a worthy cause, and congratulations go to Jason McAteer for organising it all.

Source: Anfield Road - Cheshire,UK

Tsunami survivors move out of emergency camp

Hundreds of Indonesian tsunami survivors gathered up their meager belongings and tramped out of an emergency camp Saturday, exactly three months after giant waves wiped out their homes and killed 174,000 around the Indian Ocean rim.

Holding prayer mats, tents and bags of clothes, more than 1,200 farmers and fishermen from the village of Lampaya traded in their tents for military-style barracks or, for those lucky enough, flood-damaged homes.

Their move underscored the gradual transition from the emergency relief operation after the Dec. 26 disaster to the rebuilding phase.

'I'm very happy about going. I've got rice fields that are damaged, and I've got to figure that out,' said Mukhtar Zainal Abidin, who was breaking down his tent and heading back to his home along the main highway. 'This is what I've got to do. Living here makes me sick. I don't want to only depend on donations.'

The magnitude-9 undersea earthquake, the world's biggest in 40 years, and the huge tsunami it sent charging across the Indian Ocean killed more than 174,000 people and left 106,000 more missing.

More than 1.5 million people were left homeless in 11 countries.

The British-based charity Oxfam International on Saturday said the tsunami killed three times more women than men, and the resulting scarcity of female survivors has led to reports of forced marriages and rape.

Although official statistics do not provide the gender of victims, partial data indicate many more women than men were among the people killed or declared missing after the tsunami.

The impact on women was seen especially in Sri Lanka, Indonesia and India. Indonesia, the country hardest hit by the earthquake-generated tsunami, now has villages where men outnumber women 10-to-1.

The report concluded that women suffered disproportionately because they had a more difficult time outrunning the waters or the bad luck of being at home while the men were out at sea fishing or in the fields working.

At a 300-year-old temple in Sri Lanka near where the giant waves swept as many as 2,000 train passengers to their deaths, Buddhist monks chanted at an all-night ceremony to help the wandering spirits of the dead.

Source: Indianapolis Star - USA

Child traffickers prey on tsunami victims

Bhagyaraj has stopped waiting for authorities to help rebuild his utensil kiosk that was washed away by the Indian Ocean tsunami three months ago.

Instead, the hawker in the southern Indian state of Tamil Nadu now waits for a middleman who has promised to get his 14-year-old daughter a job as a maid in a house in the big city after another daughter, 16, was taken away similarly this month.

'I can't feed them here. The relief is irregular and there is no sign of any help to rebuild my shop,' said the 46-year-old man, who lost two other daughters to the giant waves. 'At least they will be fed regularly in the city.'

Bhagyaraj is not the only tsunami survivor in the area sending away his children to ease his burden.

Arul Mani, a community activist, reels out of instances of many more children who have been sent away from Bhagyaraj's relief camp in the town of Velankanni.

"Two other girls, 13 and 14, have gone to work as maids, one 14-year boy has gone to a stone quarry, three boys were taken to work in Bangalore, two went to aluminium factories," he said.

Relief volunteers say a few dozen children from villages in Nagapattinam, India's worst tsunami-hit district, have been lured by labour contractors to work not just as domestic help but also at garment factories, stone quarries and utensil manufacturers.

Although trafficking in children and the use of child labour is known to be widely prevalent in the southern state of Tamil Nadu, where Nagapattinam is located, the district had been largely immune to the problem.

The district's lucrative fishing industry gave financial comfort to rural communities to educate their children and not send them away to work, the volunteers say.

But the tsunami has changed that.

"I am afraid we are on the verge of an explosion in child trafficking and child labour in Nagapattinam," said R. Somasundaram, chairman of the Avvai Village Welfare Society, a local voluntary group coordinating relief and rehabilitation for over a dozen global agencies.

With authorities busy providing relief, labour contractors descended even on relief camps and lured children away.

"Lots of people came looking to employ us. I went to work in a garment factory with six others where we dyed clothes," said Gunashekar, 15, who lives in a camp in Nagapattinam. "We missed our families and came back after 10 days."

Trafficking in children and child labour is illegal in India. But it has flourished nevertheless.

Although exact figures are not available, experts say hundreds of thousands of children are employed in manufacturing fireworks, matchsticks, gem and diamond cutting, carpet knotting, tanneries and stone quarries, among others.

The alarm in Nagapattinam comes as the United States warned India this month that it could face economic sanctions for not doing enough to stop trafficking of women and children, Indian newspaper reports said last week.

Washington is expected to decide in June whether it should impose sanctions and vote against loans to India from global financial institutions under the US Victims of Trafficking and Violence Protection Act, the reports said.

While fishermen were most hurt by the tsunami and received aid swiftly, non-fishing communities were not high on the priority list for relief and have been pushed to the wall, Somasundaram said.

"These people are practically starved," he said. "They say they are sending their children to work for a few months now but once they are gone there is no coming back."

Source: Independent Online - South Africa

Women who survived tsunami grappling with abusive men: group

The tsunami that overwhelmed Asia in December killed three times more women than men, and the resulting scarcity of female survivors has led to reports of forced marriages and rape, the British-based charity Oxfam International said Saturday.

Although official statistics do not provide the gender of victims, partial data indicate that many more women than men were among the 300,000 killed or declared missing after the Dec. 26 tsunami devastated the coastlines of 11 countries around the Indian Ocean.

The effect on women was seen especially in Sri Lanka, Indonesia and India.

Indonesia, the country hardest hit by the earthquake-generated tsunami, now has villages where men outnumber women 10-1.

''This disproportionate impact will lead to problems for years to come unless everyone working on the aid effort addresses the issue now,' said Becky Buel, Oxfam's policy director.

'We are already hearing about rapes, harassment and forced early marriages.''

The report concluded that women suffered disproportionately because they had a harder time outrunning the surging waters.

Sex assaults, beatings on rise

As a result, men now far outnumber women in crowded camps and scattered settlements, and the women are vulnerable to a range of abuses, the report said. Sri Lankan women reportedly have been sexually assaulted in camp toilets, and domestic violence is on the rise, the report found.

Indonesian women, according to Oxfam and women activists, are being sexually harassed in camps, forced or rushed into marrying much older men, and victimized by abusive Indonesian soldiers, who reportedly have strip-searched them.

''We know of at least three marriages in which women married older widowers. What we don't know is how forced it was,'' said Ines Smyth, gender adviser for Oxfam.

''When we asked them, they say they have an obligation to their family and were frightened for the future.

"If you lost everything you had, including your family, it's very difficult to refuse whatever is being offered, whether it's protection or the possibility of a house.''

Source: Chicago Sun-Times - USA

Friday, March 25, 2005

Lankan tsunami survivors rebuilding their lives from scratch

[Sri Lanka News] Colombo, Mar. 24: Nearly three months after the killer tsunami waves hit the Indian Ocean's shore and killed nearly 40, 000 people and displaced another 500,000 in Sri Lanka, survivors are struggling to rebuild their lives.

A handful of fishing boats are seen along the coast in the morning, and many jobless fishermen rush to help the lucky ones who can still work.

In return, some of them receive a small bag of fish, which they can either sell or eat themselves.

One such fisherman is Saeed Mohammed, who lost his wife, his three young children, his home and his boat in the tsunami.

With just a tent over his head, and a small bag of donated fish a day, Mohammed sits in his tent for hours, haunted by the memories of the devastating day.

'From the government, I received coupons, five thousand rupees in the first month and two and a half thousand rupees in the second month. I am waiting to see what happens now,' said Mohammed.

Farheena Tharssim also suffered terrible losses in the tsunami tragedy.

'All lost, my family, my brother, daughter, son everybody too much lost, and my home lost, three-wheeler lost, everything is lost,' said Tharssim.

When Tharssim isn't cooking for her family, she spends a lot of time praying with her husband and two surviving children.

Tharssim is anxiously awaiting news of a house, and feels helpless with all the red tape issues she hears about in the press.

Her husband, Bakir, who once drove a three-wheeler taxi, now sits at home. He says he feels helpless, as since the initial monetary aid, he has heard little more from the government.

"Government only give Rs 5000, Rs 2500 and ration card, only," said Maulana.

He says he needs much more, but they have not reached out to him.

Sri Lankan Member of Parliament, Sajith Premadasa, who works for the United National Party of Sri Lanka, and manages several Sri Lankan NGOs, says there is a gap between the promises and the actual rebuilding of lives.

"Well, there are a lot of reports, and a lot of press statements, press interviews, television news items, which tells a lot of tsunami victims in Sri Lanka that a lot of money has been raised by a lot of well wishers throughout the world, but if you look at the ground situation, the hard facts, they do not indicate the fact that the funds have arrived to the real victims," said Premadasa.

He added that the political situation was making it very difficult for work to be done.

"It is a matter of stopping one capable politician doing the work, just because they might get popular, a lot of personalization of the tsunami relief program, a lot of labelling, a lot of authorship that many politicians try to give to relief programs.

Premadasa says the politicians should focus their efforts on immediate concerns and needs such as infrastructure.

The government says that the delay in re-construction is due to delays in pledged donor aid reaching affected areas. They estimate 1. 8 billion dollars will be needed to rebuild the battered coastline, but only dollars 100 million has come in so far.

The number of people killed in tsunami waves caused by an earthquake which devastated Indian Ocean coastlines across 11 countries has shot up to more than 165,000.

In India, 15689 people officially are reported to be killed or missing along the Southern coast. WHO estimated that a total of 2260 km of coastal land penetrating 300m to 3 km in South India was severely affected. Tidal waves hit the coast of Tamilnadu, Andhra Pradesh, Orissa, Kerala and Pondicherry and unto the Andaman and Nicobar islands. Twenty six million people live in the affected area. Thousands of people from affected villages along the coastal belt are still living in relief camps. (ANI)


Source: New Kerala - Ernakulam,Kerala,India

Sri Lanka conflict experience used for tsunami support

Psychosocial support for people affected by the years of conflict in Sri Lanka is being adapted and applied to help survivors of the tsunami in that country.

The Danish Red Cross has been a partner with the Sri Lanka Red Cross since 2003 in a programme assisting children affected by the conflict in the far north of Sri Lanka in Jaffna.

Danish Red Cross advisor in Jaffna Karin Eriksen says the programme is now being utilised to get people through their experiences of the tsunami.

"We see the same psychosocial problems after the tsunami as we saw after the conflict. But there is a greater sense of guilt and grief after the tsunami," she says.

"They ask themselves 'why did I go to the market and leave the children alone?', or they blame others - 'why didn't you hold on better to our daughter?' In war there is something more physical to blame it on. It is difficult to blame it on the sea, because the sea is what brings many of these families their daily income,"says Eriksen.

The healing begins

In Colombuthurai School in Jaffna, 17 children in white school uniforms sit on straw mats on the floor in their new school building. The children are having lunch and giggling happily between mouthfuls of rice and curry. Outside, the ruins of the old school bear the scars from the years of conflict.

"Close your eyes and think about the feelings that you go through during a day. Draw the one feeling that you can't forget," teacher V.R. Gnanapragasam instructs them. Some children draw happy faces. Many draw faces that express anger, or have tears running down the cheeks.
The children from Colombuthurai have been displaced five times as a result of Sri Lanka�s 20-year-long conflict. In 2003 they came back for good. But Gnanapragasam says the return did not solve all the problems.

“The students’ habits were good before, but after the displacements they have had a lot of problems and the education level had gone down. They didn’t do their homework, they didn’t listen,” says Gnanapragasam.

According to the UN, more than 90 percent of Jaffna’s population have been displaced at least once because of the conflict, with over 65,000 people still not able to return to their homes. The displacement, loss of loved ones, property and income and the destruction of social structures, cause stress for both adults and children.

“A new environment itself is a stress, adjusting is always difficult,” says Kohila Mahendran, trainer counsellor from the local psychosocial NGO, Shanthiham. “In addition, alcoholism in the family affects a lot of children in Jaffna. Many adults suffer from post-traumatic stress disorders and the parents’ problems spill over on the children.”

Responding to new needs

Based on experiences in the Balkans and the Middle East, the Danish Red Cross, in agreement with the Sri Lanka Red Cross Society, set up a psychosocial programme in 2003 for conflict-affected children in Jaffna.

To date 85 teachers from 19 schools have been given basic psychosocial training, and have learnt how to use play therapy, art therapy, dancing and traditional exercises with the children. A total of 2,800 children and 4,000 parents are expected to take part in the activities in 2005 and 2006.

When the tsunami hit, the Danish Red Cross together with the SLRCS refocused their efforts and put together a 10-day training programme to be able to respond to the new needs. Sixty-nine Sri Lanka Red Cross volunteers from the severely tsunami-affected districts of Trincomalee, Batticaloa, Ampara, in addition to four from Jaffna, were trained and have started psychosocial activities to help people process their experiences. Activities have also started in the district of Hambantota.

The Danish Red Cross’ Karin Eriksen notes that people in the area were already vulnerable psychologically.

“It is one thing to cope with one event such as a lost family member or displacement due to the conflict. Having to go through difficult situations again and again can reduce your abilities to cope and can lead to psychological stress,” she says.

Teachers and parents have been positive about the Red Cross programme, and say that the children’s behaviour has improved since the activities started. In some schools, the attendance during the normal school hours has even gone up as a result of the programme.

“Some students were not talking to each other or with the teachers. Now they are,” says teacher Gnanapragasam in Colombuthurai. “The activities are good because they give children more relief than what they get at home. Now they come and tell us about their problems.”

Experts estimate that following a disaster, five-10 per cent of the affected population will develop psychological problems. This number is likely to be higher if appropriate support is not given. In 2003, the German Technical Cooperation (GTZ) reported that 25 per cent of Jaffna’s children have been affected psychologically by the conflict.

Before finishing for the day, the children in Colombuthurai are asked to make clay figures. Some make figures of animals or household objects. Thirteen-year-old Gajenthan makes a little figure of someone who has lost an arm and a leg. “It is a tsunami victim”, he explains. His sister got injured during the disaster.

Gajenthan wins the prize for today for sharing his feelings, and is applauded by all the children. He has made a small step towards processing what’s troubling his mind. With time, it is hoped that he and the other children will not bear the scars of conflict or natural disaster.

Source: Reuters AlertNet - London,England,UK

Wednesday, March 23, 2005

Politics creeps back into tsunami aid

Although the world's response to the Asian tsunami was, as one experienced aid worker put it, 'magnificent', the threat of politics as usual is beginning to creep back.

As the provision of immediate aid gives way to long-term reconstruction, a lot of the old problems which follow disasters are resurfacing.

In a sense, getting help to the victims quickly was the easy bit. It required effort but the unprecedented catastrophe was met by unprecedented generosity.

The calamity even brought the sight of old rivals and former US presidents George Bush senior and Bill Clinton travelling together as American envoys. Their presence demonstrated how President George Bush junior felt that a heightened American response was needed.

But again, their visit was not that hard to carry out.

The business of rebuilding is always far harder and is likely to prove so in this case as well.

The scale of the disaster led to a large-scale response - but the challenges are correspondingly huge.

Shortfall
For a start, the amount of aid on offer is not necessarily going to be enough. The Asian Development Bank (ADB) has reported a difference between the $7.7 billion it estimates that India, Indonesia, the Maldives and Sri Lanka need and the commitments received of $3.54 billion.

Such a shortfall is not unusual after disasters.

But the mismatch reported by the ADB shows that familiar phenomena are at work here.

Estimates can often be on the high side as governments and aid organisations go for the maximum they can.

Donors are more cautious and experience has shown that not all the money on offer can always be spent. There are various reasons for this. The capacity of a country to absorb the aid might be limited; conditions are set by donor countries that slow or prevent work; donor frustration emerges after a time when governments even switch the funds to meet other needs.

Political effects

Natural disasters can often shake up governments. In this case, an opposite trend might be evident. The Thai Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra did so well in organising aid that he got re-elected in a landslide.

Neither the Sri Lankan nor the Indonesian governments - nor the insurgent movements they are facing in some of the hardest hit areas - have shown many signs of wanting to seize the moment and reach political settlements.

Indeed, particularly in Sri Lanka, the government and the rebels have had trouble in coming together to agree on the distribution of aid and each side is vying for prestige and influence.

Again, politics as usual is intervening.

EU failure

Another indication of that has been the failure of the European Union to agree on a proposal which would have the effect of lowering tariffs for textile imports from some of the countries badly affected, especially Sri Lanka.

Such systemic reforms have a much greater effect on prosperity than transitory aid.

However, a proposal from the European Commission has been blocked by Italy and France. They feel that the overall plan would open the EU's doors to too many cheap imports from the Far East generally.

The EU Trade Commissioner Peter Mandelson remarked to the European Parliament: "I regret that, in some cases, member states said explicitly that Europe should put domestic interests above all else."

There was better news over the freezing of debt payments. But even here, the debt was not written off and Thailand, for one, refused to accept the deal on the grounds that its future credit rating might be lowered and further loans made more expensive.

India seeks help

Another, perhaps more unexpected, return of normality has been the decision by the government of India to seek foreign aid after all.

India made a great deal of its initial refusal to seek help, saying that it could cope on its own.

However, it did hint that it might look for help later and this is exactly what it has done.

A joint assessment team from the World Bank, the ADB and the UN went to India in February and inspected the affected areas, though not the remote Andaman Islands which are still off-limits to outside agencies. The team have produced a report which puts India's reconstruction needs at $1.2 billion.

So India is unable to cope on its own, despite its growing economic and regional strength.

UN benefit

One further rather unexpected result has been an increase in the standing of the UN. Lord David Hannay, a former British UN ambassador said: "The tsunami operation has been helpful for the United Nations which did well in its response. It demonstrated that you do need a UN to pull things together."

This is not unhelpful at the very moment when the UN is seeking to reform itself and get the United States re-engaged.

Malcolm Rodgers, a senior officer for emergencies at Christian Aid in London, summed up the feelings among aid workers about the overall response to the disaster: "Generally, the world public, governments and aid organisations have responded in a very unexpected and magnificent way."

But he, too, identified problems: "The absorptive capacity of some countries is exacerbated by the local conflicts. These are throwing up political difficulties."

And the aid agencies, in Britain at least, fear that so much money has, necessarily, gone to this disaster that people will not be able to afford to give so much to other causes.

For this reason the idea of a general emergencies fund is being considered. This would enable money to be switched more easily around the world. At the moment, money donated for one cause cannot be transferred to another.

Such a reform, the agencies believe, would be a useful legacy of the response to this calamity.


Source: BBC News - E,UK

How tsunami diseases were curbed

Experts charged with preventing the spread of disease in the aftermath of the tsunami say they 'got it right' and prevented a major health crisis.

After the Boxing Day disaster, there were fears that diseases such as diarrhoea, typhoid and malaria could claim the lives of many of those who had survived.

But speedy and co-ordinated action from relief agencies and the governments of the countries affected meant the numbers affected were much lower than they could have been.

Isolated outbreaks of diseases ranging from diarrhoea to measles, dengue fever and malaria did occur.

But moves to provide clean water and proper sanitation held down the number of cases.

Agencies also set up 'early-warning systems', so cases could be picked up easily and the spread of any infection contained.

Dr David Nabarro, head of the World Health Organization's Crisis Management Team, said: 'If we saw an outbreak, we would send in teams, helicopters and vaccines to sort things out.

'So disease outbreaks were common, but they didn't turn into epidemics.'

He added: 'It's the first time I've seen the international community organise itself so well.

'But it's very important that people realise that it could have been amazingly terrible.

'The conditions in Indonesia and the other countries affected were absolutely fertile for people to get diarrhoea and other infections.

'It's just that this time we actually got it right.

'What we need to be saying is that we've shown that, if we do it properly, we can limit the number of post-disaster deaths."

'Sticking around'

Health workers in the area say they are now dealing with reassuringly routine health problems.

Ann Ottosson, Medicins Sans Frontieres' emergency medical co-ordinator in Aceh, said: "The disease that we are seeing now are respiratory infections, and skin infections, probably due to bad hygiene."


Ensuring clean water was a high priority

Thoughts are now moving to helping the doctors and nurses from the countries hit by the tsunami rebuild their health systems.

In many areas, clinics were destroyed and equipment lost in the tsunami.

And many health workers were killed or injured in the disaster.

The MSF team in Aceh say the area's district hospital was destroyed.

Ann Ottosson said: "It means people have had no access to secondary health care, such as surgery. But you need somewhere that you can refer patients who need that level of care."

The team are now establishing a clinic in the town of Lamno where hospital-level care can be provided.

She added: "We have started to provide support to the health teams here. We work with the staff and train them, give them the equipment, drugs and other materials they need.

"And we are still providing healthcare in the camps for the displaced population."

David Nabarro said: "Organisations like ourselves and MSF will have to stick around for some time.

"Our job will be to co-ordinate, MSF to provide support. Other groups, such as Australia Aid, the UK Department for International Development and the World Bank will then help by putting in the reconstruction funds."

Everyone working in the area says there is still a long way to go before things are back to normal. But Dr Nabarro says that, so far, "things are going pretty well".


Source: BBC News - E,UK

Tuesday, March 22, 2005

After the tsunami: latest from Sri Lanka

Kalmunai is a beautiful fishing town in Ampara district, on the eastern shores of Sri Lanka. In the town centre life goes on as usual, and the streets are bustling with traffic and people.

But Kalmunai is one of the places worst hit by the tsunami. Less than a kilometre from the centre there is almost total destruction. The wave destroyed everything in its path for over 500 metres inland.

Almost 5,000 of the town's inhabitants died and over 1,000 more are still missing. Around 20,000 are living in refugee camps or staying with relatives, their lives upturned in a matter of minutes.

TAMIL TERRITORY
The population of Kalmunai is mainly Tamil and Muslim. For decades the Tamils have been at war with the Sinhalese in the southwest of the island.

Now there is an uncomfortable cease-fire as everyone works to help the tsunami victims. There is very little government presence except for assistance from the military.

STRENGTHENING LOCAL CAPACITY
Local NGOs are conducting clean-up operations and distributing water, food and emergency supplies with support from international NGOs.

HelpAge Sri Lanka is working with four local community organisations in Ampara, Baticaloa and Trincomalee districts to distribute non-food items such as pots, pans, mosquito nets, soap, disinfectants, spoons, knives, plates, and other items required to cope with daily needs.

"It is very important for us to work with good partners who know the area and the people. That way we can go directly to the people we need to get to and our work is efficient.

"It helps build capacity among local partners who will stay on in this area long after we have left," says HelpAge Sri Lanka worker Anant Bir Singh, Deputy Director of HelpAge India and a consultant to the emergency programme in Sri Lanka.

REBUILDING LIVELIHOODS

Mrs. Manikam Chinnapulla, aged 75, and her family are now able to get water from the local HelpAge Sri Lanka tank.

“I am a widow and I lived in this house with my son and my daughter’s family. My son was taken by the tsunami and so was my daughter’s husband.

“Now we are only women here and we have lost everything,” she says. “I am hoping that we can start a shop here and make a living that way”.

HelpAge Sri Lanka’s long-term objectives are to help older people like Manikam, their families and communities, to recover their livelihoods and help them repair their damaged homes.

So far, HelpAge Sri Lanka has:

- Provided two water tanks to deliver 32,000 litres of water each day.

- Distributed 260 water tanks in Ampara and Baticaloa districts.

- Distributed 2,375 non-food kits in Ampara and 3,000 in Trincomalee district.

- Organised clean-up activities for houses, streets and neighbourhoods, involving volunteers and paid workers.

- Provided small cash grants for over 30 older women.

- Identified new local partners to work with.


Source: Reuters AlertNet - London,England,UK

400 injured in Japan quake, but tsunami warning canceled

A powerful earthquake jolted southern Japanese islands on Sunday, killing an elderly woman, injuring 400 people and triggering landslides.

In a region still jittery from the devastating Indian Ocean quake and tsunami, authorities evacuated half the residents of a tiny island near the epicenter and warned of a tsunami but later canceled the alert.

The magnitude-7.0 temblor, which hit west of Kyushu Island at 10:53 a.m., was centered at an unusually shallow depth of 5.5 miles below the ocean floor, the Japanese Meteorological Agency said. At least one aftershock with a magnitude of 4.2 was recorded.

Minutes after the shaking began, the agency warned of the possibility of a 20-inch tsunami. Such waves can grow to towering heights as they approach land, and authorities cautioned residents near the water to move to higher ground. But the agency withdrew the warning after about an hour.

Landslides flatten houses

The worst damage from Sunday's quake was nearest to the epicenter, on tiny Genkai Island, where the shaking touched off landslides and leveled homes. About 120 Japanese troops flew to the island just west of Kyushu to offer food and medical aid and help evacuate more than 400 of the 850 residents to Kyushu.

Nearby in Fukuoka city, a 75-year-old woman died after a section of a stone wall fell on her, a government spokesman said.
At least 400 were injured by the quake and treated at hospitals, public broadcaster NHK television reported. Most of the injured were in hardest-hit Fukuoka prefecture on western Kyushu, 560 miles southwest of Tokyo."


Source: Chicago Sun-Times - USA

Monday, March 21, 2005

Charities defend help given to tsunami victims

Charities have reacted with disbelief to claims that not enough is being done to help the victims of the Asian tsunami. Earlier this week actor David Hayman launched a blistering attack on the Disasters Emergency Committee, the agency which co-ordinated financial help after the disaster. Having just returned from Sri Lanka he claims he didn't see the big money raised being spent.

It was Boxing Day when the tsunami hit, killing hundreds of thousands and changing the lives of millions more forever.

David Hayman has visited Sri Lanka with his charity Spirit Aid to see the devastation for himself.

Earlier this week he told Scotland Today he was shocked at how little has been done, nearly three months on.

David Hayman said: 'You are sitting on �300 million of aid money given generously by the people of the United Kingdom, over �30 million given by the people of Scotland.

I would love to ask the question, I was in Sri Lanka for two weeks, I did not see evidence of that money being spent and the Sri Lankans themselves are beginning to ask those questions and there are editorials in newspapers and already there is civil unrest growing because people are deeply frustrated.'

But charities say that just doesn't tally with what they saw on their own visits to the country.

Save the Children claims the �30 million raised by Scotland has helped them bring aid to around 37,000 families in Sri Lanka alone.

They are now working on the recovery phase, helping to get businesses back up and running.

Charities that make up the Disasters Emergency Committee agree no money is being wasted.

Malcolm Fleming, from the Disasters Emergency Committee, said: 'The people of Scotland were incredibly generous. Every single penny that they donated is being spent wisely in countries like Sri Lanka. People in the country may not all be wearing our DEC T-shirts but they are helping put food on the tables of those affected, a roof over their heads and indeed rebuild the infrastructure."

Communities barely over the tsunami are now bracing themselves for another natural challenge - the Monsoon season is just starting.



Source: Scotland Today - Glasgow,Scotland,UK

Tsunami victims, Iraqis get taste of water from space technology

There are plenty of wells in Iraq, but Saddam Hussein's regime contaminated them with dead animals. There are plenty of streams in southeast Asia, but the tsunami polluted them with salt from the ocean.

How do you quench someone's thirst when there is plenty of water, but not a drop of it is drinkable?

It's a question NASA researchers have pondered for nearly two decades, but villagers in Iraq and tsunami victims in Asia will get a taste of their answer as early as this fall _ before any astronaut in space does.

Marshall Space Flight Center in Huntsville, Ala., has been testing a device intended for the space station that would recycle an astronaut's own sweat, respiration and even urine into drinking water purer than any found in a tap.

'They just breathe and exercise, urinate into the urinal, and our system handles the rest,' said Robyn Carrasquillo, chief of the environmental control and life support division at Marshall.

It could be two years before the water system _ as large as two refrigerators _ is loaded onto a shuttle to serve an American astronaut and Russian cosmonaut living in space. But smaller and simpler versions will soon be put to use on earth.

Reno, Nev.-based investment firm Crestridge and the charity Concern for Kids are developing the systems for humanitarian purposes in nations lacking a reliable water supply, starting with Iraq and southeast Asia.

'There are 1.8 billion people who have never had a drink of fresh water,' said Kevin Chambers, Crestridge's managing director. 'Our mission is grand, but we've got to start somewhere and some time, and now is the time.'

Rocket scientists trying to sustain life in space and humanitarians trying to increase the quality of life in Third World countries kept running into the same problem _ a lack of clean but affordable drinking water.

Bottles of fresh water cost as much as $1.50 a gallon. Each of those weighs eight pounds, so the fees skyrocket when they're transported across the planet _ let alone beyond the stratosphere.

Robert Anderson, vice president and international projects director for Concern for Kids, says he began looking into water recycling technology two years ago because of the huge expenses necessary to carry water to Iraqi villages by tanker truck.

"I got to thinking, 'There's got to be a better way,"' he said. Eventually, he reached the company that held the patent on the technology being developed for NASA.

For $29,000 in equipment costs and less than 3 cents a gallon, a trailer-mounted recycling device can travel from village to village, turning a well's unclean water into a substance suitable for drinking. Larger, stationary systems equipped with packaging plants cost around $400,000.

Researchers at Windsor Locks, Conn.-based Hamilton Sundstrand, the lead contractor of the water processor for NASA, only recently learned their filtration technology is being put into action at home before it heads to the space station.

"It was a total surprise to us _ not that it's a stretch," said Bob Aaron, the company's program manager for the processor.

Next month, Crestridge plans to break ground on the first manufacturing plant for the earth-based water processing devices. By September, it hopes to send 10 truck-mounted and at least three trailer devices to Iraq and 12 of the larger packaging units to southeast Asia.

NASA's timetable is somewhat less ambitious _ the water processor is targeted for a shuttle launch in mid-2007.

The space station had to reduce its permanent residents from three to two after the Columbia disaster grounded American shuttles, which had carried tanks of water to the astronauts living there.

Now the astronaut and cosmonaut are living off water brought up by the Russian spacecraft, which also includes a device that catches some respiration and recycles it into limited amounts of drinking water. No urine recycler has ever been used in space.

Although the NASA technology is virtually finished, it still must undergo several more tests to make sure it can withstand a launch.

"If you buy something commercially, go to Wal-Mart and pick it up and it falls on the ground, you just take it back to the store and get a refund," said Layne Carter, design leader for the NASA project. "Obviously that's not viable for the (space) station."



Source: Newsday - Long Island,NY,USA

Yusuf Islam releases tsunami aid CD

Yusuf Islam, the pop musician known as Cat Stevens until he converted to Islam 30 years ago, is set to release a new CD today in aid of tsunami-orphaned children in the Indonesian province of Aceh.

'The tsunami disaster has changed the world in an extraordinary way and it requires an extraordinary response from everyone,' said the 56-year-old, who sold 50 million records in the 1970s with hits such as Matthew and Son, Peace Train and Wild World.

The new song in response to the disaster, Indian Ocean, features Magne Furuholmen of Norwegian group A-Ha and Neil Primrose of Britpop band Travis.

The British singer's own charity, Small Kindness, set up a regional office in Indonesia and will work on projects 'to keep families together' by helping orphans in the predominantly-Muslim Aceh.

'We try to find other family members who would look after the orphans and then keep the family together in that way and then pay them subsistence every month,' he said on his website."


Source: Sydney Morning Herald (subscription) - New South Wales,Australia

Study sees tsunami risk in the Caribbean

Based on the historical record, there's a serious risk of a devastating tsunami in the Caribbean Sea off the coasts of Puerto Rico, Haiti and the Dominican Republic, a team of scientists reported this past week.

An earthquake in that region could generate waves up to 40 feet high and threaten the lives of up to 35.5 million people living in coastal areas, they said. Smaller waves could reach Florida, the Gulf of Mexico and as far north as New Jersey.

Ten destructive tsunamis have been generated in the past 500 years by undersea earth movements along the boundary between the Caribbean and the North American tectonic plates -- two of the great, moving slabs of rock that cover the ocean floor.

That's an average of one significant tsunami every 50 years. The most recent occurred in 1946 -- 59 years ago -- when a magnitude 8.1 earthquake in the Dominican

Republic triggered a giant wave that killed 1,800 people.

The dates imply that another tsunami is already overdue.

The scientists -- Nancy Grindlay and Meghan Hearne of the University of North Carolina, Wilmington, and Paul Mann of the University of Texas, Austin -- will publish their report in Tuesday's issue of Eos, the newspaper of the American Geophysical Union.

'The rapid increase in population in the northern Caribbean to its present level of 35.5 million people means that future tsunamis will be much more destructive than the historical ones,' they predicted.

In all, 88 tsunamis -- most of them moderate -- have been reported in the earthquake-prone, volcano-ringed Caribbean area since 1489, according to George Pararas-Carayannis, former director of the International Tsunami Information Center in Honolulu, Hawaii.

'Several of these were generated by volcanic eruptions and by collateral volcanic flank failure, debris avalanches and landslides," he wrote last year in the Science of Tsunami Hazards, a professional journal.

At least six Caribbean tsunamis are known to have killed people: in 1692, 1781, 1842, 1867, 1918 and 1946. The total death toll is unknown, but at least 2,000 people perished.

According to the Eos report, "the northern Caribbean is capable of generating tsunamis of at least up to 12 meters (40 feet) high." The effects of past tsunamis have extended up to 1,320 miles, it said.

Underwater landslides cause tsunamis by displacing large volumes of water, forcing it to surge upward in a powerful wave.

"This is serious," said Martitia Tuttle, a tsunami expert in Georgetown, Maine, who is not part of the Eos team.

Tuttle noted that there's evidence of a major earthquake along the Caribbean plate boundary about 800 years ago.

"Strain has been accumulating on that fault since then," she said. "Enough strain has accumulated to generate a quite large -- 7 to 8 magnitude -- earthquake, but when, we can't say."


Source: Indianapolis Star - USA

RGS students to help tsunami victims with T-issue fundraising project

Secondary Four students from Raffles Girls' School are making waves with T-issue, a fundraising project in aid of Sri Lankan Tsunami victims.

These enterprising girls hope to meet their target of raising S$100,000 through island-wide sales of specially designed packets of tissue.

Lin Wanjie, Designer, said: 'Essentially, we feel that the tsunami issue is a really big disaster which requires our continuing effort. However, people's attention spans are short, so by making these tissue packets and giving it to them, we may remind them that they need to continually support the tsunami.'

While lending a helping hand to the tsunami victims, the students have been exposed to many new learning experiences.

Amanda Chong Wei-Zhen, Head of Publicity Committee, said: 'It really taught us to be resourceful in the business world, and we had to go out canvassing so we learnt that we had to be very persistent. We were really motivated by the fact that this was for the tsunami victims, so we managed to do everything, despite having schoolwork to do at the same time.'

Teachers and parents have also been supportive of their effort by actively buying up the packets of tissue.

The money raised will be channelled to relief efforts in the disaster hit areas.

In addition, plans for school expeditions to these areas are already in the pipeline. - CNA"


Source: Channel News Asia - Singapore

Musos rock Malaysia with tsunami concert

AP - Lauryn Hill and Wyclef Jean, former members of hip-hop group The Fugees, reunited onstage in Malaysia in an adrenaline-charged charity concert for tsunami victims.

The Backstreet Boys, Black Eyed Peas and Boyz II Men were among other acts that entertained an enthusiastic crowd of 15,000 people on Friday, raising more than 10 million ringgit $A3.3 million) to rebuild tsunami-devastated communities in Indonesia, Thailand, Sri Lanka and India.

The seven-hour 'Force of Nature' show at Kuala Lumpur's Stadium Putra was the biggest concert in Malaysian history, marking the first initiative of a local nonprofit organisation dedicated to raising funds for natural disaster survivors.

'A terrible tragedy has struck the area that we call home,' said Malaysian-born action star Michelle Yeoh. 'This has moved many of us to act, because we cannot forget and we cannot let those faces in the headlines fade away.'

The organisation that staged the concert, also called 'Force of Nature,' is spearheaded by former Malaysian diplomat Razali Ismail, the country's tsunami envoy, who says the money will be used to rebuild schools and infrastructure destroyed by the tsunami.

The concert included impassioned performances by numerous Asian sensations, including Hong Kong's Nicholas Tse and Yumiko Cheng, Indonesia's Ruth Sahanaya and Malaysia's Sheila Majid.

Hong Kong action movie legend Jackie Chan sang a tender Mandarin-language love ballad to an audience that included Malaysian Prime Minister Abdullah Ahmad Badawi and an array of Cabinet ministers.

Hill and Jean, who comprised two-thirds of the Grammy-winning rap group The Fugees before it split in the late 1990s, made a rare appearance together onstage, rendering the most power-packed performance of the night.

The charismatic hip-hoppers sang three of The Fugees' most anthemic hits from their acclaimed 1996 album "The Score" - "Killing Me Softly With His Song," "Ready or Not" and "Fu-Gee-La."

"This is history in the making," a choked-up Jean said in a dramatic gesture, kneeling down in front of Hill. "Do you all understand what's happening on this stage? I'm too emotional right now."

Jean also delivered the night's most poignant moment. While gently chanting "We'll never forget the tsunami victims," he instructed the stadium lights to be turned off while the audience waved lighted cell phones in the darkness.

Other celebrities who made brief speeches at the event included "American Idol" judge Paula Abdul and former contestant Clay Aiken, Oscar nominee Ken Watanabe and pop singers Joey Fatone and Lance Bass from 'N Sync.


Source: Ninemsn - Sydney,New South Wales,Australia

Thursday, March 17, 2005

Tough decisions on tsunami orphans

Tough decisions on tsunami orphans

Around 200 children were orphaned and many more lost one parent when December's tsunami struck the district of Nagappattinam in Tamil Nadu state, the worst-affected region in India.
The local administration has handled scores of queries from individuals and organisations wanting to adopt the children.

But fears of human trafficking have made the government tread with caution.
The emphasis now is on rehabilitating these children in the local communities.

Suryakala, a district social welfare officer in Nagappattinam, says many children they talked to preferred to remain here rather than move out of the area.

The local administration has asked those interested in adoption to send in applications. But they are in no hurry to move these children out.

Diversion
The fury of the tsunami's waves has left a deep scar on most of these children.

If some lost their parents, many others were witness to the devastation and have been trying to cope with the trauma.

Spending time with other children in their age-group provides them with a diversion for a while. But only for a while.

A day-care centre run by a local church in Nagappattinam has around 40 children who have lost one of their parents.

Rosemary, a local teacher, says: "These children are traumatised. Some have become irritable and disinterested."

Poongkulali plays in the centre's over-two-year-olds group, where her mother drops her every morning.

Ask her about the tsunami and tears well in her eyes. "There was water everywhere... my father is no more," she says.

A few more questions and she looked dazed.

Mrs Ratham is another teacher who is trying to help children get over the trauma of the tsunami.

"We make the children spend more time playing and singing so as to divert their attention from the tragedy. It has been difficult to get the children to concentrate even on playing," she says.

"Leave them for a while and they leave the play area to huddle in a corner."

Lobbying hard

Around 60 children have been put up in an orphanage run by the Zion Church in Nagappattinam.

Parvathi lost her parents but has returned to the school to take her examinations.

She visits her relatives once a month and says she prefers to stay in Nagappattinam.
Local charities and social activists have lobbied hard with the government not to "give away" these children for adoption.

Aftab, a young activist, says he learned a lot from the aftermath of the Gujarat earthquake in 2000.

He says that in the past two months there have been several instances of representatives of organisations trying to "forcibly" take away orphans.

"The local community objected and expressed its willingness to take care of such children," says Aftab.

"None of these children want to be moved out," he says.
The local administration, Aftab says, is still not clear about what it wants to do with them.

He has met representatives of different villages who back the idea not to move them out.
"Why should these children be sent to orphanages and homes far from here?" he asks.

Efforts by individuals like Aftab seem to have had an impact.

The local administrator's office has decided against any hasty decision.

One official summed up the dilemma faced by the government: "The issue of children is a delicate matter in any community... one wrong step and we will invite the wrath of the people."

Source: BBC News

Tsunami 'Baby 81' hits America

Tsunami 'Baby 81' hits America

By Sue PlemingWASHINGTON (Reuters) - "Baby 81," the infant who has become Sri Lanka's most celebrated tsunami survivor, has made his debut onU.S. breakfast television to raise funds for quake victims back home.

Gurgling at news anchors who clamoured to hug the 4-month-old, Abilass Jeyarajah appeared on ABC's "Good Morning America"show on Wednesday with his parents, whose custody battle was settled only after court-ordered DNA tests proved he was their son.

"God only knows why they didn't give him to us," the boy's father, Murugupillai, told ABC of the wrenching custody fight, which quicklybecame an international news story.

Abilass was seen by many as a beacon of hope for bereaved parents whose children were swept away by Asia's December 26tsunami, which killed nearly 40,000 people along Sri Lanka's palm-fringed shores alone.

Ripped from his mother's arms by raging waters, Abilass was found alive amid debris on a Sri Lankan beach and taken to a hospitalwhere staff gave him the nickname as he was the 81st person taken to the hospital after the tsunami struck.

His parents, hearing a baby had been found, rushed to the hospital but were not allowed to take him home until DNA tests proved thelittle boy was their son. Eight other desperate parents had also claimed the child.

The child's mother told ABC she did not like the name "Baby 81" and wanted people to call her son by his real name Abilass, whichmeant hope and joy.

SAD NICKNAME"Baby 81 is a name associated with sadness and worry," said Jenita, who had at one stage stormed the hospital under the glare oftelevision cameras to take home her son when she heard another family was going to claim him

."I was fighting for my child. That was all I was doing," she told ABC.

Murugupillai said the couple had found it difficult to feel overjoyed by their reunion with Abilass because so many people had lostrelatives.

"We never truly felt joy as there was sadness all around us," he said.

The couple said they hoped their trip to the United States would encourage people to continue to support tsunami victims, particularly intheir own village where everything had been destroyed.

"Everyone in the village is totally wiped out," said the boy's father, a barber.

"We hope we can get back what we had. We want to go back and live the normal life," added his wife.

The family, whose trip to America was paid for by the network, travelled for nine hours from their small village to the Sri Lankan capitalColombo and then made a 19-hour flight to New York, their first time on an aircraft.

ABC said on its Web site that while in New York, the couple hope to meet the woman from UNICEF who helped expedite the DNA teststhat proved the baby was theirs.

The couple said they were overwhelmed by being in New York where they saw snow for the first time, but felt it was important to raiseawareness of the plight of tsunami victims.

Source: Reuters