Billions of dollars committed and yet nothing much is happening to help tsunami victims get back on their feet.

An excerpt from the Reuters story carried on Alertnet.org:

Rebuilding from last December's devastating Indian Ocean tsunami has been too slow and frustration is growing among displaced people, said a senior U.N. official on Thursday.

Speaking on the sidelines of a conference on post-tsunami rehabilitation in Washington, U.N. emergency relief coordinator Jan Egeland urged more cooperation between governments, world bodies such as the United Nations and World Bank and nongovernmental organizations in pushing the rebuilding ahead.

"We could spend too much time in endless meetings, with no clear leadership and people's frustration exploding. They (displaced people) have heard of billions of dollars being available and they are sitting in tents and saying 'I want my life and community back,'" said Egeland.

More than 228,000 people were killed or went missing when an undersea earthquake sent huge waves into a dozen Indian Ocean nations from Somalia to Indonesia on Dec. 26. The homes and livelihoods of an estimated 5 million people were affected.

Governments, private organizations and individuals from around the world have pledged or spent more than $8 billion dollars in the relief effort.

A large amount of this money has not yet been spent while aid groups and governments wait for nations to draw up their "master plans" for reconstruction.