UN appeals for $22 million for Guatemala victims

The United Nations today sought US$22 million to help Guatemalan villagers who survived deadly rains and mudslides after Hurricane Stan struck Central America and Mexico last week.

The UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs, known as OCHA, has already contributed US$80,000, half of which was a grant from Norway, and sent its deputy director, Margareta Wahlstrom, to Guatemala.

Other emergency funds are coming from specialized UN agencies as the appeal got underway, the agency said.

The United Nations, working with Guatemala, has identified priorities for international aid that include water, sanitation and hygiene, food, shelter and household items, health services and communication.

Preliminary estimates indicate that damage to national agriculture will surpass US$400 million in livestock, coffee and banana industries, OCHA said.

Up to 1400 people in Panabaj, Guatemala, may have perished in a mudslide triggered by Stan. Rains from the storm have killed at least 400 people elsewhere in Guatemala and more than 100 others in neighboring countries.

The death toll could rise because emergency teams have still not arrived in other remote Guatemalan villages that were hit with landslides.

Edward Tsui, head of OCHA's New York office, said access was extremely difficult because roads and bridges had caved in or disappeared entirely.

The agency said that even before the hurricane, half of Guatemalan children under five years of age suffered from chronic malnutrition and 54 per cent of the country's 11 million people were poor. In rural areas, the poverty rate was 82 per cent.

- REUTERS