A programme is working to enhance Sri Lanka’s recovery from the 2004 tsunami by improving environmental infrastructure in the coastal district of Ampara.

The Environmental Remediation Programme (ERP) focuses on solid waste management, environmental restoration and improvement of urban surface water drainage. The programme is funded by the European Union and implemented by UNOPS, in collaboration with the local authorities and communities in each stage of the project, from design to completion.

Managing solid waste

Like its neighbors in the Pacific, the Cook Islands is no stranger to severe natural disasters. Pacific island countries are highly susceptible to increasingly frequent and extreme events, such as cyclones, tsunamis and landslides, as well as the slower-onset effects of climate change, such as rising sea levels, increased temperatures and coastal erosion.

By Miyoko Ishigami

MORIOKA, Japan, May 29 (KUNA) -- With financial backing from Kuwait, a mental health care center for children who suffered psychological damage from the 2011 earthquake-tsunami disaster was inaugurated in northeastern Japan on Wednesday.

Using a fund generated from Kuwait's USD two million donation through the Japanese Red Cross Society, the 800-sq-meter Iwate Children Care Center was built on the premises of Iwate Medical University in Morioka City, Iwate Prefecture.

THATTA, May 23: A large number of environmentalists, along with other civil society activists, representatives of growers’ organisations and people associated with the forest conservation and management took part in plantation of mangroves on Khedewari island, located along the Keti Bunder coastline in connection with the international day of biodiversity observed on Wednesday.

By Andy McElroy

GENEVA, 22 May 2013 - The inventor of the world's first interactive digital globe that graphically depicts the vulnerability of our planet to disasters today challenged global policymakers to show more leadership in tackling the growing risks facing populations worldwide.

A programme is working to enhance Sri Lanka’s recovery from the 2004 tsunami by improving environmental infrastructure in the coastal district of Ampara.

The Environmental Remediation Programme (ERP) focuses on solid waste management, environmental restoration and improvement of urban surface water drainage. The programme is funded by the European Union and implemented by UNOPS, in collaboration with the local authorities and communities in each stage of the project, from design to completion.

Managing solid waste

Abstract

Objective

To provide an overview of the health needs following the Great East Japan Earthquake Disaster and the lessons identified.

Methods

Period covered by this Operations Update: 1 January 2013 – 31 March 2013

Highlights:

Operations Update No. 11 captures the activities of the Japanese Red Cross Society (JRCS) in response to the Great East Japan Earthquake and Tsunami (GEJET) over the past three months.

• During this reporting period, the second anniversary of the disaster was commemorated. JRCS has completed a number of reconstruction projects, while many early recovery support programmes for displaced people have come to an end.

Two years have passed since Japan’s Tohoku coast was ravaged by a massive earthquake and tsunami. Thousands of lives lost, hundreds of thousands of survivors left without shelter, and millions of dollars in monetary damage were left behind when the ocean waters retreated.

Much has changed in Japan in the past two years, yet much has painfully stayed the same in the tsunami zone. Mercy Corps assisted in the emergent aftermath of the disaster, and has continued to provide support for local small merchants, helping to revive the badly struggling local economies.