Military

09 February 2005

Bush Seeks Additional $600 Million for Tsunami Relief

Aid to fund infrastructure projects, early warning systems

By Stephen Kaufman
Washington File White House Correspondent

Washington -- President Bush has announced that he is seeking $950 million as part of a supplemental appropriations request to the U.S. Congress to support areas hit by the Indian Ocean tsunami and to reimburse the cost of relief efforts in them to date.

The $950 million figure includes the $350 million U.S. commitment made in January, plus an additional $600 million request.

In a statement released February 9, Bush said “We will use these resources to provide assistance and to work with the affected nations on rebuilding vital infrastructure that re-energizes economies and strengthens societies.”

The tsunami and its resulting devastation have taken an estimated 150,000 lives in south and southeast Asia.

Speaking in Washington February 9, U.S. Agency for International Development(USAID) Administrator Andrew Natsios described the president’s proposal as “the most generous and the most extensive in American history for the U.S. government.”

As much as $339 million of the total funds would be used for large-scale infrastructure projects, such as the reconstruction of highways in Indonesia.

“Many of the interior bridges within [the Indonesian province of] Ache were completely destroyed by the earthquake before the tsunami arrived and many of the roads were damaged,” Natsios said, and in order to have reconstruction, road systems will first have to be repaired.

The president is also seeking $168 million worth of smaller scale infrastructure projects such as building schools, health clinics, and water distribution systems, Natsios said, as well as helping people living in shelters and temporary camps to move into permanent housing and establishing livelihood programs to help them generate revenues.

The USAID administrator also said the Bush administration is seeking $62 million to fund technical assistance for capacity building to governments “so they have the infrastructure, the management information systems and the other planning tools necessary to make sure that this is all done in a coordinated way.”

Lastly, Natsios said $35 million of the funding would be used to create early warning systems, which would also warn of other natural disasters, such as typhoons, which have been deadly to the region in the past 30 years, he said.

Natsios said the initial emergency food aid in the wake of the disaster quickly transitioned into rehabilitation aid, such as microfinance loans, job creation, health care, and sanitation aid.

The Bush administration has also given grants to try to avoid human trafficking from occurring in the wake of the tsunami disaster, as well as assistance to those dealing with emotional trauma, he said.

Of the $950 million, approximately $346 million will be used to reimburse USAID and the U.S. military for their relief efforts since the disaster. Deputy Defense Secretary Paul Wolfowitz said nearly 16,000 U.S. personnel were deployed, along with 26 ships, 58 helicopters and 43 fixed-wing aircrafts.

He said the Defense Department delivered over 10 million pounds of food and supplies and provided more than 400,000 gallons of fresh water to the survivors.  U.S. military health specialists have also treated almost 2,500 patients, he said.

(The Washington File is a product of the Bureau of International Information Programs, U.S. Department of State. Web site: http://usinfo.state.gov)