TSUNAMI AREAS MUST 'BUILD BACK BETTER' - CLINTON

By Irwin Arieff, Reuters, Jul 14, 2005

UNITED NATIONS (Reuters) - The unprecedented outpouring of aid for the Indian Ocean tsunami must be used to "build back better" and not simply restore what was there before, former U.S. President Bill Clinton said on Thursday.

Nearly seven months after the disaster, the international community was entering the most challenging phase of the relief effort, with many survivors still living in difficult circumstances and increasingly frustrated with the slow pace of help, said Clinton, a U.N. special envoy for tsunami recovery,

"We have at least 230,000 reminders from December 26th as to why we need to make sure this recovery process accomplishes more than just restoring what was there before," Clinton told a U.N. conference seeking to draw lessons from the relief effort to date.

"Can we honestly say that we are on track to building back better?" he asked.

More than 240,000 people were killed in last December's earthquake and tsunami, with another 50,000 still missing and presumed dead, according to the latest U.N. figures.

The damage has been estimated at $94 billion (53.5 billion pounds), and a stunning 158 million people were driven from their homes or otherwise affected by the disaster, Belgian Ambassador Johan Verbeke said as he opened the session.

To keep the recovery on track, affected governments, international agencies and private relief groups had to quickly resolve any remaining policy disagreements, agree on programs and closely coordinate their efforts, Clinton said.

FRUSTRATING TIMES AHEAD

"It will be a complex and frustrating time. There is impatience already, and there is exhaustion. Recovery in each country will need a customized response and will move at different speeds," he said.

Clinton also urged governments to assess risks from natural disasters before they occur and take preventive measures.

In the tsunami-hit areas, it was "clear the human toll would have been lower if there had been adequate early warning and (if) other prevention strategies had been in place," he said.

Ann Veneman, head of the U.N. Children's Fund UNICEF, said the rapid initial global response had helped avert widespread death in the period following the tsunami, when health and sanitary systems broke down.

"The bottom line is that children did not die from preventable diseases linked to the crisis, and nearly all children were back in school within two months of the tsunami," she said.

To "build back better," her agency was now helping improve health care and water facilities and build 325 new schools that would be better equipped than the ones destroyed by the tsunami, she said.