Poor communication holds up aid to Japan after quake and tsunami

Mar 29, 2011, 6:46 GMT

Tokyo - Foreign relief aid was only trickling through to north-eastern Japan, two weeks after the area was devastated by a magnitude-9 earthquake and tsunami, due to poor coordination between authorities and donors, news reports said Tuesday.

Foreign governments and organizations said their aid supplies have been held up by a lack of communication, while Japanese authorities said some of the aid has not matched their more urgent needs.

'If we had more information from the Japanese government about what aid was needed where, we would be able to help more effectively,' one embassy worker in Tokyo was quoted as saying by the newspaper Yomiuri.

Many relief goods are sitting in storage in several embassies in Tokyo, for lack of information from the national authorities on where to send them, the report said.

An official with the Japanese Foreign Ministry said the delays were due partly to the limited transport options into the affected zones, and limited facilities to store the goods once delivered.

The official also said people would prefer Japanese products, especially food, the report said.

The ministry said 133 countries and 39 international organisations offered their help. Japan had accepted 21 offers of rescue forces and expert personnel, and 26 offers of relief goods such as food and blankets, it said.

Several aid proposals were turned down as being unsuitable, the report said.

Some foreign rescue teams were asked to stay at home as authorities struggled to coordinate the large numbers of specialists, many unable to speak or read Japanese, which arrived in the country.

Thailand's offer of 15,000 tons of rice was declined by Japan's Agriculture Ministry, which said it already had more than 3 million tons in storage.

One ton of medical supplies sent by Ukraine, which suffered its own nuclear catastrophe at the Chernobyl plant in 1986, were returned by Tokyo saying they were not certified for use in Japan.

The official death toll from the March 11 quake and tsunami stood at 11,004 Tuesday with 17,339 people listed as missing, Japan's National Police Agency said.

Rising levels of radioactivity were detected across the region this week as workers struggled to contain the overheating at a damaged nuclear power plant in the hard-hit north-eastern region.

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