IRELAND: Emergency supplies for up to 10,000 people are to be stockpiled at the Curragh for use in humanitarian disasters around the world, under an agreement signed with the United Nations yesterday.
Further supplies for up to 20,000 people will be stored in Brindisi, Italy, under the agreement between the Government and the UN's World Food Programme.
The Minister of State at the Department of Foreign Affairs, Conor Lenihan, and the director of the WFP, James Morris, yesterday signed the agreement, which marks the first step in the roll-out of the Rapid Response Initiative promised in last month's White Paper on Irish aid.
Up to €1.5 million will be spent this year on procuring supplies such as tents, blankets, plastic sheeting, mosquito nets, sanitation equipment and kitchen sets. As part of the initiative, the Government is also developing a register of Irish experts in humanitarian relief to be deployed at short notice in emergency situations.
Irish Aid is also providing increased funding for other WFP supply depots in Africa and elsewhere in the developing world.
"This agreement marks a new milestone in the WFP's strong relationship with the Irish Government," Mr Morris said. "The UN Humanitarian Response Depots are a vital strategic tool that will allow us to improve and streamline our response to the growing number of natural disasters around the world."
Mr Morris denied that the Irish stockpile would duplicate existing facilities provided by the WFP. The additional capacity would dramatically strengthen Ireland's ability to respond quickly and effectively in the event of a disaster.
The equipment would not be used for ongoing situations such as Darfur, which has a humanitarian budget of $750 million a year, but for unforeseen disasters.
The number of people affected by natural disasters increased from 1.6 billion in the decade up to 1995 to 2.6 billion in the succeeding decade, he pointed out.
Mr Morris said said "lots of people" had failed the people of Darfur but not the UN. The health, shelter and sanitation issues of the three million people affected by the conflict were being addressed.
The UN had committed itself to sending a strong peacekeeping force but the Sudanese government had resisted it.
Mr Morris, whose five-year term at the helm of the world's largest humanitarian organisation ends next year, described the fact that 850 million people go hungry daily as "the single greatest indictment" of modern life. "Some 18,000 children die every day from hunger and malnutrition, equivalent to one every five seconds. In this world of plenty and good will, this shouldn't be."
It costs just €27 to feed a child in the developing world for a year, he pointed out.
