Tsunami Death Toll Passes 125,000 as Britain Triples Aid Pledge

Thursday has seen the death toll from Sunday's quake-tsunami devastation escalate to more than 125,000 as workers uncovered more bodies from Indonesia's Sumatra island. The day also saw military ships and planes rush to provide desperately needed aid to Sumatra's ravaged coast, dropping food to remote villages still unreachable by rescue workers.

Britain more than triples its pledge of aid to victims of the Asian tsunamis to £50 million, saying the scale of the disaster has proved to be far beyond its initial estimates.

These new figures make Britain the largest single bilateral donor to the aid effort, International Development Secretary Hilary Benn said on Thursday.

The British government had initially come under large criticism after pledging just £15 million, but new pledges have now come to move in line with members of the public in Britain, who have privately poured more than £20 million into a charity appeal on its first day.

Ben reported, "We have looked at the initial assessments from our teams on the ground. We have also received financial appeals from the Red Cross, the U.N. and from a large number of UK aid agencies. And it is now sadly clear that the scale of destruction and loss of life is increasing all the time."

He promised that the money would be given to international aid agencies to deliver relief supplies to those affected.

Britain also airlifted World Health Organisation medical kits to Indonesia, providing basic health supplies for 100,000 people for three months, he said.

"I have said from the start of this crisis that we would make available the money needed."

The huge increase in the death count has come after Indonesia reported nearly 28,000 newly confirmed dead in Sumatra, which was closest to the epicentre of Sunday's 9.0 magnitude earthquake that set off massive tidal waves that obliterated seaside towns.

The U.N. children's agency estimated some 60 percent of Banda Aceh--northern Sumatra's main city--was destroyed and 115 miles of the island's northwest coast—lined with villages—was inundated.

With approximately 80,000 dead, Indonesia was the worst hit of the 12 nations in southern Asia and East Africa, with Sri Lanka, India and Thailand among other badly hit nations.

The count on Thursday saw Sri Lanka report 24,700 dead, India more than 7,300 and Thailand around 2,400 — though that country's prime minister said he feared the toll would go to 6,800. In addition to this, a total of more than 300 have now been reported as being killed in Somalia, Myanmar, Malaysia, the Maldives, Tanzania, Seychelles, Bangladesh, and Kenya.

With thousands still missing and fears that widespread diseases could bring a new wave of deaths, the total across the 12 nations is likely to continue to rise.

The World Health Organisation (WHO) said on early Thursday that the tsunami death toll, which at the time was around 87,000, could double if epidemics broke out in the affected countries.

"I could say many, many, many people could die if we are not able to reach people in a timely manner with safe water for the prevention of death from water-borne diseases," said Harsaran Pandey, WHO regional spokeswoman in New Delhi.

Health officials have stated that preventing outbreaks of diseases across tsunami-hit Asia is a vital race against time; however, the thousands of rotting corpses do not pose the main threat. Instead, sewage-contaminated water is the main risk factor in the spread of deadly diseases like cholera, malaria and dengue fever and aid organisations are scrambling to get clean drinking water to the affected areas.

"Diseases are spread by contaminated water, drinking water and water used to clean food," said Pandey.

Reuters reports that WHO and other international aid bodies are shipping tons of water purification tablets to Indonesia, Sri Lanka and the Maldives, while foreign navies are sending ships with desalination units to produce drinking water.

On Thursday, the global alliance ACT (Action by Churches) International, which mobilised humanitarian relief operations hours after the tragedy struck, launched a £4,263million appeal to assist its members in India, Indonesia and Sri Lanka, Burma in their relief assistance operations, as well as other countries that may require assistance through the ACT alliance

In Sri Lanka, ACT members from Europe and North America have airlifted supplies in, which include basic medicines, family shelter kits containing family tents and plastic sheeting, as well as blankets in support of the local ACT member in the country.

Meanwhile, the National Christian Council of Sri Lanka has mobilised all its staff and hundreds of church volunteers to assist those who survived and are now in need of assistance.

In India, ACT member Church's Auxiliary for Social Action (CASA) has also mobilised teams of staff and its partner churches and network organisations. Distribution kitchens are up and running, providing food to people in the stricken areas, which include Kerala, Krishna Godawari in Andhra Pradesh, Madras Diocese and Chennai city.

Based on information received from the assessment teams sent to the mainland coastal areas hit by the tsunamis, CASA will assist some 50,000 affected families.

"The response of CASA will be through food and non-food relief assistance, temporary shelters and post-crisis phase response through reconstruction of houses, cyclone shelters and rehabilitation through providing support for strengthening food security and livelihoods," CASA reported. "In food relief assistance, we plan to undertake feeding programs through 10 centres in Tamil Nadu, Andhra Pradesh and Kerala."

Currently, ACT member Lutheran World Service India (LWSI) is distributing the most essential relief items to meet the basic needs of the people to 10,000 families in Tamil Nadu.

In a call to prayer and response, International Mission Board President Jerry Rankin said, "Our hearts are grieved anytime a disaster such as this brings such devastation and loss of life. Having served for 23 years in the affected countries makes the loss very personal for me."

Rankin continued, "Our IMB personnel in the region are already on site in many locations, assessing the damage and evaluating what we can do as we work alongside local governments and Great Commission partner agencies. We are trusting Southern Baptists to respond with an outpouring of support to under-gird the relief and rehabilitation projects that will follow in the days and weeks ahead."