Brussels, 12/11/2013 (Agence Europe) - The European Union is taking action on every front - humanitarian aid, civil protection, rebuilding - to assist those surviving the tropical cyclone Haiyan, one of the most powerful ever recorded, that swept across the Philippines on 7 and 8 November leaving countless victims in its wake - some 10 million people (10% of the population), including 10,000 fatalities in the town of Tacloban alone - and considerable material destruction. Speaking on the last day of his first official visit to the country (10-12 November), devoted to EU bilateral aid, Andris Piebalgs, European Development Commissioner, announced that an additional €10 million was to be made available for humanitarian aid and rebuilding of the disaster-struck country. This aid is in addition to the €8 million that he had announced the previous day as a contribution to the Midanao peace process, and to the €3 million in immediate emergency humanitarian aid made available by the services under Kristalina Georgieva, European Commissioner for International Cooperation, Humanitarian Aid and Crisis Response, in the first hours following the announcement of this large-scale disaster. The provisional death and damage toll can but increase as time passes.
“Beyond humanitarian assistance, the EU is already making resources for rehabilitation and reconstruction available to ensure that there is a smooth transition from the crisis management to rebuilding people's lives”, explains Piebalgs. The monies will be used to fund water and sanitation rehabilitation, power grid repairs, basic health, livelihood support, shelter and repair of infrastructure that should be more resilient to future typhoons or earthquakes, in an archipelago that is particularly vulnerable to this kind of natural disaster.
Initial humanitarian aid. The €3 million in emergency humanitarian aid, financed by the ECHO budget (the Commission's humanitarian aid service) are only the first part of assistance that will be increasing in order to cover the needs of the disaster-struck populations, left with nothing. ECHO experts have been despatched to the country to help the Philippine authorities and are currently making an assessment of what is needed.
“We are all deeply shocked by the devastation caused by tropical cyclone Haiyan. The priority is to restore access to remote areas hit by the cyclone, deliver urgently needed humanitarian aid to the hundreds of thousands of people who have been left homeless and ensure that they have clean water to drink, emergency food supplies and shelter. This is what we are all working on right now through the EU Civil Protection Mechanism”, said Georgieva on Monday 11 November. She announced that the EU Civil Protection Mechanism had been activated on Sunday in response to a request from the Philippine authorities. Speaking on behalf of the EU, José Manuel Barroso expressed his condolences to the Philippine president, Benigno Simeon Aquino II, and to the Philippine people.
Civil protection. The Commission's emergency disaster response centre, which has been monitoring the situation 24 hours a day, has already sent two-experts to the scene ahead of six to eight other experts to make up an assistance team. Several member states have now already sent or are preparing to send material and resources (Belgium: a medical team and water purification unit; Hungary - a research team and doctors; the United Kingdom and France: shelters; Sweden: a base camp with communication equipment to support the international coordination effort; and Germany: assessment experts). Further contributions are expected.
COP 19 is called upon to act. The magnitude of the damage and the tears shed by the Philippine representative at the opening of the UN climate conference in Warsaw (COP 19, 11-22 November) have left their mark on people's minds. Graham Watson, who chairs the ALDE Group at the European Parliament, spoke out on his return from the Philippines where he met members of the government, describing the disaster as a “man-made disaster” and calling on negotiators to take “urgent action”. “I hope typhoon Haiyan, hurricane Sandy and all the other storms consistent with climate science will persuade our leaders to take decisive action at the forthcoming UNFCCC climate talks in Warsaw”, he said on Tuesday. The Philippines is one of the countries most vulnerable to tropical typhoons. Haiyan is the 25th typhoon to hit the archipelago this year. On 15 October, an earthquake measuring 7.2 on the Richter scale devastated the country, and the Commission released €2.5 million in humanitarian aid on 31 October. EU development aid for the Philippines amounts to some €40 million annually for 2011-2016. The €8 million announced for the Mindanao process will be channelled through the Mindanao Trust Fund and will support reconstruction and development funded at 70% by the EU (Commission and Sweden). (AN/transl.jl)