Spokesperson and Manager of the Media Unit at International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies Tommaso Della Longa spoke to CGTN Europe about the flooding and landslides in Indonesia, Sri Lanka, Vietnam, and Thailand.
00:00Tommaso Della Longa is from the International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies.
00:05Tommaso, welcome back. Good to see you.
00:07What are your teams telling you about the situation in particular in Indonesia?
00:12Thank you very much, Jimmy, for having me today.
00:14Well, the situation is still very complicated.
00:17The flooding, the extension of the flooding is huge.
00:21Landslides also have affected Indonesia as well, other parts of the region.
00:25There are severe infrastructural damages.
00:29So even access to all the areas is still a challenge.
00:33Of course, we are still in the face of the search and rescue and also bringing first aid, health, food, water, all the basic items that people need to survive.
00:45Looking on, the international community obviously horrified and saddened by what's happened.
00:51I wonder what can the international community do to help?
00:54Well, first and foremost, support the emergency response, but I would say also the recovery for the weeks and months to come.
01:04Here we are looking at a region, not only one country or one part of a country.
01:10I'm talking about Indonesia, Sri Lanka, Vietnam, Thailand, that will need the help of the international community for the months to come.
01:17And also, I think it's a good reminder of the need of improving framework policies, even in an area of the world that is very well placed.
01:29For instance, for early warning, a national-based solution and so on, it's the front line of the climate change.
01:35There is a need of strength and all the different policies and systems to make sure that the next disaster, less people will be badly affected.
01:44I wonder what the most pressing needs are in the coming hours.
01:48Well, surely, again, search and rescue, shelter, so people need to be evacuated, but need also to have some kind of safety.
01:59And then, basically, all the basic items, which is food, water, and items for houses.
02:06And we don't have to forget mental health and psychological support, which is very, very important to work on it since the first hours after a disaster.
02:17Just how challenging is it to reach those remote communities?
02:22I mean, it's clear from the pictures we're seeing that the roads, the railways are underwater.
02:29Extremely, extremely challenging.
02:31You have to think about, just to give you an example, Sri Lanka, but it could also work for Indonesia.
02:35In Sri Lanka, it's one of the worst disasters, I mean, in the recent past.
02:42We're talking about remote communities that still are almost unreachable.
02:46And the more the time will go ahead, the more needs will grow, because we'll have a clearer picture of these remote areas.
02:55So it's extremely challenging.
02:56And I think that what really saved life, as always, I must admit, is the fact that where stocks prepositioned and volunteers,
03:05cross-secretion volunteers have already trained part of the community to immediately react after the flooding.
03:11But still, we don't have a clearer picture of the needs on the ground.
Be the first to comment