IRIN
MYANMAR: Aid reaching only a fraction of those in need - government
   names relief "partners"
11 May 2008


BANGKOK, 11 May 2008 (IRIN) - The Burmese government has invited three 
organisations - World Vision, the UN Children's Fund (UNICEF) and the 
Japan International Cooperation Agency (JICA) - to serve as 'partners' 
in the relief effort, according to a statement by World Vision.

Further details were unavailable, but a World Vision spokesman said that 
despite that signal, only two of the roughly 20 World Vision disaster 
relief experts who had applied for visas had so far received them.

As of 7 May - four days after the disaster, only about 276,000 of the 
roughly 1.5 million critically affected survivors of the cyclone had 
received any relief supplies either from UN agencies or international 
NGOs.

That number is now gradually creeping up, UN officials say, but relief 
is still coming far too slowly.

"It's still very much too piecemeal for our liking," Amanda Pitt, a 
spokesperson for the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian 
Affairs (OCHA), said on 11 May. "One week on, we would normally expect 
to have far greater coverage. With this many people affected, everybody 
is very concerned. We do not want to see a second wave of tragic deaths 
caused by disease and starvation."

UN agencies and international charities operating in Myanmar prior to 
the disaster have been setting to work in disaster response. But 
agencies also say that without reinforcements from abroad, their staff 
on the ground has been stretched to the limit.

Aid trickling in

Emergency supplies - including food, water purification tablets, 
tarpaulins, and other assistance - are now arriving in Myanmar, and 
gradually filtering into the low-lying Irrawaddy Delta.

The World Food Programme (WFP), which on 9 May accused the authorities 
of impounding planeloads of emergency food, has since said the cargo, 
plus additional supplies from subsequent flights, had been released and 
was now being distributed in the disaster zones.

Yet humanitarian workers say that the quantity of relief materials 
flowing into the region is still just a fraction of what is needed.

Most survivors had not yet received any help, due to a lack of supplies, 
and difficulties in reaching the distressed survivors in remote parts of 
the delta.

"Beyond the main arterial roads, it's a massive challenge, not only 
because the flood waters are still there, but also because even when 
they are not, it's extremely difficult to navigate," Marcus Prior, a WFP 
spokesman said.

Without adequate relief supplies reaching them in their own areas, many 
victims are thronging small towns, now struggling to cope with a flood 
of displaced people and quickly running out of supplies.

Grim conditions in Irrawaddy Delta

International aid workers contacted in the commercial capital Yangon on 
9 May painted a grim picture of conditions in the stricken Irrawaddy 
Delta, a low-lying area, much of which remains submerged.

"It's really horrific," said one Yangon-based foreign aid worker, whose 
national staffers are in from the worst affected areas. "There are 
villages where everyone survived, but they have been without food and 
water for a week, and are just on a little hill, surrounded by water, 
waiting for help."

Soldiers have begun evacuating victims from the submerged areas. But aid 
workers say the evacuees are just being dropped off in schools or 
monasteries and then left to fend for themselves with little or no food. 
The latest OCHA situation report notes reports from UNICEF that there 
are over 200 makeshift camps of survivors in the delta region identified 
so far.

UN officials say it is unclear who is running the makeshift refugee 
camps, what help is being given there, and whether there are proper 
sanitary conditions to prevent disease.

"It's very dire," said another aid worker. "The army has been out there 
given out food and supplies, but it's very little. For every hour that 
goes by, people are dying."


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