Donors ask where tidal wave of money vanished

LONDON: When a tsunami hit south and southeast Asia on Boxing Day two years ago, people in the West watching the devastation unfold were moved to donate vast amounts to international aid organisations.

But despite the world’s generosity, some of the victims — the tsunami killed 2,30,000 people and left lakhs homeless — are still living in makeshift shelters. And the donors are wondering where all the money went.

Britons alone donated £350 million (approximately Rs3059 crore) to the Disasters Emergency Committee tsunami appeal, while individual charities raised another £50 million (about Rs437 crore). Other European countries pledged similar amounts and in all some £6.5 billion (Rs56,816 crore) was given or pledged around the world, £2.5 billion (Rs21,852 crore) by private donors.

But, in the four worst affected countries — Indonesia, Thailand, Sri Lanka, and the Maldives — schools have still to be rebuilt and thousands of homes remain little more than piles of rubble.

Aid agencies claim that it is always easier to get money than it is to spend it. Brendan Gormley, chief executive of Britain’s Disasters Emergency Committee, argues that aid agencies drew up a three-year plan for reconstruction and have been spending funds accordingly.

“In the first few months you cannot simply build thousands of homes because there is not the labour and the raw materials to do it,” he told a British newspaper.  

“At the front end of the three years the emphasis was on tents and blankets and clean drinking water; at the other end the emphasis will be on schools, homes and infrastructure.”

The Disasters Committee has spent about £140m (Rs1,223 crore) in the second year constructing buildings and providing food, water, and medicines. “The committee’s share of the money is on target, on plan, and is being drawn down and acted on in the appropriate way,” said Gormley. “None of the money raised has stayed in bank accounts.”

Part of the problem in some of the worst affected areas is of physical access being difficult and skills in short supply. In some of the countries there are the problems of corruption, mismanagement, and incompetence involving local staff and contractors. This is one reason why Save the Children has spent only £45m (Rs394 crore) of the £80m pledged to Indonesia’s Aceh province. It argues that in the long run proper construction will benefit the local people.

Some of the money pledged has either not been spent or never arrived. Almost £70m (Rs612 crore) of the £100m (Rs874 crore) pledged by Britain’s department for international development remains unspent. According to figures from the World Bank, the British government has paid only 21 per cent of the money it promised to a special fund for Aceh and Nias, two of the worst hit areas in Indonesia. China, Germany and Spain are among other countries that have yet to deliver all the large sums they had pledged.

The Red Cross from the beginning predicted a five-year effort. The charities now fear that the public’s unrealistic expectations will lead to disillusionment and a fall in donations to less high-profile appeals.