New wharf to be towed to Phnom Penh

Press, 9 April 1980, Page 9

New wharf to be towed to Phnom Penh

NZPA-Reuter Singapore) l Two big loading wharfs: will be towed this week from Singapore to Phnom Penh' where the main jetty has! collapsed. hampering inter-: national relief operations, a; West German aid official- ( said today. ; I The two wharfs, each 40] (metres long with cranes,' 'elevators, conveyor belts! and other equipment, costing), more than 5360.000. are being! sent jointly by a Western

aid consortium and the United Nations Children’s Fund (Unicef) the official, Jurgen Fager said. Mr Fager, a senior] engineer and technical adviser to the 32-member aid

consortium headed by the British charity organisation Oxfam, said that Phnom Penh Government authorities had cleared an area about 200 m from the collapsed jetty for the temporary Wharves.

I The jetty and another pier slipped away from their i.foundations three weeks ago. i] making almost half the Phnom Penh port area unusable for unloading relief ! supplies, badly needed to •avert a famine in Kamipuchea. ; Mr Fager, wlio is in Singapore after a five-week stay in ! Kampuchea, said there are lat least six vessels with food supplies waiting to be unloaded at Phnom Penh.

“Although the Phnom Penh authorities have opened an alternative wharf nearby it still took about a week for each vessel to be unloaded under existing conditions,’’ he added.

“About 4000 tonnes of relief supplies are now being unloaded daily at Phnom Penh, but this will be increased to 7400 tonnes when the two floating wharfs are ready for use within one month,” Mr Fager said.