Donors make $68.37m emergency flood aid commitments
Wednesday, 5 September 2007
FE Report
Bilateral and multilateral donors made commitments to provide emergency flood assistance worth about US$68.37 million until Monday last for relief operation and rehabilitating the people affected by the recent deluge across the country.
According to official sources, out of the total $68.3677 million flood assistance including fund, commodity and food, Saudi Arabia and China pledged to provide aid worth $50 million and $10.6 million respectively for assisting the victims in the flood-affected areas of the country.
Some of the total aid have already reached the country and some are in the pipeline, the sources added.
However, some big multilateral and bilateral donors including the World Bank (WB), the Asian Development Bank (ADB) and Japan are yet to come forward with emergency assistance to help Bangladesh for conducting relief operations or rehabilitation works in the flood-affected areas, the sources said.
A senior official of Economic Relations Division (ERD) told the FE that though the government in two meetings held in the last month with the local consultative group (LCG), a platform of the bilateral and multilateral donors working in Bangladesh, described the flood situation and the consequent losses, there was no firm commitment from such big donors till date.
Meanwhile, out of the $68.3677 million committed flood assistance, the bilateral and multilateral donors until Monday last pledged to provide fund or commodity or food aid worth $63.133 million to the government and the remaining $5.235 million to the non-government organisations (NGOs) for conducting relief operation.
According to ERD sources, the USAID, the UK's Department for International Development (DFID), Canadian International Development Agency (CIDA), United Nations' World Food Programme (WFP), Islamic Development Bank (IDB), Australian donor AusAID, Organisation of the Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) Fund, United Nations Development Programme (UNDP), Germany, the Netherlands, Republic of Korea and Sweden have made commitments to provide fund or commodity aid worth $7.7678 million to the government and NGOs apart from $50 million and $10.6 million aid by Saudi Arabia and China respectively.
The recent floods that engulfed more than 40 districts of the country washed away houses, crops, roads, ponds and damaged thousands of kilometres of roads, culverts and bridges.
Another senior ERD official said as the government is yet to assess the total physical damages and economic losses in the recent floods, major donors are waiting for assessment report before making aid commitment.
He said the government might sit with all the bilateral and multilateral donors again after preparing the flood-damage assessment reports.
The Planning Commission is working to prepare the assessment report with the help of the ministries concerned.
Since the deluge this year has been smaller than that of 2004, the government is trying to help the affected people from its own resources, the ERD official said.
As per government assessment, the country suffered economic losses worth about US$2.0 billion in the devastating deluge in 2004 which engulfed almost the whole country.
Bilateral and multilateral donors made commitments to provide emergency flood assistance worth about US$68.37 million until Monday last for relief operation and rehabilitating the people affected by the recent deluge across the country.
According to official sources, out of the total $68.3677 million flood assistance including fund, commodity and food, Saudi Arabia and China pledged to provide aid worth $50 million and $10.6 million respectively for assisting the victims in the flood-affected areas of the country.
Some of the total aid have already reached the country and some are in the pipeline, the sources added.
However, some big multilateral and bilateral donors including the World Bank (WB), the Asian Development Bank (ADB) and Japan are yet to come forward with emergency assistance to help Bangladesh for conducting relief operations or rehabilitation works in the flood-affected areas, the sources said.
A senior official of Economic Relations Division (ERD) told the FE that though the government in two meetings held in the last month with the local consultative group (LCG), a platform of the bilateral and multilateral donors working in Bangladesh, described the flood situation and the consequent losses, there was no firm commitment from such big donors till date.
Meanwhile, out of the $68.3677 million committed flood assistance, the bilateral and multilateral donors until Monday last pledged to provide fund or commodity or food aid worth $63.133 million to the government and the remaining $5.235 million to the non-government organisations (NGOs) for conducting relief operation.
According to ERD sources, the USAID, the UK's Department for International Development (DFID), Canadian International Development Agency (CIDA), United Nations' World Food Programme (WFP), Islamic Development Bank (IDB), Australian donor AusAID, Organisation of the Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) Fund, United Nations Development Programme (UNDP), Germany, the Netherlands, Republic of Korea and Sweden have made commitments to provide fund or commodity aid worth $7.7678 million to the government and NGOs apart from $50 million and $10.6 million aid by Saudi Arabia and China respectively.
The recent floods that engulfed more than 40 districts of the country washed away houses, crops, roads, ponds and damaged thousands of kilometres of roads, culverts and bridges.
Another senior ERD official said as the government is yet to assess the total physical damages and economic losses in the recent floods, major donors are waiting for assessment report before making aid commitment.
He said the government might sit with all the bilateral and multilateral donors again after preparing the flood-damage assessment reports.
The Planning Commission is working to prepare the assessment report with the help of the ministries concerned.
Since the deluge this year has been smaller than that of 2004, the government is trying to help the affected people from its own resources, the ERD official said.
As per government assessment, the country suffered economic losses worth about US$2.0 billion in the devastating deluge in 2004 which engulfed almost the whole country.