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| Friday, 07 January 2005 |
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The United Nations World Food Programme (WFP) has thanked the Japanese government for generously allowing WFP to redirect more than 2,400 metric tons of food to the tsunami emergency response. "WFP was able to respond immediately to the tsunami crisis in Sri Lanka due to the generosity of the Japanese people," said Jeff Taft-Dick, WFP's country director in Sri Lanka. Prior to the tsunami, Japan had donated more than 4,600 metric tons of rice for WFP's rehabilitation work in eastern and northern Sri Lanka. While the rice was originally planned for the rehabilitation programme only, WFP asked if the food could be used to respond immediately to the emergency following the sea surges on 26 December. "The Japanese agreed immediately - and we will forever be grateful," said Taft-Dick. "With one phone call to the Japanese embassy, we were able to get approval to utilize the food for the emergency response. This allowed us the flexibility and speed with which we needed to act." Had WFP not been able to use the Japanese contribution, the agency would have had limited food stocks with which to respond to the emergency. Redirecting ships and procuring food from other countries can take days, if not weeks. "We did not have time to wait," said Taft-Dick. "We needed to get food out to the affected areas as quickly as possible, and the Japanese rice sitting in our warehouse allowed us to do that." |
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