A child at a fishing village in Cuddalore. (AFP file picture)

Cuddalore, April 24: The World Health Organisation has given a thumbs-up to India?s tsunami relief measures.

A water-logged Thazhanguda, a fishermen?s village 5 km from here, greeted WHO chief Dr Lee Jong Wook during his three-day visit to the country early this month.

Heavy rains took the village by surprise the night before his visit, putting its temporary shelters deep in water.

Lee, however, seemed to take no notice as he showered praise on the government?s efforts. ?India is the core important country in the region? and was ?wise? in focusing equally on health and sanitation in the first phase of relief and rehabilitation, he said.

The Korean director-general of WHO was accompanied by Union health minister Anbumani Ramadoss, WHO?s India representative Dr Salim J. Hebayeb, state health minister Dalavai Sundaram and senior officials, including Cuddalore district collector Gagandeep Singh Bedi, as he did the rounds of tsunami-hit areas.

The WHO team, however, had to cancel its trip to Nagapattinam ? the worst-affected district in the state ?in view of the incessant downpour and a cyclone warning.

Lauding the Manmohan Singh government?s stand against accepting foreign aid, Lee said India has won kudos for lending medical expertise to other tsunami-ravaged countries, including Sri Lanka, the Maldives and Indonesia.

The government also came in for praise for preventing any epidemic outbreak after the killer waves struck on December 26. At all levels ? central, state and district ? India has done well, Lee said. ?We were particularly concerned about water-borne diseases like cholera and diarrhoea.?

Hebayeb returned the compliment, saying agencies like WHO and Unicef, too, had pitched in.

Lee said an ?international early warning network? for tsunamis is a ?very important priority? and the latest earthquake off Sumatra has underlined this.

The WHO chief acknowledged that there were some ?shortcomings? in the handling of public health, for instance, the way bodies were removed in some places. He added that a meeting has been convened in Thailand next month to discuss them.

Anbumani, however, insisted that there was ?no problem? in the handling of corpses and proper sanitation procedures had been followed during mass burials.

On counselling for tsunami survivors, Anbumani said experts from the National Institute of Mental and Health Sciences, Bangalore, have trained local social workers to help victims return to normal life.

With children forming a large cluster of survivors, Bedi told Lee, the district authorities have opened parks for them in 68 affected villages with the help of NGOs. These parks were built not only in the fishermen?s villages, but also in areas with Dalit and tribal population, the collector added.