Within two days of the government opening the door to non-cash foreign aid, countries such as the US, Australia, Singapore and Israel have donated water purification systems and heavy-lift aircraft.
Coordinator for the Disaster Assistance Support Program under the US Agency for International Development (USAID) Ron Libby arrived in Taiwan on Thursday to survey the damage caused by Typhoon Morakot before making the final decision on US assistance.
Yesterday the American Institute in Taiwan (AIT) also confirmed that Washington had pledged to send US-operated heavy-lift helicopters along with the necessary material to aid the relief effort, but all the details were still being worked out.
PHOTO: SU FU-NAN, TAIPEI TIMES
In Washington, a US State Department official said on Friday that the US had received Taiwan's request for additional relief assistance in the aftermath of Morakot and was evaluating how to best provide help as quickly as possible.
"We are currently considering how best to assist Taiwan with its urgent humanitarian needs," State Department spokesman Philip Crowley said during a daily press briefing. "We'll compare what we are able to provide with what might be flowing from other countries in the region."
Jason Yuan (袁健生), Taiwan's representative to the US, told a news conference in Washington that he was deeply touched that the US was taking Taiwan's request seriously.
Yuan said the US government had called an inter-agency meeting to discuss the matter immediately after receiving Taiwan's request for assistance in the hope that a feasible resolution could be reached by the end of the week.
Yuan said Washington was impressed by Taiwan's generous donations in the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina, which battered the US in 2005, and was very concerned about the disaster brought about by Morakot last week.
The EU has also pledged to send a team to evaluate the disaster make recommendations on what aid it should send to Taiwan.
Meanwhile, Singapore's shipment of NT$1.14 million (US$34,500) in medical supplies was the first batch of foreign aid to land in Taiwan on Thursday.
Water purification systems donated by the Israeli government also arrived and were shipped to Kaohsiung on Friday night.
Canberra's donation of 200,000 water purification tablets, 5,000 buckets for treating water and household use, and 100 spray packs are expected to arrive today on a flight operated by China Airlines, which has offered to transport the goods for free, the Australian Commercial and Industry Office in Taipei said.
Offers of help have poured in from many international non-governmental organizations, such as the UN's Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs, the US-based Food for the Poor, France's Equipe Legere d' Intervention de Secour Aeroportee, Germany's Luftfahrt Ohne Grenzen and other search and rescue teams from South Korea and Turkey.
As of yesterday, MOFA's tally showed 59 countries, such as South Africa, Ecuador, Peru, Switzerland, Kuwait, Japan, Vietnam, Saudi Arabia, the US, Italy, St Lucia, the Dominican Republic and the Holy See have offered NT$55 million to help Taiwan through its worst flood-related disaster in five decades.
Meanwhile, the Straits Exchange Foundation (SEF) confirmed yesterday that China was willing to offer assistance, and the SEF had contacted China's Association for Relations Across the Taiwan Strait to accept 1,000 prefabricated homes. The SEF said it had not requested any other relief goods from China so far.
In related news, National Fire Administration (NFA) Director-General Huang Chi-min (黃季敏) denied that the NFA had given information to MOFA indicating Taiwan did not need rescue materials.
MOFA issued instructions on Aug. 11 to all foreign representative offices to decline their host governments if they should offer supplies or rescuers to help Taiwan in the wake of Morakot.
Critics have lambasted the ministry over the past few days for declining offers of foreign assistance.
Acting Minister Andrew Hsia (夏立言) said on Friday that the ministry's instructions to its overseas representative offices were based on suggestions made by the NFA.
"I have asked all NFA cadres. They all said they were not consulted by the ministry. It is such a massive disaster, and the administrative welcomes rescue teams from all countries," Huang said.
ADDITIONAL REPORTING BY MO YAN-CHIH AND SHIH HSIU-CHUAN
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