Banda Aceh, Indonesia 06 Jan 2005 - The IRC’s mobile relief teams delivered emergency medicines and medical supplies today to three tsunami affected communities in the outlying areas of northern Aceh, reports Greg Beck, head of the IRC’s operation in Indonesia.
In addition to conducting rapid assessments in these three areas, IRC staff provided direct critical care to survivors.
The teams’ first priority is to prevent the spread of water-borne diseases by ensuring that people have access to safe drinking water and sufficient sanitation facilities. Today, an emergency environmental health team led by the IRC's Franklin Broadhurst evaluated the municipal water system in the capital city, Banda Aceh. The team found the system partially functioning, but in urgent need of repair and rehabilitation.
The IRC will also be delivering urgent health care and providing emergency supplies and materials to the most affected areas.
The IRC has secured a boat that will transport critical supplies along the devastated west coast of Aceh. Within the next four days, mobile relief teams will be transporting and distributing more than a ton of food and medical supplies to some of the coast’s hardest hit communities.
