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Frequently Asked Questions
What is ADB’s role after a disaster?Our role is to provide immediate assistance for the medium and long-term reconstruction of affected areas and to help rebuild the critical infrastructure – both social and physical – that will help people get back on their feet, reacquire their livelihood and rebuild their lives. Our disaster and emergency assistance policy emphasizes our commitment to provide efficient and effective assistance in close cooperation with the governments in affected areas and with our development partners. After a disaster, an assessment is made to determine the extent of damage and the needs for recovery. How is this assessment carried out?After the relief and rescue operation is well under way, a needs assessment is done to assess the damage in affected areas and the costs of recovery and reconstruction. Teams of experts visit the affected areas and compile data on both the physical and social impact of the disaster. They then work with government on calculating the cost of the damage and the resources required for rebuilding the affected communities, and determining how ADB can most effectively participate in the rebuilding effort. How did ADB respond to the December Tsunami disaster?Our personnel acted in close coordination with the affected governments. We worked with them, the local communities, and other donors to ensure our assistance meets actual and urgent needs, is coordinated, builds effectively on the current humanitarian aid effort, and is in line with government priorities. A total of $675 million was initially identified for the relief efforts. Of these initial funds, $500 million was new funding that comprised grants and highly concessional funds, and $175 million was from reallocations from existing programs in Indonesia, Maldives and Sri Lanka. What will ADB do to help prevent future tsunami disasters?We now know that an effective early warning system in the Indian Ocean could have saved countless lives. ADB had initially offered to fund a $1 million feasibility study to examine options for putting such a system in place and linking it to other regional and global warning systems. UNESCO has taken the lead role in coordinating preparations for the development of an early warning system. We cannot control the forces of nature but hopefully in the future we should be able to prevent human loss on the catastrophic scale that had sadly occurred. What will ADB do to help prevent future tsunami disasters?ADB has always worked with its member countries to help them react to and recover from natural disasters. Between 1987, when ADB approved its first formal policy on disaster assistance (Rehabilitation Assistance to Small Developing Member Countries Affected by Natural Disaster), and 2002, ADB provided more than $2 billion in emergency assistance loans and more than $51 million in technical assistance to help its members rebuild after disasters. Any recent examples?In recent years, ADB has provided disaster-related assistance to Bangladesh, People's Republic of China and India. ADB Responses to Floods in Bangladesh Bangladesh is especially prone to floods. To date, ADB has provided eight flood disaster assistance loans to Bangladesh. Recently, following the disastrous floods of 1998, ADB provided emergency financial assistance amounting to $104 million for restoration of flood-damaged water supply and sanitation facilities, repairing schools and training centers, roads and bridges, flood and water control structures, rural roads and markets, railway facilities, and urban infrastructure. In 2000, ADB provided flood-ravaged southwest Bangladesh emergency financial assistance amounting to $67.8 million to rehabilitate vital economic and social infrastructure. In July 2004, in response to the worsening flood situation in Bangladesh, ADB's Bangladesh Resident Mission formed a Flood Monitoring Unit to closely monitor the flood situation, in consultation with government agencies and key development partners active in Bangladesh. The Unit reflects ADB's new proactive approach to disasters, and ADB's readiness to react rapidly as urgent disaster rehabilitation needs arise. ADB Responses to Floods in the People's Republic of China ADB's new proactive approach to disasters is again exemplified by its recent activities in the PRC. In 1998, flooding of the Yangtze and Songhua-Liao river basins killed 3,500 people, with monetary losses estimated at $30 billion. In July 2004, ADB announced it will help protect the PRC from the destructive effects of floods by developing an integrated flood mitigation and flood management strategy. ADB provided a technical assistance (grant) financing of $500,000 for this purpose. ADB and the Gujarat Earthquake On 26 January 2001, an earthquake measuring 7.7 on the Richter scale wreaked destruction across the industrialized State of Gujarat, India. Thousands were killed and thousands more were left homeless. Within days of the catastrophe, a team of high-level officials from ADB headquarters visited Gujarat to discuss assistance with the state government. ADB also dispatched a team of experts to assist the state government. Soon after, ADB approved the Gujarat Earthquake Rehabilitation and Reconstruction Project totaling $625 million, of which 80% was financed by ADB and 20% by the Gujarat State Government. In March 2001, ADB and the Government of India announced that Gujarat would be rebuilt with the help of a $500 million emergency loan from ADB. In addition, ADB established an extended office at Gandhinagar, close to the earthquake-affected areas, to ensure prompt and efficient implementation of the rehabilitation project. The loan helped support the state government's efforts to reconstruct and restore essential infrastructure, especially in the districts of Kachchh, Jamnagar, Surendranagar, and Rajkot. About 40% of the loan was for housing needs, with the balance for urban and rural infrastructure, restoring power supply, and livelihood rehabilitation. |
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