With food still priority in typhoon-hit Philippines, UN boosts relief efforts
New York City, 27 November 2013: The United Nations is mustering planes, ferries and
trucks to boost its relief efforts in the Philippines, with food still a priority
almost three weeks after Typhoon Haiyan ripped into the country, killing over 5,230
people and affecting more than 13 million others, nearly 3.5 million of them left
homeless.
“There has been significant progress in the delivery of relief items,
and we continue to widen the geographic reach of the operation so that we can get
to people on outlying islands,” UN World Food Programme (WFP) Country Director Praveen
Agrawal said.
“As we enter the third week of this emergency response, food
remains a priority need for affected communities.”
Since 13 November, WFP has
dispatched more than 4,000 metric tons of rice and 127 metric tons of high energy
biscuits for distribution by partners. WFP is working closely with the Government,
which has distributed more than 1.3 million family food packs containing WFP rice.
Rice and High Energy Biscuits (HEBs) are being delivered by airlifts to remote
island communities off the coast of Guiuan and Iloilo. Some of these hard-to-reach
locations are receiving food assistance for the first time.
WFP trucks are
delivering bulk rice rations to badly-affected coastal communities in East Samar and
Guiuan while a WFP-chartered “roll-on roll-off” vessel with a 2,400 metric ton cargo
capacity arrived in Tacloban yesterday with tents, blankets, water kits and jerry
cans on behalf of the whole humanitarian community. It will continue to shuttle goods
from the nearby island of Cebu to Tacloban.
More than 1,000 metric tons of
relief and support supplies - tents, kits for newborn babies, hygiene kits and mobile
storage units - have been flown in to the Philippines from the UN Humanitarian Response
Depots managed by WFP in Dubai in the United Arab Emirates, Subang in Malaysia, and
Brindisi in Italy.
The WFP-managed UN Humanitarian Air Service (UNHAS) is operating
two helicopters and a nine-passenger plane out of Cebu, serving the humanitarian community.
So far, UNHAS has carried 167 humanitarian passengers on 43 flights to nine locations.
Meanwhile the UN refugee agency (UNHCR) is helping the Government decongest
evacuation centres. Thousands of people were evacuated to public buildings such as
stadiums, schools and churches ahead of the November 8 typhoon. Many have since left,
but an estimated 240,000 people still remain in some 1,100 centres in overcrowded
conditions with limited water and sanitation facilities.
UNHCR has so far
distributed supplies for more than 50,000 people, including tents, blankets, jerry
cans and kitchen sets. Source: UN