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UNICEF already had large storage tanks for water in India and has moved some of them to affected areas in the south and east, said a UNICEF spokesman, Alfred Ironside. 'In the early days, a family may have to walk a mile or two inland to where water systems were not affected by flood waters,' Ironside said. 'The jerry cans are good for that.' But he added that the system was in place mainly in India and in Sri Lanka, not in Indonesia, the scene of much of the worst devastation

Another hazard to drinking water is contamination of wells by salt water from the tsunamis. Martin Dawes, a regional spokesman for Unicef in Colombo, estimated that 1,000 drinking-water wells in Sri Lanka's hard-hit eastern region had been contaminated. 'At the moment,' he said, 'the water people don't have the right kind of pumps to rescue the wells.' Dawes said Unicef had also bought about 75 million liters, or 20 million gallons, of drinking water, enough for 100,000 people, and was expecting it to be delivered to the affected areas Thursday

Unicef already had large storage tanks for water in India and has moved some of them to affected areas in the south and east, said a Unicef spokesman, Alfred Ironside. The tanks can be set up in communities and then refilled by tanker trucks, he said. Families are then given clean jerry cans to carry their own supplies. ''Around Ampara is one of the worst-affected areas,'' Mr. [Robert Schofield] said in a telephone interview from the group's headquarters in Lausanne, Switzerland. He added that 177,000 people, displaced by destruction along the coast, had fled about 12 miles inland and set up camps around Ampara, because it is the largest town in the vicinity. Medair reports that 120 camps have cropped up; the World Health Organization estimates the number at 500. ''We're bringing in pumps to clean out the wells,'' Mr. Ironside said. He said that the government in Sri Lanka had requested several dozen pumps and that Unicef was shipping the dozen or so it already had on hand

The human tally in Indonesia jumped after officials said that nearly 28,000 more bodies had been uncovered in Aceh Province, on the island of Sumatra, near the epicenter of Sunday's enormous undersea earthquake. The discovery brought the death count close to 80,000 in this country alone. As the relief effort struggled to lift off, the death toll continued to rise along with fears of looting and disease. Sri Lanka reported more than 27,000 dead, India more than 10,000. Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra of Thailand said he feared the toll there could reach 7,000. In the areas washed by the tsunami, all supplies are short, but the lines for gasoline yesterday in Banda Aceh, Indonesia, stretched through town. (Photo by Choo Youn-Kong/Agence France-Presse--Getty Images)(pg. A1); On Phi-Phi island, off Thailand, relief workers searched a market yesterday for bodies, wrapping them in plastic to take them for burial. (Photo by Kin Cheung/Reuters)(pg. A10)

While no epidemics have been confirmed in the vast coastal areas devastated by the tidal waves on Sunday, the officials said they were most worried about diarrheal diseases -- cholera, typhoid fever and shigellosis -- as well as liver diseases like hepatitis A and E. Among the diarrheal diseases, cholera, typhoid and shigellosis are caused by bacteria. In cholera, the bacterium produces a toxin that causes severe fluid loss and can kill quickly, and the key to treating it is to replace fluids. Typhoid can also be fatal and requires antibiotic treatment. Shigellosis causes severe dysentery but usually goes away in about a week. Photo: ASSOCIATED PRESS / An Indonesian air force crewman tries to catch a much-needed rest amidst boxes of relief supplies brought in yesterday to Banda Aceh, where an estimated 52,000 people in Aceh province alone were killed in the devastating earthquake and tsunami in Indonesia. Emergency relief supplies started pouring in five days after the disasters, which have claimed more than 100,000 victims across South and Southeast Asia

While no epidemics have been confirmed in the vast coastal areas devastated by the tsunamis on Sunday, the officials said they were most worried about diarrheal diseases -- cholera, typhoid fever and shigellosis -- as well as liver diseases like hepatitis A and E. Those diseases are caused by bacteria or viruses in contaminated drinking water or food, in sewage and among people who lack clean water to wash their hands. Health organizations like the W.H.O. and Unicef recommend that each person be given about five gallons of clean water a day. Dr. David Nabarro, the director of crisis operations for the W.H.O., said in a telephone interview from its headquarters in Geneva that water shortages had already occurred in the Maldives and Sri Lanka, and that tanker trucks would be needed to provide clean water. Among the diarrheal diseases, cholera, typhoid and shigellosis are caused by bacteria. In cholera, the bacterium produces a toxin that causes severe fluid loss and can kill quickly, and the key to treating it is to replace fluids. Typhoid can also be fatal and requires antibiotic treatment. Shigellosis causes severe dysentery but usually goes away in about a week

Logistical problems abound as international organizations attempt to fly in material for temporary health centers to supplement the hospitals that are likely to be inundated with people. Doctors Without Borders said it had to delay until Wednesday a shipment of 32 tons of relief materials to Sumatra from Ostende, Belgium, because of the lack of an available airplane. The cargo includes generators, water bladders and tanks, plastic sheeting, mosquito nets, chlorination kits, a hospital tent and medical supplies

Immediate health threats include wounds from stepping on nails and broken glass; dehydration and heat stroke from exposure in hot muggy weather; electrical shocks from downed wires; and diarrhea and respiratory diseases caused by various bacteria and viruses that can spread rapidly because of poor sanitation and a lack of clean water. Doctors Without Borders said it had to delay until Wednesday a shipment of 32 tons of relief materials to Sumatra from Ostende, Belgium, because of the lack of an available airplane. The cargo includes generators, water bladders and tanks, plastic sheeting, mosquito nets, chlorination kits, a hospital tent and medical supplies. Dangers also loom from eating spoiled food. Infectious diseases like dysentery, cholera, hepatitis A and leptospirosis that are present in an area can spread through sewage, said Dr. Maria Connelly, a WHO expert on emergencies

In southern India, where as many as 100,000 were homeless, a girl received a tetanus shot at a relief camp in Nagore, in Tamil Nadu state. (Photo by Gurinder Osan/Associated Press)(pg. A6); THAILAND -- As the toll from Sunday's disaster continued to rise, photos of dead victims awaited identification yesterday in the town hall at Phuket. (Photo by Jean Chung for The New York Times); SRI LANKA -- A home in Mt. Lavinia District, south of Colombo. Officials said the country needed virtually everything from medicine to clothing.(Photo by Kieran Doherty/Reuters); INDONESIA -- Aid arrived in Banda Aceh, where thousands of bloated bodies in fields, morgues and mosques awaited identification and burial. (Photo by Dimas Ardian/Getty Images)(pg. A1)

Immediate health threats include wounds from stepping on nails and broken glass; dehydration and heat stroke from exposure in hot, muggy weather; the possibility of electrocution from downed wires; and diarrhea and respiratory diseases caused by various bacteria and viruses that can spread rapidly because of poor sanitation and a lack of clean water. Doctors Without Borders had to delay until Wednesday a shipment of 32 tons of relief materials to Sumatra from Ostende, Belgium, because of the lack of an available airplane. The cargo includes generators, water bladders and tanks; plastic sheeting; mosquito nets; chlorination kits; a hospital tent; and various medical supplies