Red Cross plans 1.5b euros of aid to tsunami victims
(AFP)
Updated: 2005-12-23 10:54

The International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies has announced a revised five-year plan of action worth nearly 1.5 billion euros to assist victims of last year's tsunami.

With a total budget of nearly 2.4 billion Swiss francs (1.47 billion euros/1.75 billion dollars), the plan will concentrate on the reconstruction of housing and rebuilding livelihoods, with 54 percent of the funds earmarked for these fields, it said in a statement Thursday.

The plan includes rebuilding or upgrading homes, hospitals and clinics as well as water and sanitation systems, and providing psycho-social support and livelihood support to people affected by the tsunami which devastated Indian Ocean coastlines on December 26, it said.

Reconstruction of up to 40,000 permanent houses has commenced in Sri Lanka, in Indonesia (up to 35,000 houses) and in the Maldives (up to 2,200 houses).

The plan of action also covers programmes in the areas of health and care and emergency relief.

The statement said planned assistance would cover 10 countries, with the funds being allocated in proportion to where the needs were greatest: in Indonesia (1.17 billion Swiss francs or 755 million euros), Sri Lanka (814.4 million Swiss francs, 525 million euros) and Maldives (202.6 million Swiss francs, 130 million euros).

By the end of 2005 the International Federation Secretariat and Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies around the world will have collectively spent 750 million Swiss francs (481 million euros/571 million dollars) on the relief effort and initial recovery plans in 10 countries, it said.

More than 1.7 million people have been helped to date, receiving relief goods, shelter, and benefiting from health care, water and sanitation services, psychological and livelihood support.

The disaster claimed at least 227,000 lives and affected more than 2.2 million other people in the countries bordering on the Indian Ocean, according to the Red Cross.