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The Wall Street Journal, for which you need a pricey subscription, is running excellent coverage of the tsunami aftermath. Today there's an article detailing, without speculation, exactly how urgent the clean water problem is in India and Sri Lanka:

"In his makeshift clinic on the west coast of Sri Lanka, Dr. Thusitha Ranasinghe has seen a disturbing change in the sort of patients seeking his help. In the days immediately following Sunday's tsunami, which knocked over most of the seaside huts in the town of Modara, people came in mostly with cuts and scratches. Now, he says, many are seeking treatment for intestinal problems.

'Two days ago there were no diarrhea cases," but now about one in five have the disorder, he says. The reason: "There is no clean water here.'

The gist of the story is that because the tsunami either displaced fresh water with undrinkable salt water or swept sewage into wells, perhaps many as a million people have no supplies of drinking water, making them vulnerable to a raft of water-borne diseases.

"Evidence of how critical the issue has become was abundant yesterday. In Indonesia's remote Aceh region, witnesses reported cases of diarrhea among refugees whose thirst compelled them to drink from roadside ditches. In southern India, security forces and aid workers fanned out to drop chlorine tablets in water tanks. And in the Maldives, people celebrated a sudden rain storm that delivered a temporary supply of potable water as the islands' stranded tsunami survivors await international aid.

David Nabarro, director of the crisis operations at the World Health Organization in Geneva, said cases of diarrhea and dehydration typically shoot upward about one week after catastrophes.

'I don't think anybody knows how many lives are at risk,' Dr. Nabarro said. 'My feeling is that there may be as many as five million people whose lives are very badly affected by this catastrophe. It wouldn't be an unreasonable thing to consider 50,000 people succumbing if we don't take very fast and focused action.'"

Steve Lopez' column in this morning's LA Times gives good advice on how to help.

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