Peru quake victims still suffering: 'We have nothing to eat'

Aug 21, 2007, 16:40 GMT

Lima - Victims of last week's earthquake in Peru have again criticised the state-coordinated aid operation, local media reported Tuesday.

Distribution of food and other aid supplies is concentrated in the centres of the affected cities of Ica, Canete, Pisco and Chinca, reports said. Residents in peripheral areas or in the countryside have however so far received little drinking water, food or blankets.

President Alan Garcia admitted that it was 'difficult to reach every single one of 50,000 households' affected by last Wednesday's earthquake.

Six days since the tremor, which measured 8.0 on the Richter scale, the exact death toll is still unknown. According to the latest official figures, 503 bodies have been recovered with an additional 1,045 people recorded as wounded.

Dozens more bodies are however believed to remain below the rubble.

'The death could climb to 600 or 700,' according to Luis Bromley, head of the country's forensic medicine institute.

Fears of a possible disease epidemic are also present, said Bromley as well as former health minister Uriel Garcia.

One group of around 20 quake victims over the weekend walked more than 80 kilometres to Chincha in order to plead for help.

'We have no drinking water at all. The children have not had anything to eat for days and we are still all sleeping outside in the street,' quake victim Mario Ronceros told reporters.

President Garcia has meanwhile said he will allocate additional resources including helicopters to the relief effort but also urged those in need of help to make their way to aid stations if possible.

Thousands of people affected by the earthquake, the worst in Peru for 37 years, are also to receive financial aid to help rebuild their homes.

Some 8,000 of the around 80,000 people made homeless by the quake will initially be hired on short-term contracts to help clear rubble in the quake-hit Ica region, around 300 kilometres south of Lima, Labour Minister Susana Pinilla said.

Meanwhile in the port city of Pisco, around 80 per cent of which was levelled by the quake, efforts were already underway Tuesday to clear the debris.

With the help of heavy machinery more than 5,000 tonnes of rubble per day could be cleared and the task completed in two weeks, according to President Garcia.