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IMO RESPONDS TO TSUNAMI DISASTER
Thursday, 06 January 2005
THE International Maritime Organization (IMO) says that it is co-ordinating efforts to restore the battered maritime infrastructure in the regions affected by the Indian Ocean tsunami.
IMO Secretary-General Efthimios Mitropoulos has established the Tsunami Maritime Relief Fund through which the shipping industry's direct financial and in-kind aid for the victims of the disaster can be co-ordinated and has written to all non-governmental organizations (NGOs) in consultative status with IMO drawing it to their attention and encouraging their generous contribution. According to an IMO statement staff at the UN specialist agency have already begun contributing to the Fund.
Mr Mitropoulos stressed the strategic importance of ensuring that ports, navigational aids and other key elements of the maritime infrastructure are in effective working order as soon as possible, both to facilitate the medium and long-term recovery of the affected areas and to ensure that short-term aid arriving by sea can do so efficiently and in safety.
For the medium to longer term, IMO plans to field needs-assessment missions to affected countries, both to assess the situation and to establish appropriate follow-up activities, such as re-building their fishing capacity, and also to prioritize IMO responses. The organisation says it will seek to co-ordinate these activities with other appropriate agencies, such as the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO), the International Labour Organization (ILO) and the World Bank.
At present it is not clear whether Maritime Rescue Co-ordination Centres (MRCCs) in the region responded in any way to the unfolding disaster. The IMO statement says, �Steps will also be taken to assess any action that may have been taken by Maritime Rescue Co-ordination Centres in the region in response to (or in the absence of) information about the earthquake and tsunami and the possibility of more effective use being made of the maritime safety networks established by IMO to disseminate other information will be investigated.�
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