FOREIGN AID:GENEVA – As foreign rescue workers combed debris to locate victims of Japan's quake and tsunami, countries offered further aid, from field hospitals to atomic physicists, to address an unfolding nuclear crisis.
Firefighters, sniffer dogs, clothing and food have been proposed in an outpouring of solidarity with Japan, with offers pouring in from nearly 70 countries, UN officials said.
Even the poor southern Afghan city of Kandahar announced it was donating $50,000 to the “brothers and sisters” of Japan.
“I know $50,000 is not a lot of money for a country like Japan, but it is a show of appreciation from the Kandahar people,” Kandahar mayor Ghulam Haidar Hamidi told Reuters.
Japan has pledged $5 billion in aid to Afghanistan over the next five years, more than one-third of the total $13 billion in foreign aid pledged to the country over that period.
Japan fought yesterday to avert a meltdown at three earthquake-crippled nuclear reactors, as estimates of the death toll from the tsunami that charged across its northeast rose to more than 10,000.
Pakistani prime minister Yusuf Raza Gilani said Pakistan would extend all possible assistance to Japan. “I have written a letter and we have offered them, if they need them, field hospitals, whatever assistance we can extend.”
Nearly a dozen countries have sent rescue workers following Japan’s request, including teams from Australia, China and the US. Seventeen more rescue teams, including one from Israel, were on standby, said the UN.
“This is a country that regrettably is very experienced at this. But we all can see the scale of the devastation,” UN humanitarian chief Valerie Amos told Sky News.
“I’m hearing reports that there are many parts of the country that even the search and rescue teams or the Japanese defence forces on the ground aren’t able to get to because of fears of aftershocks.”
China’s 15-member rescue team arrived in Japan yesterday, state news agency Xinhua said, bringing with it four tonnes of equipment for search and rescue operations, including their own power supply and telecommunications equipment.
Australia’s government has offered self-contained field hospitals and disaster victim identification teams. Two military transport aircraft carrying search and rescue teams, as well as sniffer dogs, had already left for Japan.
Britain has sent 59 fire service search and rescue specialists, along with two rescue dogs and a medical support team. The team will take up to 11 tonnes of specialist rescue equipment.
Britain has also said it would send nuclear physicists if requested.
Japanese officials worked desperately yesterday to prevent fuel rods in damaged nuclear plants from overheating after radiation leaked into the air. The government said a building with a second reactor was at risk of exploding after a blast blew the roof off another plant the day before.
However the World Health Organisation said the health risk from the worst nuclear accident since the Chernobyl disaster in 1986 remained “quite low”.
“There is no evidence to suggest otherwise,” WHO spokeswoman Christy Feig said in Geneva.
She said Japan had not sought deployment of the UN agency’s network of radiation experts known as Rempan (Radiation Emergency Medical Preparedness and Assistance Network). “There is no need to go in; everybody is still in a holding pattern.”
Teams from Médecins Sans Frontières have reached Sendai, where they found “stark” damage.
“Although the medical situation in Sendai appears to be under control, the population has needs,” Mikoko Dotsu, its assessment co-ordinator, said in a statement.
“At the moment there is very little electricity and no water supply. People need food, blankets and water.
“These needs are bigger than medical needs at the moment.”
The Indian government is to ship woollen blankets to affected areas to help fight cold weather conditions, said its foreign secretary Nirupama Rao.
Japan has declined Taiwan’s offer of rescue team for now, but has requested material aid, including generators clothing and food, Taiwanese officials said.
Taiwan has donated $3.3 million, and has rescue and medical teams ready to go if Japan requests them. – (Reuters)