Too little too late, warns UN; rice crops threatened

by Larry Jagan

Friday, 16 May 2008 18:54

Two weeks after Cyclone Nargis devastated parts of Burma, aid is trickling in and some relief workers have been allowed to enter the country, but the critical needs of those affected by the cyclone are still not being met, warns the UN. The first signs of water-borne disease are appearing in the Irrawaddy Delta – west of Rangoon – which was hardest hit by the cyclone. A million children nay have been separated from their parents. They are suffering from trauma and are facing the threat of being kidnapped and trafficked, according to Unicef. The country's ability to recover in the longer run is also in doubt. With much of the rice growing area still under water and the growing season about to start, Burma's rice production could be severely reduced as a result of the cyclone damage. The Burmese prime minister, Thein Sein, announced the end of the aid phase and the start of reconstruction on state-run television and radio.  But aid experts tell a different story. "The aid effort is far from over," Amanda Pitt, the regional spokesperson for the UN relief effort, told a press conference in Bangkok. "More relief supplies and more aid workers are desperately needed if a second catastrophe is to be averted." "There is a very real danger of a second wave of death from disease if food, clean water, shelter and emergency health care cannot be provided to the displaced people on the move from the devastated areas in the delta," she added. Already there are confirmed cases of cholera being reported among those affected by the cyclone in the Irrawaddy Delta, according Maureen Birmingham, the acting head of the World Health Organisation in Bangkok. "At this stage, the numbers are not significant and are consistent with the usual presence of the disease in the area," she said. But there is cause for concern, especially with the acute lack of safe water, she said. There has been a massive jump in the number of cases of diarrhoea, which could lead to a cholera outbreak. "There is no explosion yet, but the risk is very high," she told journalists. One of the biggest problems for aid is the massive movement of people. Millions of people are desperately looking for food and shelter throughout the worst-affected areas. "At least half the people that need help are not yet receiving relief of any kind," a spokesman for the International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies, John Sparrow, told Mizzima. "These peoples' pressing needs are shelter, fresh water and medical supplies. With more rain expected – another six days of torrential downpour expected – these people are going to move," said Sparrow. "How do you get to people who are on the move when access is already limited," said Sparrow. "They are already on the edge – the rain will make their conditions even more deplorable." The regime is afraid of foreigners and is preventing them from hard-hit areas in the Delta. "The government has virtually thrown a cordon around Rangoon and not letting any international staff out into the Delta," said Chris Kaye, head of the World Food Programme in Burma. There are hints, though, that some staff may be allowed into the Delta soon, he added. Access remains one of the key issues.  Everyone involved in the relief effort on the ground is facing the same problem. "There is a tight ring around Rangoon and we cannot even get international staff to the outlying areas across the river that were badly affected by the cyclone," Timothy Costello, the World Vision CEO, told Mizzima on the phone from Rangoon. "To do our job effectively, it's critically important we get access to the worst-affected areas," he said. "Fresh water and sanitation are crucial for those most affected by the cyclone," the regional head of Medecins Sans Frontieres, Paul Cawthorne, based in Bangkok, told Mizzima. "We desperately need more experts to be able to provide for their needs." Children are particularly vulnerable, according to Unicef. There are already cases of attempted abductions of children from temporary shelters in Rangoon that were thwarted and the culprits turned over to the police. "The potential for a significant increase in migration, trafficking, forced labour and the use of child labour is always very high in the aftermath of a disaster like this," Steve Marshall, the ILO liaison officer in Rangoon, told Mizzima. "While there is no evidence of this as yet, we have to be vigilant, watching out for and constantly monitoring, as the risk of this is very high." The medium- and long-term effect of the cyclone is also going to be significant. Experts are now warning that the disaster could turn Burma from a rice-exporting nation into an importer. "Food stores have been lost, seeds have been destroyed, and other assets needed have all been swept away," Diderik Devleeschawver, a senior representative of the UN's Food and Agriculture Organisation, told journalists in Bangkok. "They do not have the capital to replace the seeds, livestock and tools needed to start replanting rice in the next few months," he said. This is the time the usual planting season starts in the Irrawaddy Delta – Burma's rice bowl. The irrigation channels need to be repaired and water pumps replaced. The paddy field walls need to be restored. Much of the land is still flooded. More than half of the region's livestock that was used for ploughing has been killed. "We are looking at providing small Chinese-made tractors for some of this work," said Devleeschawver. "But in some areas the water is so high that machines wont work." The immediate and long-term needs are being assessed. There is a UN team down in the Delta at the moment preparing a report. And a team from ASEAN arrived on Thursday to carry out its assessment, in preparation for the ASEAN Ministerial meeting in Singapore on Monday. The Burmese government has already estimated it needs $243 million for reconstruction of farmland in the Delta. The signs are not good – with many victims still in need of food, clean water and shelter, it is unlikely that the rice paddy will be planted in the next eight weeks when the planting season ends. That will have dire effects for the rest of Burma, and further reduce people's food security. Larry Jagan is a freelance journalist based in Bangkok and a specialist on Burma. He was the former editor of news and current affairs for Asia and the Pacific for BBC World Service. < Prev   Next >