More aid needed for flood victims

Donor governments on Tuesday pledged US $13.5 million for UN humanitarian operations in Mozambique as more helicopters and relief supplies began to arrive in the flood-devastated country, the Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) said. At an information meeting for donors in Geneva on the Mozambican flood disaster, UN agencies and NGOs appealed for assistance to meet the needs of an estimated 300,000 people threatened by rising flood waters and the risk of disease and starvation. Actual contributions received as of Monday amounted to US $4.5 million, OCHA spokesman Donato Kiniger-Passigili told IRIN. The Mozambican government last week appealed for US $65 million to cover emergency and rehabilitation costs as it struggles to respond to the worst disaster the country has faced in living memory. Plane-loads of relief supplies have begun to arrive, but humanitarian officials have warned that far more needs to be done. The UN World Food Programme has made a separate appeal for US $2.5 million to keep seven South African army helicopters and five fixed wing planes flying for the next 15 days. So far US $1.75 million has been raised from the British, Dutch and German governments. A South African army spokesman told IRIN that his crews had managed to rescue 2,705 stranded people on Monday. But thousands more people are marooned, and more flood waters are on their way. Governments and private companies have promised additional helicopters to help in the rescue mission. Neighbouring Malawi has sent two helicopters, the British government has dispatched four Pumas, and the South African-Mozambican joint venture aluminium company Mozal and the mining firm Anglo-American have offered a helicopter each. Botswana said it would supply one million litres of fuel for the air operation. The IRIN-Southern Africa office has received several calls this week from concerned South African citizens willing to provide jet-skis, speed boats and qualified pilots to help in the humanitarian effort. "The media have provoked a response from the donors, but what is important to get over is the enormity of the problem. There is nothing like 'getting on top' of a situation like this," a UN humanitarian official told IRIN. "The immediate emergency response is great, but in terms of getting people's lives back to normal, let alone rehabilitation, this is only the beginning." Meanwhile, UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan has asked Ross Mountain, the Assistant Emergency Relief Coordinator, to travel immediately to Mozambique to serve as his Special Humanitarian Envoy to the country. A second five-member UN Disaster Assessment Coordination Team arrived in Maputo on Tuesday. The team will assist with the coordination of the international and national response.