Ireland sends a further 47 tonnes of emergency supplies to the Philippines

Ireland sends a further 47 tonnes of emergency supplies to the Philippines – Minister Costello

Irish Aid has dispatched a further 47 tonnes of life-saving supplies to the Philippines. More than ten tonnes of urgent materials needed to provide clean water and protect victims against disease arrived in the Philippines yesterday from a United Nations depot in Dubai, which stores Irish Aid humanitarian stocks. Some 37 tonnes of Irish stocks were dispatched this morning from the UN’s depot in Brindisi, Italy. Amongst the €300,000 worth of stocks, which will be distributed by GOAL and Oxfam, are:

• 5,800 mosquito nets
• 8,000 jerry cans
• 500 latrines
• 37 water tanks
• 3,000 tents
• 200 blankets
• 5,000 bars of soap

In total 150 tonnes of materials have been airlifted by Irish Aid to the region. Ireland’s total contribution to the Typhoon Haiyan relief effort currently stands at €3.5 million.

Announcing the airlifts, Minister for Trade and Development, Joe Costello T.D., said:

“The additional airlifts are the latest in a series of steps I have authorised to scale up our support to the victims of Typhoon Haiyan and ensure that life-saving supplies are reaching families in the disaster zone. These supplies will provide shelter, protection against disease and clean water to thousands of families.”

Three additional members of Ireland’s Rapid Response will also be deployed to assist the work of UN agencies involved in the relief effort. An electrical engineer will depart tomorrow to work with the World Food Programme and will be joined by a second electrical engineer in the coming days. A civil-military coordination officer will also deploy to the UN Office for the Coordination for Humanitarian Affairs in the Philippines. This brings to five the number of Rapid Response Corps members now assisting in the relief effort in the Philippines.

Press Office

20 November 2013

Note to Editors

• Irish Aid is the Government’s overseas development programme. It is managed by the Development Cooperation Division of the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade.

• Irish Aid has already provided over €3.1 million in support to the Typhoon Haiyan relief effort, including €2.6 million of funding through trusted NGO partners. €1 million was announced by Tánaiste and Minister for Foreign Affairs, Eamon Gilmore T.D., on the 10th November and a further €1.6 million was announced by Minister of State Joe Costello on the 17th November. In addition, an initial airlift of €500,000 worth of emergency shelter supplies from our stocks in Dubai arrived in the Philippines on the 14th November.

• The second airlift of Irish Aid emergency supplies from Dubai arrived in Cebu, Philippines at 7am (local time) on 19th November. The airlifted supplies from Brindisi, departed at 10:00 (GMT) 20 November and are scheduled to arrive in Cebu at 10:30 tomorrow morning local time (02:30 GMT). 

• Through its Rapid Response Initiative, Irish Aid has established a strategic partnership with the World Food Programme, which manages the UN Humanitarian Response Depot (UNHRD) Network. The Network maintains a stockpile of emergency humanitarian supplies in five hubs around the globe.  The hubs are in Accra, Brindisi, Dubai, Panama and Subang. 

• Irish Aid maintains sufficient emergency stocks in the UNHRD hubs to have the capacity to respond to 55,000 beneficiaries.

• In the past 3 years (2011-2013), Irish Aid has dispatched 756 metric tonnes of emergency supplies (including this latest dispatch to the Philippines).

• The top 10 dispatch destination are, Burkina Faso, Democratic Republic Congo, Jordan, Kenya, Niger, Philippines, Somalia, Syria, Tunisia, and Turkey

• The items that are in greatest demand following a disaster are tents, blankets, Jerry cans, kitchen sets, soap and mosquito nets.

• The Rapid Response Corps is a roster of experienced humanitarian experts available to deploy at short notice in the event of a humanitarian emergency.

• Individual members of the roster are deployed under the standby partnership programme with UN agencies (UNHCR, UNICEF, UNOCHA, and WFP) and other humanitarian organisations in need of their specific skills.  Those agencies and organisations have the requisite knowledge and experience to determine where gaps exist and how to use Irish personnel optimally.