Brussels, 18/11/2013 (Agence Europe) - The European Commission has increased its emergency humanitarian aid to the Philippines by €7 million - which currently brings it to €10 million. European Commissioner for International Cooperation, Humanitarian Aid and Crisis Response Kristalina Georgieva, who announced this additional aid on Saturday from the archipelago that has been devastated by Typhoon Haiyan (see EUROPE 10964), described the breadth of the disaster when she was back in Brussels on Monday 18 November. At a time when international aid is flooding in, Georgieva welcomed this “quick, generous, coordinated and efficient” European response and solidarity.
During her visit to Manila, Cebu and Tacloban, where she met the Philippines national authorities, Georgieva was able to observe the devastation for herself and to collect the detailed reports from the European Commission experts who rushed to the Philippines in the immediate wake of the catastrophe. The additional emergency aid is intended to respond to the most pressing needs in terms of food rations, clean water, emergency shelters, and health and communication services, and also to finance the coordination of aid, transport and logistics - which are of crucial importance in having aid reach the survivors.
“Even after seeing the breadth of the destruction on television, it was heartbreaking to fly over Tacloban and the devastated surrounding areas. We could see big differences between the parts of the country that were spared by the typhoon and those that were devastated. Patches of trees, village after village - everything was destroyed. A number of affected regions are set back and difficult to access. They were already poor before this tragedy. The impact of this tragedy is horrific”, Georgieva told the press.
The toll, which is still provisional, becomes heavier by the day - between 10-12.9 million victims, over 3,900 dead, 1,598 people who have disappeared, 18,000 injured, 4 million without shelter and 2.5 million needing food aid.
“The footprint of the typhoon is very large, making the relief operation exceptionally difficult - but aid is now flooding in. Hour after hour, more debris is being cleared, more roads are becoming accessible - by helicopter, by boats, by trucks. Food is being delivered. Today, nearly one million people have received life-saving food assistance”, Georgieva was pleased to announce. She also set out the current four priorities: (1) to get food to all who need it, everywhere; (2) to collect the dead, both people and animals; (3) to provide health services - hospitals were razed from the ground; (4) to make sure that we target the most vulnerable - children, pregnant women, the elderly and the handicapped.
“There is a massive mobilisation of international aid. I am very proud of the European mobilisation because we are right at the forefront”, Georgieva added. The €10 million for rehabilitation announced by the Commission on 12 November is added to the €10 million emergency aid from ECHO (European Community Humanitarian Office) in order to make the link between rehabilitation and reconstruction (see EUROPE 10961). “At the Commission, we are ready to do more”, Georgieva assured, stating that “the EU and its member states have currently mobilised €100 million in aid. The UK is the most generous” (Ed: £30 million, or around €35 million). Currently 20 EU member states and Norway are supplying either funds or aid in kind - or both. A hundred tonnes of food, medicine, shelter and non-food products have been transported, and 16 teams are on the ground in the various devastated areas in order to provide health care, water purification, telecommunications services, and crucial coordination with the Philippines government and the United Nations.
European aid is being channelled through the World Food Programme (WFP), the International Federation of the Red Cross, the OCHA and Telecoms Sans Frontières, and it is the Commission's Emergency Response Coordination Centre which is coordinating the availability of the aid offered through the EU's Civil Protection Mechanism. The United Nations has launched an appeal for €224.5 million for the next six months. The International Federation of the Red Cross and the Red Crescent societies have also appealed for the mobilisation of €58.6 million in donations in cash, in contributions in-kind and in services for a year and a half. (AN/transl.fl)