Climate Change and Disaster Risk Management: News Releases

ADB is offering initial new assistance of $20 million in grants to help the Maldives' post-tsunami reconstruction and rehabilitation effort, ADB Vice-President Liqun Jin said at meetings with Maldives President Maumoon Abdul Gayoom and Finance and Treasury Minister Mohamed Jaleel yesterday.

ADB Vice-President Liqun Jin will visit tsunami-affected areas of the Maldives and meet senior government officials during a two-day visit from 25 to 26 January 2005.

ADB will help restore critical social and economic activities in Bangladesh disrupted by the devastating floods of June 2004 by rehabilitating public and community infrastructure through a loan approved for US$180 million.

Gearing itself for challenges posed by the devastation wrought by the recent earthquake and tsunami, Indonesia's concurrent adoption of a 5-year infrastructure plan and strategy, announced yesterday, is impressive and timely, says Shamshad Akhtar, ADB Director General for Southeast Asia.

"We need to use this sad occasion to lay the roots for a better future for vulnerable communities," said ADB President Tadao Chino during a visit today to tsunami-affected areas in Sri Lanka. "ADB stands ready to provide support to Sri Lanka, and will assist the reconstruction effort with about $200 million in 2005."

ADB President Tadao Chino will visit Sri Lanka from 15 to 16 January to meet the President and Prime Minister and visit tsunami-affected areas.

Japan is to provide an additional US$20 million through its trust funds at ADB to support relief measures in areas devastated by the December earthquake and tsunami, the Japanese Minister of Finance, Sadakazu Tanigaki, announced today.

The day after the tsunami rendered impassable the main southern road between Bentota and Matara, a Japanese contractor working on an ADB project diverted its resources to clearing the vital highway and allowing aid relief to reach affected areas more quickly.

ADB and World Bank announced today that they have received a request from the Government of India to consider providing assistance for reconstruction and rehabilitation work in the wake of the December tsunami disaster.

Addressing a press conference today in Banda Aceh, ADB President Tadao Chino stated, "I am deeply overwhelmed by the pain and suffering and devastation that I saw during the Aceh visit." He said Aceh is the worst hit province by the earthquake and tsunami tidal wave.