THE catastrophic floods that have struck Southeast Asia have affected at least ten million people, most seriously in Bangladesh, India and Nepal. The mind boggles at the extent of the devastation caused by this year’s monsoon. Parts of Bihar have been inundated and some four million people have been forced from their homes by rising water.
Incredibly only 400 Indian military personnel had been deployed by yesterday in Bihar to do what they could to assist families without food, safe drinking water and shelter on high ground that has become infested by snakes, themselves fleeing the flood. Every year the rains bring disaster and even experienced disaster relief officials are hard pressed to manage.
A better solution for these awful challenges backed by international aid and money is long overdue. It is simply wrong to leave some of the poorest regions in the world to struggle on alone to restore the damage done to their economies and livelihoods.
The world needs to look seriously at the problem of the efficient physical delivery of aid to stricken regions, which become impassable to conventional trucks yet cannot always be easily reached even by shallow draft rescue craft. It is not enough to leave the majority of the rescue efforts in the hands of NGOs even if they are working closely with the local authorities. Something more substantial, better-funded and resourced is needed to tackle these awesome natural catastrophes. Hovercraft are excellent for traveling over both land and water to evacuate stranded people and bring food, water and shelter. Yet few of these expensive machines exist in Southeast Asia and for rescuers to respond adequately, it is likely that they would be needed in the hundreds. Likewise food and water is often damaged when dropped from aircraft and helicopters to people on the ground. Yet armies regularly receive supplies in special impact-proof containers. Why cannot enough of these be prepared in advance of the next inundation?
The question next is who should be delivering these supplies and providing and manning these hovercraft along with all the other equipment. It seems clear that the UN is the appropriate body to be taking on the responsibility of establishing a permanent rescue force with perhaps both civilian rescue specialists as well as Blue Beret troops. Apart from permanent logistic bases holding key stores, the actual men and machines necessary to deliver assistance could be moved around the world as required. Planning, tested by exercises could identify rail air and road heads from which these UN teams could work. If accountants balk at the immense cost of flying thousands of tons of equipment like hovercraft around the world in response to urgent need, we should remember that when it comes to moving soldiers and war materiel into a battle zone, major powers seem to have little problem. The immense military machines of the world’s major powers, which have such potential for destruction, could also be deployed within a UN organization to bring relief to millions hit by natural disasters.
