Humanitarian groups scramble to supply SLankan aid
Updated
The situation on the ground in Sri Lanka's confict zone has been described at catastrophic by the International Commitee of the Red Cross. It has called for immediate action to rescue the tens of thousands of civilians still trapped.
The Consortium of Humanitarian Agencies in Sri Lanka is actively monitoring the situation on the ground and its executive director says that with increased demand for aid, more supplies are being sent through.
Presenter: Sonja Heydeman
Speaker: Jeevan Thiagarajah, executive director of the Consortium of Humanitarian Agencies
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JEEVAN THIAGARAJAH: There was a shipment, which is a fortnightly shipment, about 1,200 to 1,300 tons, which should have sailed. It was loaded yesterday. Now I'm not quite sure of the what the status is in terms of unloading there. However, clearly it's a very vulnerable situation. As I said, no real change from yesterday but the vulnerability has been fairly acute for quite some time and I think all the more reasons why those people need to be in some kind of protected environment. Clearly, I think everybody's conscious that any kind of violent exchange is going to bound to lead to casualties of civilians, which is something that nobody will accept.
SONJA HEYDEMAN: According to the United Nations, living in dire humanitarian conditions before Monday's exodus, have we seen any further exodus from the conflict zone?
JEEVAN THIAGARAJAH: There has been some movement, but I think that because of this significant load yesterday, not everybody is coming through like in the past, where like 500 to 1,000 would come every day. Now it seems to be more, you know, regularised and processed in larger numbers.
SONJA HEYDEMAN: You've met with international groups, you've met with non-government aid organisations, and of course with the government as well, to look at the aid requirement for civilians who may be at this point fleeing the area. Are you confident that enough is in place to cater for those people's needs?
JEEVAN THIAGARAJAH: Stocks certainly seem to be in place to meet the incoming need, but clearly space is not the reality there, because it's going to be fairly overcrowded in the short term and I think that's where we face the greatest challenge. In terms of basics, it seems to be possible. But shelter is going to be very tight and that's something that we need to continue to work to offload from congested conditions.
SONJA HEYDEMAN: What about the status of disease, particularly if conditions may not be sanitary?
JEEVAN THIAGARAJAH: Yeah, we need to be watchful, particularly on the sanitation side, on the one hand, with the health screening. There is a need to upscale the capacity to screen and monitor and to treat - there's no question about it. The need to upscale has arisen now - we had 65,000 yesterday but now it has jumped up - plus the injured that we were tending to earlier on anyway. There's no question we need to double up our health capacity.
