Tsunami Report Criticises Relief Effort

The scale of the Indian Ocean tsunami overwhelmed aid agencies responding to the disaster, a senior member of the British Red Cross said today.

The organisation's international director, Matthias Schmale, said the tsunami had caused "chaos", but stressed that he did not believe lives had been lost due to the problems organisations faced in helping the survivors.

His comments came as he launched the World Disasters report

The document - a series of essays by aid and rescue workers and others who visited affected areas compiled by the International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies - highlights the difficulties faced following the tsunami as the relief effort was hampered by rivalries between agencies, delivery of inappropriate aid and difficulty in managing the huge sums of money donated.

More than 300 NGOs were on the ground in some areas, it notes.

Iolanda Jaquemet, an independent journalist, writing from the Indonesian island of Sumatra, said: "Rivalries between agencies competing to spend unprecedented budgets, did not encourage information sharing.

"Nearly everyone could hire a helicopters or boats and make their own needs assessments and distribution arrangements ... "

But she also noted that "the overabundance of supply also had positive effects. Basic needs had largely been covered by the end of January, even in remote locations."

In Sri Lanka, the report said that "the immediate operations were largely 'gender blind'. Few organisations considered providing women with sanitary needs, underwear or culturally appropriate clothing."

"In Sri Lanka there were three to four hundred agencies responding and trying to provide help, we have to acknowledge that's difficult to manage. Effective co-ordination did not happen," Mr Schmale said.

"Did that lead to loss of life? I don't think so. The loss of life was when the tsunami hit. Did it lead to people being disaffected with the response? The result is yes."

He said the report was a "wake-up call" for aid agencies and highlighted the need to manage information better in response to a major disaster.

Some 250,000 people are thought to have died when the tsunami struck on Boxing Day 2004. The extent of the devastation was unprecedented, stretching 4,000 miles from Indonesia to the east coast of Africa.

Hundreds of millions of pounds in aid was donated by individuals and pledged by governments worldwide.