Between the toilets and kitchens of a refugee camp set up in the grounds and rooms of Mahmud Ladies’ College, seven-month-old Fatima is wailing in the arms of her grandmother. Thin and frail, the baby has survived the waves that pounded her beachside home almost two weeks ago only to find herself threatened by another killer: diarrhoea.
Although medicine is getting through, food supplies are erratic and Fatima is still losing weight.
”Since the illness came, she is getting thinner. I do not know what to do,” says Meera, staring down at her daughter’s baby.
It is not hard to see, or smell, why the child cannot make a recovery. The camp’s slimy, greenish water is used for cooking, cleaning and drinking. Two thousand people now live in the college’s 12 classrooms and share two toilets.
”All the water here has been contaminated. How can she get better staying in a place like this?” says Kalandhar Rais, a public health doctor in Kalmunai. ”We need proper chlorination facilities and hand pumps from international organisations. Until then we are simply spreading disease and will face another disaster.”
Physicians in Ampara district, whose three main villages lost 12 000 lives and contain 130 000 refugees, say they are in desperate need of relief. Fights have broken out in camps where too little food has turned up. Skin rashes and lesions are increasingly commonplace on the refugees’ limbs — tell-tale signs, say doctors, that conditions are far from hygienic.
Ampara is the worst-hit spot in the country. A third of the 35 000 reported dead came from around Ampara. Although more than 700 tonnes of aid is reaching Sri Lanka every day, little has arrived on country’s east coast.
”We are only 400km from Colombo but we might as well be in another country,” says Rais.
For once, Sri Lanka’s explosive ethnic mix appears not to be at the root of the problem. Three-quarters of the local population are Muslim, who — although they speak Tamil — found themselves caught between the Sri Lankan army and the Tamil separatists during the country’s civil war. As a result, they have remained largely outside the fray.
Instead, Ampara’s problems appear to stem from freak weather conditions, poor roads and being served by a short runway on the nearby military base, which can only handle light aircraft and helicopters. The result is that instead of flooding the disaster-hit areas with foodstuffs, drugs and clean water, the international relief agencies have managed only a trickle of goods.
Earlier this week, the United Nations got half a dozen trailers of supplies through, a mission that was delayed by potholed roads and flash floods. The drive took 16 hours.
Relief agencies say that aid is arriving but acknowledge that the scale of the relief effort in Ampara is daunting.
”Ampara is the most needy area and the gap between what’s needed and what’s available clearly is going to take a long time to fill,” says Ted Chaiban of the UN Children’s Fund.
Although there are some signs of aid reaching the eastern coast, in the form of white jeeps emblazoned with charities’ logos, there appears no concerted large-scale effort to rehouse and feed people.
”When we get lorries then there is enough food. When we do not then people are going hungry,” says Mohammed Masjid, who runs a refugee camp at Azhar Vidalaya school and has to feed 1 400 people every day.
Instead, virtuous acts by Sri Lankans have kept tens of thousands of people alive. The 80 relief camps around Ampara rely almost exclusively on handouts from individuals prepared to donate food and clothes to the victims.
Government officials have also expressed concern that such a situation is unsustainable. In a note to the Ministry of Health, the country’s chief epidemiologist, Nihal Abeysinghe, said it was ”disturbing to note” that it had taken almost two weeks to get dry rations into camps in the nearby coastal town of Pottuvil.
”They are dependent on well-wishers’ support,” said Abeysinghe.
Despite the middle class’s acts of kindness, many are wondering how long colleges and schools can be kept closed and run as shelters.
”We have to open the schools and colleges, otherwise we will face an education crisis. What are all the unaffected children going to do for six months while houses are rebuilt?” asks Anwar Maulana, a lawyer who gave up work to run a relief committee in Maruthamunai.
The tsunami not only washed away homes and lives; its aftermath has caused badly stretched medical facilities to snap. Doctors point out that in Ampara’s 10 districts there are only four vehicles capable of delivering medical teams and vaccines to remote areas.
”We asked the UN and they approved money for us to rent jeeps,” says Dr MMS Jazeelulilahi, a paediatrician in Ampara’s main hospital. ”But nobody wants to give us their cars because they fear they might need them again in case another tsunami comes.”
Summit backs warning system
Meanwhile, world leaders backed an early warning system to predict tsunamis in the Indian Ocean on Thursday as tensions emerged over coordinating the relief effort.
At the end of a one-day, emergency summit in Jakarta, Asian statesmen agreed to work together to establish a network — probably on the Pacific pattern — capable of alerting coastal communities about the waves.
UN Secretary General Kofi Annan launched a $977-million appeal for aid to be channelled through UN agencies and succeeded in having the organisation’s coordinating role in the relief effort formally recognised.
But unity was fractured in Aceh when Indonesia and the UN chided the United States for conducting unfocused aid missions.
Michael Elmquist, the coordinator of the UN’s humanitarian operation in Aceh, praised the US for its significant contribution to what he described as the world’s largest humanitarian mission — but said in Banda Aceh its 10 Seahawk helicopters could have been deployed much more effectively if commanders had coordinated their use with other agencies.
Major General Bambang Darmono, the commander of the military relief operation in Aceh, said the US had declined to help with assessment surveys out of fear of losing a helicopter or crew members.
An American embassy spokesperson said his government had not been informed about the dispute.
Interfaith relief commission
United by their common shock at the magnitude of the tsunami disaster in south-east Asia, the South African Council of Churches (SACC) on Thursday formed an interfaith disaster and humanitarian relief commission.
Spokesperson Val Pauquet said the commission was formed at an urgent meeting held in Johannesburg.
The SACC leaders have called for a national day of prayer and fasting and have asked all South Africans to take a minute’s silence to remember those who died in the Asian tsunamis.
SACC president Russel Botman has appealed to people to sacrifice their lunch money by depositing it into the account for the tsumani survivors.
The newly formed body will become a permanent forum, used to raise awareness of the need for vigilance in monitoring natural disasters in both the developed and the developing world, said Pauquet.
In a statement issued on Thursday, the Archbishop of the Anglican Church, Njongonkulu Ndungane, said many people around the world have begun questioning if the tragedy had been an act of God.
”When disasters like this happen, God also weeps because he wills all that is good for humanity,” he said.
The SACC leaders will be visiting the tsunami-hit countries of Indonesia, India and Somalia next week. — Sapa, Guardian Unlimited Â